The Portent

"The Portent" by Herman Melville Herman Melville's poem, "The Portent" is about the brutal death of the famous abolitionist, John Brown. A portent is an evil omen. Herman Melville and many others thought of John Brown as the portent of the Civil War. Melville was known as a moralist and a supporter of Abraham Lincoln. The theme of the poem is about the courageous death of a martyr. The atitude is sad and dramatic. The …

…he hid uneder the hood. The poem began by telling of a traitor's consequences for leading an illegal rebellion and shifted to his death being a forewarning of thing to come. John Brown's slave rebellion could have been Shenendoah's future, but instead, Brown's face was covered and he was condemned. His beard hung out from under the hood. John Brown was extraordinary and fantastic. He was symbolized as the meteor or omen of the war.