Melville : the making of the poet / Hershel Parker.

Melville's lost books and the trajectory of his career as poet
A poet in prose: how critics prepared Melville to think of himself as a poet
Melville as hearer and reciter of poetry
The omnipresence of poetry, 1820s-1848
The renewed power of poetry in Melville's life, 1849-1856
The status of poetry and the temptation of flunkeyism
A nonpartisan becoming a poet during the Risorgimento
Melville's progress as poet, 1857(?) to May 1860
Possible contents of poems (1860),
On the meteor: Melville when he thought he was a published poet
His verse still unpublished, Melville defines himself as poet, 1861-1862
Battle-pieces and aspects of the war: Melville's second volume of poems.