- description
- # AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT
## Overview
"AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT" is a poem by Herman Melville, extracted as a chapter from the text file [john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4). It is a part of the poetry collection [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H) within the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The poem appears between "ON THE SLAIN AT CHICKAMAUGA" and "ON THE GRAVE OF A YOUNG CAVALRY OFFICER KILLED IN THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA" in the collection.
## Context
The poem was extracted from the source text file by a structure-extraction-lambda process. The [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H) collection contains numerous poems and an introduction, all extracted from the same source file.
## Contents
The poem reflects on a silent, unadorned monument located on one of the battlefields of the Wilderness. The speaker suggests that the silence and solitude surrounding the monument can convey the magnitude of the events that transpired there, more effectively than any inscription could. The "iron cones and spheres of death" (cannonballs) scattered around the monument serve as silent witnesses to the past conflict. The poem invites the beholder to contemplate the quiet aftermath and the profound implications of the site, urging them to stand in silence and acknowledge the loneliness of the land.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:10.096Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT
- end_line
- 3511
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:32.310Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3487
- text
- AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT
_On one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness_
Silence and solitude may hint
(Whose home is in yon piney wood)
What I, though tableted, could never tell—
The din which here befell,
And striving of the multitude.
The iron cones and spheres of death
Set round me in their rust,
These, too, if just,
Shall speak with more than animated breath.
Thou who beholdest, if thy thought,
Not narrowed down to personal cheer,
Take in the import of the quiet here—
The after-quiet—the calm full fraught;
Thou too wilt silent stand—
Silent as I, and lonesome as the land.
- title
- AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT