Of generous boys in happiness thus bred —
Saturnians through life's Tempe led,
Went from the North and came from the South,
With golden mottoes in the mouth,
To lie down midway on a bloody bed." - Meaning and context.">
On the Slain Collegians, st. 2

What troops
Of generous boys in happiness thus bred —
Saturnians through life's Tempe led,
Went from the North and came from the South,
With golden mottoes in the mouth,
To lie down midway on a bloody bed.

— Herman Melville

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "What troops
Of generous boys in happiness thus bred —
Saturnians through life's Tempe led,
Went from the North and came from the South,
With golden mottoes in the mouth,
To lie down midway on a bloody bed." in the context of "On the Slain Collegians, st. 2" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Herman Melville" (Quotes, Battle Pieces: And Aspects of the War (1860): Full text at Project Gutenberg ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Herman Melville

About Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1 August 1819 – 28 September 1891) was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period.