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Leaves of Grass (1871-72)
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TO A CERTAIN CIVILIAN.
DID you ask dulcet rhymes from me? |
Did you seek the civilian's peaceful and languishing
rhymes?
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Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow? |
Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to
understand—nor am I now;
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(I have been born of the same as the war was born; |
The drum-corps' harsh rattle is to me sweet music—I
love well the martial dirge,
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With slow wail and convulsive throb, leading the offi-
cer's funeral;)
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—What to such as you, anyhow, such a poet as I?—
therefore leave my works,
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And go lull yourself with what you can understand—
and with piano-tunes;
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For I lull nobody—and you will never understand me. |
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