Death & Dying

An uninscribed Monument: on one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness

by Herman Melville 1819–1891

From Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War

Death & Dying

Silence and Solitude may hint
(Whose home is in yon piny 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.

MLA

Melville, Herman. “An uninscribed Monument: on one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/melville/61/.

Chicago

Melville, Herman. “An uninscribed Monument: on one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/melville/61/.

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