Ball's Bluff: A Reverie

One noonday, at my window in the town,

    I saw a sight — saddest that eyes can see —

    Young soldiers marching lustily

      Unto the wars,

With fifes, and flags in mottoed pageantry;

    While all the porches, walks, and doors

    Were rich with ladies cheering royally.

They moved like Juny morning on the wave,

    Their hearts were fresh as clover in its prime

    (It was the breezy summer time),

      Life throbbed so strong,

How should they dream that Death in rosy clime

  Would come to thin their shining throng?

Youth feels immortal, like the gods sublime.

Weeks passed; and at my window, leaving bed,

    By nights I mused, of easeful sleep bereft,

    On those brave boys (Ah War! thy theft);

      Some marching feet

Found pause at last by cliffs Potomac cleft;

    Wakeful I mused, while in the street

Far footfalls died away till none were left.

The Battle of Ball's Bluff was fought just outside Leesburg, Virginia, on the banks of the Potomac River on October 21, 1861. Although not a large engagement, it was nevertheless a crushing defeat for the Union and for President Abraham Lincoln in particular, as it resulted in the death of his friend Colonel Edward D. Baker, U.S. Senator from Oregon.This poem was published in 1866 in a volume called Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War. At this point in his career, 15 years after the publication of Moby Dick, Melville had not achieved the critical acclaim he would later enjoy and considered himself a failure.