{"id":"01KG8AJMQ3CGQ4EMPE4MRS0VRW","cid":"bafkreidqa2xm5ulrdf2lcpxua7xszzyprnyb5zmdpkv33g6hpgqrwjqkgq","type":"segment","properties":{"description":"# The Swamp Angel.\n\n## Overview\n\"The Swamp Angel.\" is a poem by Herman Melville, presented as a segment within a larger collection. It was extracted from the file `battle_pieces_and_aspects_of_the_war.txt` and is part of the \"Melville Complete Works\" collection. The poem's text describes a destructive, supernatural entity referred to as the \"Swamp Angel.\"\n\n## Context\nThis poem is included in Herman Melville's collection \"[Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War](arke:01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9),\" a volume of poetry reflecting on the American Civil War. The collection was extracted from the file \"[battle_pieces_and_aspects_of_the_war.txt](arke:01KG89J1G8S4TRWXNCBRKCRKS8)\" and is organized under the umbrella of the \"[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)\" collection. This segment follows the poem \"[On the Photograph of a Corps Commander.](arke:01KG8AJMQ3680EVZC8W04VZT64)\" and precedes \"[The Battle for the Bay.](arke:01KG8AJNC7XD8EG7FK61TY6WFK)\".\n\n## Contents\nThe poem \"The Swamp Angel.\" depicts a dark, imposing figure, described as a \"coal-black Angel,\" who resides in a swamp. This entity possesses a destructive power that threatens a nearby city across a bay. The poem details the city's fear and the Angel's relentless assault, characterized by screams, fiery destruction, and the eventual ruin of the city's structures. The poem also touches upon themes of divine judgment and human culpability, questioning the city's pride and its reliance on earthly powers, symbolized by the flight of the seraph Michael.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.198Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"The Swamp Angel.","end_line":2255,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:35.910Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"The Swamp Angel.","source_file":"01KG89J1G8S4TRWXNCBRKCRKS8","start_line":2198,"text":"The Swamp Angel.[10]\r\n\r\n\r\nThere is a coal-black Angel\r\n  With a thick Afric lip,\r\nAnd he dwells (like the hunted and harried)\r\n  In a swamp where the green frogs dip.\r\nBut his face is against a City\r\n  Which is over a bay of the sea,\r\nAnd he breathes with a breath that is blastment,\r\n  And dooms by a far decree.\r\n\r\nBy night there is fear in the City,\r\n  Through the darkness a star soareth on;\r\nThere’s a scream that screams up to the zenith,\r\n  Then the poise of a meteor lone--\r\nLighting far the pale fright of the faces,\r\n  And downward the coming is seen;\r\nThen the rush, and the burst, and the havoc,\r\n  And wails and shrieks between.\r\n\r\nIt comes like the thief in the gloaming;\r\n  It comes, and none may foretell\r\nThe place of the coming--the glaring;\r\n  They live in a sleepless spell\r\nThat wizens, and withers, and whitens;\r\n  It ages the young, and the bloom\r\nOf the maiden is ashes of roses--\r\n  The Swamp Angel broods in his gloom.\r\n\r\nSwift is his messengers’ going,\r\n  But slowly he saps their halls,\r\nAs if by delay deluding.\r\n  They move from their crumbling walls\r\nFarther and farther away;\r\n  But the Angel sends after and after,\r\nBy night with the flame of his ray--\r\n  By night with the voice of his screaming--\r\nSends after them, stone by stone,\r\n  And farther walls fall, farther portals,\r\nAnd weed follows weed through the Town.\r\n\r\nIs this the proud City? the scorner\r\n  Which never would yield the ground?\r\nWhich mocked at the coal-black Angel?\r\n  The cup of despair goes round.\r\nVainly she calls upon Michael\r\n  (The white man’s seraph was he),\r\nFor Michael has fled from his tower\r\n  To the Angel over the sea.\r\n\r\nWho weeps for the woeful City\r\n  Let him weep for our guilty kind;\r\nWho joys at her wild despairing--\r\n  Christ, the Forgiver, convert his mind.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"The Swamp Angel."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ6FNQ0XKWBY52P8DRPC9","peer_type":"poetry_collection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1G8S4TRWXNCBRKCRKS8","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJMQ3680EVZC8W04VZT64","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJNC7XD8EG7FK61TY6WFK","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:38.211Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.516Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}