- description
- # On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia.
## Overview
This is a segment of poetry titled "On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia." It is part of a larger collection and was extracted from a text file.
## Context
This poem is included in the collection "[Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.](arke:01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9)", a work by Herman Melville. The collection itself is part of the larger "[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)" archive and was extracted from the file "battle_pieces_and_aspects_of_the_war.txt". This segment follows the poem "[On Sherman’s Men who fell in the Assault of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia.](arke:01KG8AJRAZXC4VGFJN2513XEDH)" and precedes "[A Requiem](arke:01KG8AJRAXFAH7BZH9VV6QFPVG)".
## Contents
The poem "On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia." reflects on the life and death of a young cavalry officer. The text laments the loss of his "beauty and youth, with manners sweet," and the unfulfilled potential of his "happier fortune." The poem suggests that even in death, his memory is veiled by nature, symbolized by violets.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:24.560Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia.
- end_line
- 3587
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:35.911Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3576
- text
- On the Grave
of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia.
Beauty and youth, with manners sweet, and friends--
Gold, yet a mind not unenriched had he
Whom here low violets veil from eyes.
But all these gifts transcended be:
His happier fortune in this mound you see.
- title
- On the Grave of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia.