The aim of this essay is to read Clarel (1876) as Melville’s most mature reflection on issues related to democracy and emancipation in the United States. Clarel’s situation at the end of the poem reflects that of the ex-slaves after emancipation. Most importantly, I argue that Melville significantly structured Clarel as a sailor’s narrative, adapting the popular devices of sea-writing to versification in order to bridge the gap between his early fiction and his later poetry. Finally, I propose to read Clarel as the author’s poetic pilgrimage to offset the excessive autobiographical impulse of his early fiction in order to gain artistic, as well as personal, emancipation.
