Explore "The Martyr (Poems from Battle Pieces)" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Indicative of the passion of the people on the 15th of April, 1865"
Good Friday was the day / Of the prodigy and crime, / When they killed him in his pity, / When they killed him in his prime / Of clemency and calm- / When with yearning he was filled / To redeem the evil-willed, / And, though conqueror, be kind; / But they killed him in his kindness, / In their madness and their blindness, / And they killed him from behind.