Herman has taken to writing poetry. You need not tell anyone, for you know how such things get around.
Elizabeth Shaw Melville
Elizabeth Shaw Melville (1822–1906), U.S. letter writer, wife of U.S. author Herman Melville. As quoted in The Life of Poetry, ch. 1, by Muriel Rukeyser (1949).
Written in a letter to her mother. Melville (1819-1891) wrote in several forms but was known chiefly for his novels; of those, Moby-Dick (1851) was his masterpiece, though it was not immediately appreciated by the public. In the last three decades of his life, he published a number of poetic works.