The Portent Essay Questions

In Melville's poetry collection Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, “The Portent” is set off from the rest of the book, appearing even before the Table of Contents. What might this signify?

Generally speaking, any published material appearing before and out of sync with the rest of the text is considered an “epigraph.” An epigraph is usually a short quotation (often from another writer) or, in the case of post-19th century literature, perhaps song lyrics or even a well-known line of dialogue from a movie. The epigraph is typically understood to be taken as a kind of broad-ranging expression of thematic implication or narrative significance. Since “The Portent” is about the hanging of famously zealous abolitionist John Brown and concludes with his identification as “the meteor of the war,” it follows that the poem’s placement in this way is Melville’s assertion that the actual beginning of the Civil War was this moment, rather the first shots being fired at Fort Sumter. This is even more striking given the fact that Brown's death was originally seen (by slaveowners and moderates) as an end to the conflict surrounding slavery. Melville endows this scene with an entirely different significance, contending that it informed the entirety to the looming Civil War.

Why does Melville choose to begin with Brown's execution without depicting Pottowatomie or Harper's Ferry?

Like some of the other poems in Battle-Pieces, "The Portent" does not contain oblique references to scenes of battle and conflict. While Brown's hanging is gruesome, the events of the poem fall outside most of the commonly recognized "action" of his story. Melville's pointed decision to begin at the end—Brown's death—is related to his poem's main theme. The work is a rereading of Brown's legacy. Where Southerners imagined Brown's death would effectively dowse abolitionist fervor, Melville understood that Brown's actions and death would only be the beginning of the war to come. In beginning with Brown's execution, Melville is able to reveal how his legacy would continue on.