Chattanooga
A kindling impulse seized the hostInspired by heaven’s elastic air;Their hearts outran their General’s plan,Though Grant commanded there--Grant, who without reserve can dare;And, “Well, go on and do your will”He said, and measured the mountain then:So master-riders fling the rein--But you must know your men.
On yester-morn in grayish mist,Armies like ghosts on hills had fought,And rolled from the cloud their thunders loudThe Cumberlands far had caught:To-day the sunlit steeps are sought.Grant stood on cliffs whence all was plain,And smoked as one who feels no cares;But mastered nervousness intenseAlone such calmness wears.
The summit-cannon plunge their flameSheer down the primal wall,But up and up each linking troopIn stretching festoons crawl--Nor fire a shot. Such men appallThe foe, though brave. He, from the brink,Looks far along the breadth of slope,And sees two miles of dark dots creep,And knows they mean the cope.
He sees them creep. Yet here and thereHalf hid ’mid leafless groves they go;As men who ply through traceries highOf turreted marbles show--So dwindle these to eyes below.But fronting shot and flanking shellSliver and rive the inwoven ways;High tops of oaks and high hearts fall,But never the climbing stays.
From right to left, from left to rightThey roll the rallying cheer--Vie with each other, brother with brother,Who shall the first appear--What color-bearer with colors clearIn sharp relief, like sky-drawn Grant,Whose cigar must now be near the stump--While in solicitude his backHeap slowly to a hump.
Near and more near; till now the flagsRun like a catching flame;And one flares highest, to peril nighest--He means to make a name:Salvos! they give him his fame.The staff is caught, and next the rush,And then the leap where death has led;Flag answered flag along the crest,And swarms of rebels fled.
But some who gained the envied Alp,And--eager, ardent, earnest there--Dropped into Death’s wide-open arms,Quelled on the wing like eagles struck in air--Forever they slumber young and fair,The smile upon them as they died;Their end attained, that end a height:Life was to these a dream fulfilled,And death a starry night.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
- nervousness n.
- State or quality of being nervous.
- primal a.
- First; primary; original; chief. [LL. primalis, fr. L. primus the first. See Prime, a.]
- crawl v. i.
- To move slowly by drawing the body along the ground, as a worm; to move slowly on hands and kness; to creep. [Dan. kravle, or Icel. krafla, to paw, scrabble with the hands; akin to Sw. kr to crawl; cf. LG. krabbeln, D. krabbelen to scratch.]
- appall v. t.
- To make pale; to blanch. [OF. appalir to grow pale, make pale; a (L. ad) + pâlir to grow pale, to make pale, pâle pale. See Pale, a., and cf. Pall.]
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- turreted a.
- Furnished with a turret or turrets; specifically (Zoöl.), having the whorls somewhat flattened on the upper side and often ornamented by spines or tubercles; -- said of certain spiral shells.
- dwindle v. i.
- To diminish; to become less; to shrink; to waste or consume away; to become degenerate; to fall away. [From OE. dwinen to languish, waste away, AS. dwinan; akin to LG. dwinen, D. dwijnen to vanish, Icel. dvina to cease, dwindle, Sw. tvina; of uncertain origin. Th]
- sliver v. t.
- To cut or divide into long, thin pieces, or into very small pieces; to cut or rend lengthwise; to slit; as, to sliver wood. [See Slive, v. t.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Chattanooga 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, Chattanooga, in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12384, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/melville-battle-pieces/chattanooga.html, id L19105.
Form and metre
Chattanooga is 63 lines in 7 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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-AA-B-B host · airA · plan · thereA · dareA · will · thenB · rein · menB
- 2 -A-AA-B-B mist · foughtA · loud · caughtA · soughtA · plain · caresB · intense · wearsB
- 3 -A-AA-B-B flame · wallA · troop · crawlA · appallA · brink · slopeB · creep · copeB
- 4 -A-AA-B-B there · goA · high · showA · belowA · shell · waysB · fall · staysB
- 5 -A-AA-B-B right · cheerA · brother · appearA · clearA · grant · stumpB · back · humpB
- 6 -A-AA-B-B flags · flameA · nighest · nameA · fameA · rush · ledB · crest · fledB
- 7 -A-AA-B-B alp · thereA · arms · airA · fairA · died · heightB · fulfilled · nightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A kindling impulse seized the host | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Inspired by heaven’s elastic air; | 9 | ˘/·/˘˘/˘· |
| Their hearts outran their General’s plan, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Though Grant commanded there-- | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Grant, who without reserve can dare; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And, “Well, go on and do your will” | 8 | ········ |
| He said, and measured the mountain then: | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| So master-riders fling the rein-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| But you must know your men. | 6 | ······ |
| On yester-morn in grayish mist, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Armies like ghosts on hills had fought, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And rolled from the cloud their thunders loud | 9 | ······/˘· |
| The Cumberlands far had caught: | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| To-day the sunlit steeps are sought. | 8 | ···/···· |
| Grant stood on cliffs whence all was plain, | 8 | ········ |
| And smoked as one who feels no cares; | 8 | ········ |
| But mastered nervousness intense | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| Alone such calmness wears. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| The summit-cannon plunge their flame | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Sheer down the primal wall, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But up and up each linking troop | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In stretching festoons crawl-- | 6 | ·/˘·/· |
| Nor fire a shot. Such men appall | 8 | ·/····˘/ |
| The foe, though brave. He, from the brink, | 8 | ········ |
| Looks far along the breadth of slope, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And sees two miles of dark dots creep, | 8 | ········ |
| And knows they mean the cope. | 6 | ······ |
| He sees them creep. Yet here and there | 8 | ········ |
| Half hid ’mid leafless groves they go; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As men who ply through traceries high | 8 | ········ |
| Of turreted marbles show-- | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| So dwindle these to eyes below. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But fronting shot and flanking shell | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Sliver and rive the inwoven ways; | 9 | /˘······· |
| High tops of oaks and high hearts fall, | 8 | ········ |
| But never the climbing stays. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| From right to left, from left to right | 8 | ········ |
| They roll the rallying cheer-- | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Vie with each other, brother with brother, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Who shall the first appear-- | 6 | ····˘/ |
| What color-bearer with colors clear | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| In sharp relief, like sky-drawn Grant, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Whose cigar must now be near the stump-- | 9 | ·˘/······ |
| While in solicitude his back | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Heap slowly to a hump. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Near and more near; till now the flags | 8 | ········ |
| Run like a catching flame; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And one flares highest, to peril nighest-- | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| He means to make a name: | 6 | ······ |
| Salvos! they give him his fame. | 7 | /˘····· |
| The staff is caught, and next the rush, | 8 | ········ |
| And then the leap where death has led; | 8 | ········ |
| Flag answered flag along the crest, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And swarms of rebels fled. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But some who gained the envied Alp, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And--eager, ardent, earnest there-- | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Dropped into Death’s wide-open arms, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Quelled on the wing like eagles struck in air-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Forever they slumber young and fair, | 9 | ˘/˘·/˘··· |
| The smile upon them as they died; | 8 | ········ |
| Their end attained, that end a height: | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Life was to these a dream fulfilled, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And death a starry night. | 6 | ···/˘· |
Notes from the edition 1
Herman Melville's own notes to Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866; Project Gutenberg #12384).
- Stanza 1, line 2 Although the month was November, the day was in character an October one--cool, clear, bright, intoxicatingly invigorating; one of those days peculiar to the ripest hours of our American Autumn. This weather must have had much to do with the spontaneous enthusiasm which seized the troops--and enthusiasm aided, doubtless, by glad thoughts of the victory of Look-out Mountain won the day previous, and also by the elation attending the capture, after a fierce struggle, of the long ranges of rifle-pits at the mountain’s base, where orders for the time should have stopped the advance. But there and then it was that the army took the bit between its teeth, and ran away with the generals to the victory commemorated. General Grant, at Culpepper, a few weeks prior to crossing the Rapidan for the Wilderness, expressed to a visitor his impression of the impulse and the spectacle: Said he: “I never saw any thing like it:” language which seems curiously undertoned, considering its application; but from the taciturn Commander it was equivalent to a superlative or hyperbole from the talkative.
The height of the Ridge, according to the account at hand, varies along its length from six to seven hundred feet above the plain; it slopes at an angle of about forty-five degrees.
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