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Leaves of Grass (1871-72)
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CAMPS OF GREEN.
1 NOT alone those camps of white, O soldiers, |
When, as order'd forward, after a long march, |
Footsore and weary, soon as the light lessen'd, we
halt for the night;
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Some of us so fatigued, carrying the gun and knapsack,
dropping asleep in our tracks;
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Others pitching the little tents, and the fires lit up
began to sparkle,
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Outposts of pickets posted, surrounding, alert through
the dark,
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And a word provided for countersign, careful for safety; |
Till to the call of the drummers at daybreak loudly
beating the drums,
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We rose up refresh'd, the night and sleep pass'd over,
and resumed our journey,
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2 Lo! the camps of the tents of green, |
Which the days of peace keep filling, and the days of
war keep filling,
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With a mystic army, (is it too order'd forward? is it
too only halting awhile,
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Till night and sleep pass over?) |
3 Now in those camps of green—in their tents dotting
the world;
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In the parents, children, husbands, wives, in them—in
the old and young,
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Sleeping under the sunlight, sleeping under the moon-
light, content and silent there at last,
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Behold the mighty bivouac-field and waiting-camp of
all,
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Of the corps and generals all, and the President over the
corps and generals all,
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And of each of us O soldiers, and of each and all in the ranks we
fought,
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(There without hatred we all, all meet.) |
View Page 29
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4 For presently, O soldiers, we too camp in our place in
the bivouac-camps of green;
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But we need not provide for outposts, nor word for the
countersign,
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Nor drummer to beat the morning drum. |
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