...Paradise Lost, 3.45-47, in Complete Poems, 259. But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the Book of knowledge fair Presented with a Universal blanc Of Nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.96 In Psalm...

...identify the poet more closely with the redeemed: But clouds instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the Book of knowledge fair Presented with a Universal blanc Of Nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd. [Paradise Lost, 3-45-49] The challenge to Melville...

...darkness as whiteness and occlusion as revelation: But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the Book of knowledge fair Presented with a Universal blanc Of Nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. So much...

...rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud in stead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the Book of Knowledge fair Presented with Universal blank Of Nature's works to me expunged and razed, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out....