- description
- # MALVERN HILL
## Overview
"MALVERN HILL" is a chapter-level entity representing a poem within the collection [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H). This poem, dated July 1862, reflects on the Battle of Malvern Hill during the American Civil War.
## Context
This poem is part of [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H), a poetry collection by Herman Melville, which is itself contained within the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The text for "MALVERN HILL" was extracted from the digital file [john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4). In the sequence of the collection, it follows the chapter [A UTILITARIAN VIEW OF THE _MONITOR’S_ FIGHT](arke:01KG8AJJ0F4YPABRZPF7D29GP2) and precedes the chapter [STONEWALL JACKSON](arke:01KG8AJJ09CTT0K4M25PZEFKRJ).
## Contents
The poem "MALVERN HILL" consists of four stanzas, totaling 46 lines. It vividly describes the aftermath and memory of the Battle of Malvern Hill, fought in July 1862. The narrative is presented from the perspective of the "elms that wave on Malvern Hill," personifying nature as a witness to the conflict. It recalls "McClellan’s men" and the "rigid comrades" who fell, depicting the grim realities of war, including the "Seven Nights and Days / Of march and fast, retreat and fight." The poem concludes with the elms asserting their enduring memory of the events, contrasting the transient nature of human conflict with the perpetual renewal of nature.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:12.652Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- MALVERN HILL
- end_line
- 2678
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:32.310Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2632
- text
- MALVERN HILL
July, 1862
Ye elms that wave on Malvern Hill
In prime of morn and May,
Recall ye how McClellan’s men
Here stood at bay?
While deep within yon forest dim
Our rigid comrades lay—
Some with the cartridge in their mouth,
Others with fixed arms lifted South—
Invoking so—
The cypress glades? Ah wilds of woe!
The spires of Richmond, late beheld
Through rifts in musket-haze,
Were closed from view in clouds of dust
On leaf-walled ways,
Where streamed our wagons in caravan;
And the Seven Nights and Days
Of march and fast, retreat and fight,
Pinched our grimed faces to ghastly plight—
Does the elm wood
Recall the haggard beards of blood?
The battle-smoked flag, with stars eclipsed,
We followed (it never fell!)—
In silence husbanded our strength—
Received their yell;
Till on this slope we patient turned
With cannon ordered well;
Reverse we proved was not defeat;
But ah, the sod what thousands meet!—
Does Malvern Wood
Bethink itself, and muse and brood?
_We elms of Malvern Hill_
_Remember everything;_
_But sap the twig will fill:_
_Wag the world how it will,_
_Leaves must be green in Spring._
- title
- MALVERN HILL