Ball’s Bluff. A Reverie
One noonday, at my window in the town,I saw a sight--saddest that eyes can see--Young soldiers marching lustilyUnto the wars,With fifes, and flags in mottoed pageantry;While all the porches, walks, and doorsWere rich with ladies cheering royally.
They moved like Juny morning on the wave,Their hearts were fresh as clover in its prime(It was the breezy summer time),Life throbbed so strong,How should they dream that Death in a rosy climeWould come to thin their shining throng?Youth feels immortal, like the gods sublime.
Weeks passed; and at my window, leaving bed,By night I mused, of easeful sleep bereft,On those brave boys (Ah War! thy theft);Some marching feetFound pause at last by cliffs Potomac cleft;Wakeful I mused, while in the streetFar footfalls died away till none were left.
Words in this poem
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
- lustily adv.
- In a lusty or vigorous manner.
- mottoed a.
- Bearing or having a motto; as, a mottoed coat or device.
- pageantry n.
- Scenic shows or spectacles, taken collectivelly; spectacular guality; splendor.
- royally adv.
- In a royal or kingly manner; like a king; as becomes a king.
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- easeful a.
- Full of ease; suitable for affording ease or rest; quiet; comfortable; restful.
- wakeful a.
- Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ball’s Bluff. A Reverie is in the public domain. This text is taken from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, Project Gutenberg ebook #12384; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Herman Melville, Ball’s Bluff. A Reverie, in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12384, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/melville-battle-pieces/ball-s-bluff-a-reverie.html, id L19090.
Form and metre
Ball’s Bluff. A Reverie is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ---A-A- town · see · lustily · warsA · pageantry · doorsA · royally
- 2 -AABABA wave · primeA · timeA · strongB · climeA · throngB · sublimeA
- 3 -AABABA bed · bereftA · theftA · feetB · cleftA · streetB · leftA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| One noonday, at my window in the town, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I saw a sight--saddest that eyes can see-- | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Young soldiers marching lustily | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Unto the wars, | 4 | ···· |
| With fifes, and flags in mottoed pageantry; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| While all the porches, walks, and doors | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were rich with ladies cheering royally. | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| They moved like Juny morning on the wave, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Their hearts were fresh as clover in its prime | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| (It was the breezy summer time), | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Life throbbed so strong, | 4 | ···· |
| How should they dream that Death in a rosy clime | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Would come to thin their shining throng? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Youth feels immortal, like the gods sublime. | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Weeks passed; and at my window, leaving bed, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| By night I mused, of easeful sleep bereft, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| On those brave boys (Ah War! thy theft); | 8 | ········ |
| Some marching feet | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Found pause at last by cliffs Potomac cleft; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Wakeful I mused, while in the street | 8 | /˘······ |
| Far footfalls died away till none were left. | 10 | ·/··˘/···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.