Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
The forest-field of Shiloh—
The opening lines set the stage for what the battlefield has become after the conflict has ended. The imagery of the swallows flying low contrasts the violence of bullets and cannonballs with the somber peacefulness of their winged flight. It builds a vision of an unnerving calm.
The church so lone, the log-built one,
That echoed to many a parting groan
And natural prayer
Of dying foemen mingled there—
The dash at the end of this quote acts to take the speaker away from the focus on the battlefield. It is as if he is musing over a digression about the church's construction. The imagery here creates a sense of permanence that precedes the battle and reveals how the field was once unremarkable. The speaker demonstrates the church's shifted meaning. After the battle raged, and bullets flew and blood flowed, the church fulfills a role it was never built for: providing solace to dying men who had never set foot inside it, but were now all part of its spiritual congregation. The congregation consists of wounded soldiers, no longer divided by cause or region.
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.
The implication here is that the battlefield has changed the soldiers. Having met as foes, they died strangely united. The speaker answers the question of what changed by asking another, rhetorical question. The idea that a bullet can bring awareness—can "undeceive"—resonates with the image of the swallows in the opening lines. The bullets brought the men together at their lowest point, nearest to death. The speaker solidifies the connection by linking the bullets back to the swallows in flight at the beginning. The repetition of the swallows not only shows how the field at Shiloh changed dramatically during the battle, but how it has been forever warped. Even the relative calm of the natural world cannot heal this loss.
