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Mark Twain’s Dream
A new poem by Carol Muske-Dukes
He saw his own death riding the tail
of the great comet. Then bet on how
he’d end the way he came in: on
of the great comet. Then bet on how
he’d end the way he came in: on
the back of a fireball. But when
he dreamed his brother in that coffin
resting on two chairs, with white
he dreamed his brother in that coffin
resting on two chairs, with white
roses on his chest & one red in the
middle—he woke shouting & would
not rest until he saw Henry safe. So
middle—he woke shouting & would
not rest until he saw Henry safe. So
the life of a young steamboat pilot
was like a former life, remembering
how to steer the sky, that reflection
was like a former life, remembering
how to steer the sky, that reflection
on the water—“like the space where
a cloud had been,” he wrote. But the
cloud sailed, the day dawned again,
a cloud had been,” he wrote. But the
cloud sailed, the day dawned again,
Henry’s boat blew sky-high. When
Sam came to find him, Henry lay
in a coffin resting on two chairs.
Sam came to find him, Henry lay
in a coffin resting on two chairs.
Sam looked for the roses in vain.
At last a nurse came, carrying his
dream bouquet. There, his white clouds,
At last a nurse came, carrying his
dream bouquet. There, his white clouds,
his petalled sky, with one centered
reflection: blood-red, the fireball, the
rose, the heart, the message sent from
reflection: blood-red, the fireball, the
rose, the heart, the message sent from
nowhere or everywhere Mark Twain
could imagine his own life might be
in the space where a cloud had been.
could imagine his own life might be
in the space where a cloud had been.
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Some context:
Memphis saw the aftermath of many river tragedies. Mark Twain sadly chronicles one in Life on the Mississippi, his river memoir that treats his four years of steamboat piloting before the Civil War. In 1858, Sam, still a “cub” or apprentice pilot, encouraged his younger brother, Henry—sweet-tempered and cherished by the family—to take a job as an assistant clerk on the Pennsylvania, Sam’s boat at the time. On the way to New Orleans, the abusive pilot, under whom Sam had already been chafing for several trips, went too far and attacked Henry. Sam intervened, and the two pilots scuffled. Sam was forced to find a different boat for the upriver return, but Henry remained on the Pennsylvania. Two days behind his brother on the river, Sam received the awful news of a boiler explosion on the Pennsylvania. Henry, fatally injured, was taken to a makeshift hospital up the river in Memphis. When Sam reached his bedside, the sheer pathos of the meeting moved a newspaper reporter to single out the pair of brothers by name. The sympathetic citizens of Memphis—which Clemens would later call “the Good Samaritan City of the Mississippi”—worried that Sam was unhinged by grief and sent a companion to accompany him when he took Henry’s body north to St. Louis.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-mississippi-river-made-mark-twain-and-vice-versa-180950193/#fObOv7LHQZZcPRLe.99
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