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As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors

About This Item

  • Title: As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors
  • Date: 16 May 1885
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00025
  • Source: Harper's Weekly 4 (16 May 1885): 310. Our transcription is based on a digital image of an original issue. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the periodical poems, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang April Lambert Heather Morton Leslie Ianno Ramon Guerra Susan Belasco
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "As One by One Withdraw the Lofty Actors." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 20 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00025.xml (TEI)
per.00025.001per.00025.001_cropped

AS ONE BY ONE WITHDRAW THE LOFTY ACTORS.1

I.

AS one by one withdraw the lofty actors From that great play on history's stage eterne, That lurid, partial act of war and peace—of old 
  and new contending, Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, 
  and many a long suspense, All past—and since, in countless graves reced- 
 ing, mellowing, Victor's and vanquish'd—Lincoln's and Lee's— 
  now thou with them, Man of the mighty days—and equal to the days! Thou from the prairies!—tangled and many- 
  vein'd and hard has been thy part, To admiration has it been enacted!

II.

And still shall be; resume again, thou hero 
  heart! Strengthen to firmest day, O rosy dawn of hope! Thou dirge I started first, to joyful shout reverse! 
  and thou, O grave, Wait long and long! WALT WHITMAN.

Notes

1. Reprinted as "Grant" in Critic 7 (15 August 1885): 80; and revised as "Death of General Grant" in the "Sands at Seventy" annex to Leaves of Grass (1888). [back]

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