An Uninscribed Monument

Herman Melville 1819 – 1891



On one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness
  
Silence and solitude may hint
(Whose home is in yon piney wood)
What I, though tableted, could never tell--
The din which here befell,
And striving of the multitude.
The iron cones and spheres of death
Set round me in their rust,
These, too, if just,
Shall speak with more than animated breath.
Thou who beholdest, if thy thought,
Not narrowed down to personal cheer,
Take in the import of the quiet here--
The after-quiet--the calm full fraught;
Thou too wilt silent stand--
Silent as I, and lonesome as the land.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

30 sec read
3

Quick analysis:

Scheme X XXAAXBCCBDXXDEE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 548
Words 100
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 1, 15

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American writer best known for the novel Moby-Dick. more…

All Herman Melville poems | Herman Melville Books

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