A selection of astonishing poems written late in life by one of the leading American scientists of the 19th Century. Nathaniel Shaler had been an artillery officer in the Army of Kentucky during the Civil War. In these poems, he returns in memory to experiences he could never leave behind. With an introduction, notes, and a useful appendix by editor R.L. Barth.


Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906) was an American paleontologist and geologist who wrote extensively on the theological and scientific implications of the theory of evolution.


Shaler also served as a Union officer in the U.S. Civil War He was a fencer, a natural horseman and even in his fifties counted a day lost if he was not able to walk six miles. During the Civil War he recruited the 5th Artillery Battery for the Union and took rank as its captain in 1862. Shaler Battery, which he fortified when a Confederate army threatened Cincinnati in 1862, still can be seen at Evergreen Cemetery. Recurring bouts of severe bronchitis forced him to resign in 1864.