"By Parapet"

[herm melville]

All,

   Derwent of the prodigal Lyonese:

"Well may ye gaze! What's good to see

Better than Adam's humanity

When genial lodged! Such spell is given,

It lured the staid grandees of heaven;

Though biased in their souls divine

Much to one side---the feminine---

He is the pleasantest small fellow,"    ll. 1-7

More of the prodigal, "His form of Bacchus---the sweet shape / Young Bacchus, mind ye, not the old."  Bacchus was called Biformis because he was sometimes represented as old, sometimes as young. I hope Melville did not have Carravagio's Bacchus in mind.

"His happiness seems paganish."

John G