An Uninscribed Monument on One of the Battle-Fields of the Wilderness

Herman Melville 1819 – 1891



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 May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
43

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCCDEFFEGHIGJJ
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 508
Words 93
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 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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