"Shiloh" is a poem by Herman Melville that depicts the aftermath of a notably bloody Civil War battle. The poem was published in 1886 as part of Melville's poetry collection about the conflict, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War. Alongside the other poems in the book, "Shiloh" is Melville's consideration of the toll of the war and the magnitude of lost human life.
The work is a portrait of the battlefield at Shiloh during a rainy lull between the first and second days of fighting. The speaker describes dying soldiers lying on the field as they suffer and seek momentary comfort in unity. Melville makes no specific mention of their identities or regional allegiances, seeming to reinforce a point about the common plight of those killed in combat. The poem makes a number of specific references to the soldiers' fleeting instance of togetherness. It shows how their wounds have worn away their oppositional alignments.
The poem has a loose rhyme scheme that alternates between couplets and ABAB form. While it makes some use of assonance and alliteration, its primary thematic propulsion is derived from the stark clarity of its images and the elegiac quality of its tone. The poem is now commonly understood as a lament, an acknowledgement of the human cost of this Union victory.
