This reprint of an 1866 volume of poems by the author of "Moby Dick" and "Billy Budd" includes four essays showing why Melville's verse remains misunderstood and neglected. The 72 lyrical poems about the Civil War include works on the hanging of John Brown, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and on the battles at Donelson, Shiloh, and Gettysburg. By the American novelist, essayist and poet, widely esteemed as one of the most important figures in American literature and best remembered today for his masterpiece Moby-Dick (1851). He is less well known as a poet and did not publish poetry until late in life. After the Civil War, he published Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) which sold well.
