- description
- # In the Prison Pen.
## Overview
This is a segment of poetry titled "In the Prison Pen." extracted from a text file and included in the poetry collection [Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.](arke:01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9) The poem consists of six stanzas and is dated 1864.
## Context
The segment is part of [Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.](arke:01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9), a collection within the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW). The source text file for this segment is [battle_pieces_and_aspects_of_the_war.txt](arke:01KG89J1G8S4TRWXNCBRKCRKS8). "In the Prison Pen." is preceded by the poem [Sheridan at Cedar Creek.](arke:01KG8AJNC7QWJDH27T9PQWHVAM) and followed by [The College Colonel.](arke:01KG8AJNC6C80VZRJQSARV6H3B)
## Contents
The poem "In the Prison Pen." depicts the bleak existence of prisoners of war. It describes their listless state, vacant minds, and the physical suffering caused by the harsh environment. The poem evokes imagery of death and despair, highlighting the prisoners' emaciated condition and the ever-present specter of death.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:27.763Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- In the Prison Pen.
- end_line
- 2468
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:35.910Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2438
- text
- In the Prison Pen.
(1864.)
Listless he eyes the palisades
And sentries in the glare;
’Tis barren as a pelican-beach--
But his world is ended there.
Nothing to do; and vacant hands
Bring on the idiot-pain;
He tries to think--to recollect,
But the blur is on his brain.
Around him swarm the plaining ghosts
Like those on Virgil’s shore--
A wilderness of faces dim,
And pale ones gashed and hoar.
A smiting sun. No shed, no tree;
He totters to his lair--
A den that sick hands dug in earth
Ere famine wasted there,
Or, dropping in his place, he swoons,
Walled in by throngs that press,
Till forth from the throngs they bear him dead--
Dead in his meagreness.
- title
- In the Prison Pen.