Explore "The Victor of Antietam. (1862.)" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When tempest winnowed grain from bran; / And men were looking for a man, / Authority called you to the van, / McClellan: / Along the line the plaudit ran, / As later when Antietam's cheers began.
Through storm-cloud and eclipse must move / Each Cause and Man, dear to the stars and Jove; / Nor always can the wisest tell / Deferred fulfillment from the hopeless knell -- / The struggler from the floundering ne'er-do-well. / A pall-cloth on the Seven Days fell, / Mcclellan -- / Unprosperously heroical! / Who could Antietam's wreath foretell?