- description
- # Apathy and Enthusiasm.
## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)
This is a segment of text, specifically a poem titled "Apathy and Enthusiasm." It is part of the larger collection [Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.](arke:01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9) The poem is extracted from the file [battle_pieces_and_aspects_of_the_war.txt](arke:01KG89J1G8S4TRWXNCBRKCRKS8) and was likely written around 1860-1. The segment spans lines 194-251 of the source file.
## Context - Background and provenance from related entities
"Apathy and Enthusiasm." is one of many poems contained within the poetry collection [Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.](arke:01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9), which is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The poem follows "The Conflict of Convictions."(arke:01KG8AJJNMMJ0P29XDS96AJ2SK) and precedes "The March into Virginia, Ending in the First Manassas."(arke:01KG8AJJNTE73YES319BF4WAXQ). The text was extracted by the structure-extraction-lambda.
## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details
The poem is divided into two sections, marked I and II. Section I describes a bleak winter landscape and the despair of a nation. Section II depicts the coming of spring, the "rising of the People," and the enthusiasm of the young, contrasted with the foreboding of the elders who recall the proverb, "Grief to every graybeard / When young Indians lead the war." The poem reflects on the American Civil War, contrasting the initial apathy with the subsequent enthusiasm and the potential for tragic outcomes.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:22.030Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Apathy and Enthusiasm.
- end_line
- 251
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:35.910Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 194
- text
- Apathy and Enthusiasm.
(1860-1.)
I
O the clammy cold November,
And the winter white and dead,
And the terror dumb with stupor,
And the sky a sheet of lead;
And events that came resounding
With the cry that _All was lost_,
Like the thunder-cracks of massy ice
In intensity of frost--
Bursting one upon another
Through the horror of the calm.
The paralysis of arm
In the anguish of the heart;
And the hollowness and dearth.
The appealings of the mother
To brother and to brother
Not in hatred so to part--
And the fissure in the hearth
Growing momently more wide.
Then the glances ’tween the Fates,
And the doubt on every side,
And the patience under gloom
In the stoniness that waits
The finality of doom.
II
So the winter died despairing,
And the weary weeks of Lent;
And the ice-bound rivers melted,
And the tomb of Faith was rent.
O, the rising of the People
Came with springing of the grass,
They rebounded from dejection
And Easter came to pass.
And the young were all elation
Hearing Sumter’s cannon roar,
And they thought how tame the Nation
In the age that went before.
And Michael seemed gigantical,
The Arch-fiend but a dwarf;
And at the towers of Erebus
Our striplings flung the scoff.
But the elders with foreboding
Mourned the days forever o’er,
And re called the forest proverb,
The Iroquois’ old saw:
_Grief to every graybeard
When young Indians lead the war._
- title
- Apathy and Enthusiasm.