{"id":"01KG8AJJ0JQF692TPESGGM03KN","cid":"bafkreia7pcyarlidxra5smqz666wcuo3cmn5qpxq4jox5j7yuxfebxu3we","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# IN THE PRISON PEN\n## Overview\n\"IN THE PRISON PEN\" is a poem by Herman Melville, extracted as a chapter from the text file [john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4). It is part of the [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H) poetry collection within the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The poem consists of five stanzas.\n\n## Context\nThe poem is included in the poetry collection [John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H) by Herman Melville. It appears between the poems \"THE SWAMP ANGEL\" [arke:01KG8AJJ0JES0TEMYS2ZKZG147] and \"THE COLLEGE COLONEL\" [arke:01KG8AJJ0NKMY7YA85YS1XYAZG] in the collection.\n\n## Contents\nThe poem depicts the desolate conditions and suffering of prisoners in a prison pen during the year 1864. The verses describe the prisoners' listlessness, vacantness, and the mental and physical toll of their confinement. The poem evokes imagery of a barren landscape, swarming ghosts, and the effects of famine and disease. It portrays the prisoners' struggle for survival, their descent into swoons, and the grim reality of death within the prison walls.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.363Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"IN THE PRISON PEN","end_line":3005,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:32.310Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"IN THE PRISON PEN","source_file":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","start_line":2972,"text":"IN THE PRISON PEN\r\n\r\n\r\n1864\r\n\r\n\r\nListless he eyes the palisades\r\n    And sentries in the glare;\r\n’Tis barren as a pelican-beach\r\n    But his world is ended there.\r\n\r\nNothing to do; and vacant hands\r\n    Bring on the idiot-pain;\r\nHe tries to think—to recollect,\r\n    But the blur is on his brain.\r\n\r\nAround him swarm the plaining ghosts\r\n    Like those on Virgil’s shore—\r\nA wilderness of faces dim,\r\n    And pale ones gashed and hoar.\r\n\r\nA smiting sun. No shed, no tree;\r\n    He totters to his lair—\r\nA den that sick hands dug in earth\r\n    Ere famine wasted there,\r\n\r\nOr, dropping in his place, he swoons,\r\n    Walled in by throngs that press,\r\nTill forth from the throngs they bear him dead—\r\n    Dead in his meagreness.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"IN THE PRISON PEN"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H","peer_type":"poetry_collection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJJ0JES0TEMYS2ZKZG147","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJJ0NKMY7YA85YS1XYAZG","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:35.442Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.556Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}