SHILOH a requiem
     - Herman Melville

Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
  The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
  The forest-field of Shiloh -
Over the field where April rain
Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain
Through the pause of night
That follows the Sunday fight
  Around the church of Shiloh -
The church so lone, the log-built one,
That echoed to many a parting groan
   And natural prayer
Of dying foemen mingles there -
Foemen morn but friends at eve
  Fame or country least their care:
(What like a bullet can undeceive!)
  But now they lie low,
While over them the swallows skim,
  And all is hushed at Shiloh.