Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN THE PRISON PEN (1864), by HERMAN MELVILLE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Listless he eyes the palisades Last Line: Dead in his meagreness. Subject(s): American Civil War; Prisons & Prisoners; U.s. - History | ||||||||
Listless he eyes the palisades And sentries in the glare; 'Tis barren as a pelican-beach -- But his world is ended there. Nothing to do; and vacant hands Bring on the idiot-pain; He tries to think -- to recollect, But the blur is on his brain. Around him swarm the plaining ghosts Like those on Virgil's shore -- A wilderness of faces dim, And pale ones gashed and hoar. A smiting sun. No shed, no tree; He totters to his lair -- A den that sick hands dug in earth Ere famine wasted there, Or, dropping in his place, he swoons, Walled in by throngs that press, Till forth from the throngs they bear him dead -- Dead in his meagreness. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OLD OSAWATOMIE by CARL SANDBURG THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG by HARRY MACARTHY LEE'S PAROLE by MARION MANVILLE THE SURRENDER OF NEW ORLEANS by MARION MANVILLE THE LITTLE ODYSSEY OF JASON QUINT, OF SCIENCE, DOCTOR by THOMAS MCGRATH A CANTICLE: SIGNIFICANT OF NATIONAL EXALTATION CLOSE OF WAR by HERMAN MELVILLE A GRAVE NEAR PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA by HERMAN MELVILLE FORMERLY A SLAVE' (AN IDEALIZED PORTRAIT, BY E. VEDDER) by HERMAN MELVILLE THE COMING STORM' (A PICTURE BY R. S. GIFFORD) by HERMAN MELVILLE A DIRGE FOR MCPHERSON; KILLED IN FRONT OF ATLANTA by HERMAN MELVILLE |
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