THE PORTENT
by: Herman Melville (1819-1891)
 ANGING from
the beam,
- Slowing swaying (such the law),
- Gaunt the shadow on your green,
- Shenandoah!
- The cut is on the crown
- (Lo, John Brown),
- And the stabs shall heal no more.
-
- Hidden in the cap
- Is the anguish none can draw;
- So your future veils its face,
- Shenandoah!
- But the streaming beard is shown
- (Weird John Brown),
- The meteor of the war.
|
"The Portent" was originally
published in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War. Herman
Melville. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1866. |
MORE
POEMS BY HERMAN MELVILLE |
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