Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War
by Herman Melville (1819–1891)
- Free to read
- 2 hours to read
- 9 chapters
- Reading level: 7th grade
"Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War" by Herman Melville is a poetry collection published in 1866. This volume contains seventy-two poems chronicling the battles, personalities, and aftermath of the American Civil War, from John Brown's execution to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. The collection includes elegies and memorial verses, alongside a prose supplement where Melville advocates for reconciliation and thoughtful reconstruction. Initially met with mixed reviews and poor sales, the work has since been recognized as a significant contribution to Civil War literature.
- United States · History · Civil War, 1861-1865
- War poetry, American
Read the opening
Chapter I
O the clammy cold November,
And the winter white and dead,
And the terror dumb with stupor,
And the sky a sheet of lead;
And events that came resounding
With the cry that All was lost,
Like the thunder-cracks of massy ice
In intensity of frost—
Bursting one upon another
Through the horror of the calm.
The paralysis of arm
In the anguish of the heart;
And the hollowness and dearth.
The appealings of the mother
To brother and to brother
Not in hatred so to part—
And the fissure in the hearth
Growing momently more wide.
Then the glances ’tween the Fates,
And the doubt on every side,
And the patience under gloom
In the stoniness that waits
The finality of doom.
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About this edition
This free edition of Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War by Herman Melville comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #12384, released 2004-05-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Poetry, American Literature, History - American.
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