Rev's Revery

[Terrance]

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

The Prairie of desperate Immensity.

  M&D 361.1"to the second Day of Creation, when 'G-d made the Firmament,
and
  divided the  Waters which were under the Firmament, from the waters
which were above    the Firmament,'-thus the first Boundary Line. All
else after that, in all History, is   but  Sub-Division."

  VL 316.11 Van Meter-looking just like Zoyd asks, "Where's THAT 
Prairie?"

In M-D, Ishamel does not fall from the mast-head into himself, Pip (one
of Ahab's two fools or clowns, both parts of himself projected, as Ahab
is projection of Ishmael, the other being Stub--Pipe minus the e) falls
into the heartless immensity of the sea, the middle of the intense
concentration of self. 

  The Prairie is ch. 79 of Moby Dick. Melville often compares the sea to
the
  Prairie. Prairies, like the sea, are only navigable by the stars. In
this case
  though, the "desperate immensity" is the sublime brow of the sperm
whale.


  "Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable.
If then,
  Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the
simplest
  peasant's face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may
unlettered
  Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale's brow? I
put that
  brow before you. Read it if you can."

  It's also interesting to situate this passage in relation to James F.
Cooper's
  The Prairie. This story includes a surly character named "Ishmael",
who plays
  the kidnapper and rogue in opposition to the familiar (although
elderly) hero,
  Natty Bumpo, who dies, at last,  in this novel.

  Dickinson’s  pun (prairie/prayer) seems to echo through these
passages:

   (#564):

   My period had come for Prayer--
   No other Art--would do--
   My Tactics missed a rudiment--
   Creator--Was it you?

   God grows above--so those who pray
   Horizons--must ascend--
   And so I stepped upon the North
   To see this Curious Friend--

   His House was not--no sign had He--
   By Chimney--nor by Door
   Could I infer his Residence--
   Vast Prairies of Air

   Unbroken by a Settler--
   Were all that I could see--
   Infinitude--Had'st Thou no Face
   That I might look on Thee ?

   The Silence condescended--
   Creation stopped--for Me--
   But awed beyond my errand--
   I worshipped--did not "pray"--

   Melville's physiognomical account of the Sperm Whale's "prairie-like
placidity"
  (ch. 75) and "pyramidical silence" (ch. 79) resonates with Dickinson's
poem
  about "Vast Prairies of Air" revealing God's facelessness and silence.

  And “now a silent Functionary in dark Livery indicates it is time to
re-board
  the coach, and resume the journey (M&D.361)

  The Prairie Line seems to run through American Literature.

How I can not help but think of Death stopping for Emily with carriage. 

And, of Proofrock's Eternal footman holding his coat and snickering. 


   Book XVIII ch.1 of Fielding’s Tom Jones, ‘A Farewell To The Reader’
  We are now reader, arrived at the last stage of our long journey. As
we have
  therefor traveled together through so many pages, let us behave to one
another a
  fellow travelers in a stage coach who have passed several days in the
company of
  each other, and who notwithstanding any bickering or little
animosities which
  may have occurred on the road, generally make up all at last and mount
for the
  last time into their vehicle with cheerfulness and good humor; since
after this
  one stage it may possibly happen to us, as it commonly happens to
them, never to
  meet more.

  This is the Novelist (Fielding) talking to the reader. Twelve chapters
follow
  this one, each announcing the end of the journey.