Shiloh (Herman Melville poem) Essay Questions

Why does Melville return to the image of the swallows flying over the battlefield?

The poem makes use of circularity. It begins with an image of swallows in the sky above the dying soldiers and closes with it. In revisiting this image, Melville seems to convey the sense of an outside perspective. The purpose of this structural move is to both offer an image of respite from the soldier's suffering and to preserve the sense, created at the poem's onset, that there is a viewpoint outside of the mass of dying men. In coming around to a picture of natural grace and beauty, Melville is not painting a portrait of nature as apathetic, but is bolstering the poem's main idea about the soldiers' shared suffering as a fleeting instance of unity in the midst of war.

What is the significance of setting this poem at Shiloh?

“Shiloh” is a poem about one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War. It deals with the human cost of a major conflict and it functions in a haunted, elegiac mode. The staggering loss of life on the field underscores an essential idea about war's inevitable horror. Melville's pointed choice of both setting and title is notable. Shiloh is commonly regarded as a key victory for the Union. In selecting a battle that is often depicted as a tactical (and moral) win against the Confederacy, he reminds the reader of the unavoidably tragic fact of its death toll. He avoids an epic depiction of the battle in verse and instead deploys imagery that highlights absence and loss.