So, ok, I've had too much winepoetics at the moment, but the main pt was the diff between Melvillean prose epic & the impact of Dante on the non-Melvillean moderns. Intersting non-dialogue.

& why is this the main pt? Goes back to concept of poet as seismic radiation-beeper. Issue is analysis (prose, Melville) vs. music (poetry, Dante). Old issue. Plato recognized it. Solipsism of song vs. denotation-mimesis of analysis.

Pound & Eliot went to Europe & ancients for song. Melville went into his own brain for reason, for a reason, like a Leonardo.

& the winner is. . .