The Portent

 a poem written in 1859 by

Herman Melville

Hanging from the beam,

Slowly 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.

from SELECTED POEMS

Penguin Classics 2006 collection edited with

an introduction by Robert Faggen, professor

of Literature at Claremont McKenna College

H. Melville was 42 at the onset of the Civil

War (April 1861).