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About this Item
Title: Drum-Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps
Author(s): Walt Whitman
Date: 1865–1866
Whitman Archive ID: ppp.01865
Source: Drum-Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps (New York; Washington, D.C., 1865–1866). University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, PS3211.A1 1865. Transcribed from digital images of original copy.
Contributors to digital file: Heidi R. Bean, Joshua Ware, Ashley Lawson, Elizabeth Lorang, Nicole Gray, and Kevin McMullen
WALT WHITMAN'S
DRUM-TAPS.
New-York.
1865.
ENTERED according to act of Congress, in the year 1865, by WALT WHITMAN, in the Clerk's Office of the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York.
CONTENTS.
| Drum-Taps............................................ | 5 |
| Shut not your doors to me proud Libraries............ | 8 |
| Cavalry crossing a ford.............................. | 8 |
| Song of the Banner at Day-Break...................... | 9 |
| By the bivouac's fitful flame........................ | 16 |
| 1861................................................. | 17 |
| From Paumanok starting I fly like a bird............. | 18 |
| Beginning my studies................................. | 18 |
| The Centenarian's Story.............................. | 19 |
| Pioneers! O Pioneers!................................ | 25 |
| Quicksand years that whirl me I know not whither..... | 30 |
| The Dresser.......................................... | 31 |
| When I heard the learn'd Astronomer.................. | 34 |
| Rise O Days from your fathomless deeps............... | 35 |
| A child's amaze...................................... | 37 |
| Beat! beat! drums!................................. | 38 |
| Come up from the fields, father...................... | 39 |
| City of ships........................................ | 41 |
| Mother and babe...................................... | 41 |
| Vigil strange I kept on the field one night........... | 42 |
| Bathed in war's perfume.............................. | 43 |
| A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown | 44 |
| Long, too long, O land............................... | 45 |
| A sight in camp in the day-break grey and dim........ | 46 |
| A farm picture....................................... | 46 |
| Give me the splendid silent sun...................... | 47 |
| Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice.............. | 49 |
| Did you ask dulcet rhymes from me?................... | 50 |
| Year of meteors...................................... | 51 |
| The Torch............................................ | 52 |
| Years of the unperform'd............................. | 53 |
| Year that trembled and reel'd beneath me............. | 54 |
| The Veteran's vision................................. | 55 |
| O tan-faced Prairie-boy.............................. | 56 |
| Camps of green.......................................... | 57 |
| As toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods................. | 58 |
| Hymn of dead soldiers................................... | 59 |
| The ship................................................ | 60 |
| A Broadway pageant...................................... | 61 |
| Flag of stars, thick-sprinkled bunting.................. | 65 |
| Old Ireland............................................. | 66 |
| Look down fair moon..................................... | 66 |
| Out of the rolling ocean, the crowd..................... | 67 |
| World, take good notice................................. | 67 |
| I saw old General at bay................................ | 68 |
| Others may praise what they like........................ | 68 |
| Solid, ironical, rolling orb............................ | 68 |
| Hush'd be the camps to-day.............................. | 69 |
| Weave in, weave in, my hardy soul........................ | 69 |
| Turn, O Libertad........................................ | 70 |
| Bivouac on a mountain side.............................. | 70 |
| Pensive on her dead gazing, I heard the mother of all... | 71 |
| Not youth pertains to me................................ | 72 |
DRUM-TAPS.
FIRST, O songs, for a prelude,
Lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum, pride and joy
in my city,
How she led the rest to arms—how she gave the cue,
How at once with lithe limbs, unwaiting a moment, she
sprang;
(O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless!
O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O
truer than steel!)
How you sprang! how you threw off the costumes of
peace with indifferent
hand;
How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and
fife were heard in their
stead;
How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our pre-
lude songs of soldiers,)
How Manhattan drum-taps led.
Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading;
Forty years as a pageant—till unawares, the Lady of
this teeming and
turbulent city,
Sleepless, amid her ships, her houses, her incalculable
wealth,
With her million children around her—suddenly,
At dead of night, at news from the south,
Incens'd, struck with clench'd hand the pavement.
A shock electric—the night sustain'd it;
Till with ominous hum, our hive at day-break, pour'd
out its myriads.
From the houses then, and the workshops, and
through all the doorways,
Leapt they tumultuous—and lo! Manhattan arming.
To the drum-taps prompt,
The young men falling in and arming;
The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, the
blacksmith's hammer,
tost aside with precipi-
tation;)
The lawyer leaving his office, and arming—the judge
leaving the
court;
The driver deserting his wagon in the street, jumping
down, throwing the
reins abruptly down on the
horses' backs;
The salesman leaving the store—the boss, book-keeper,
porter, all
leaving;
Squads gathering everywhere by common consent, and
arming;
The new recruits, even boys—the old men show them
how to wear their
accoutrements—they buckle
the straps carefully;
Outdoors arming—indoors arming—the flash of the
musket-barrels;
The white tents cluster in camps—the arm'd sentries
around—the
sunrise cannon, and again at sunset;
Arm'd regiments arrive every day, pass through the
city, and embark from the
wharves;
(How good they look, as they tramp down to the river,
sweaty, with their guns
on their shoulders!
How I love them! how I could hug them, with their
brown faces, and their
clothes and knapsacks cov-
er'd with dust!)
The blood of the city up—arm'd! arm'd! the cry
everywhere;
The flags flung out from the steeples of churches, and
from all the public
buildings and stores;
The tearful parting—the mother kisses her son—the
son kisses his
mother;
(Loth is the mother to part—yet not a word does she
speak to detain
him;)
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The tumultuous escort—the ranks of policemen preceed-
ing, clearing the way;
The unpent enthusiasm—the wild cheers of the crowd
for their
favorites;
The artillery—the silent cannons, bright as gold, drawn
along, rumble
lightly over the stones;
(Silent cannons—soon to cease your silence!
Soon, unlimber'd, to begin the red business;)
All the mutter of preparation—all the determin'd
arming;
The hospital service—the lint, bandages, and medi-
cines;
The women volunteering for nurses—the work begun
for, in
earnest—no mere parade now;
War! an arm'd race is advancing!—the welcome for
battle—no
turning away;
War! be it weeks, months, or years—an arm'd race is
advancing to
welcome it.
Mannahatta a-march!—and it's O to sing it well!
It's O for a manly life in the camp!
And the sturdy artillery!
The guns, bright as gold—the work for giants—to
serve well the
guns:
Unlimber them! no more, as the past forty years, for
salutes for courtesies
merely;
Put in something else now besides powder and wadding.
And you, Lady of Ships! you Mannahatta!
Old matron of the city! this proud, friendly, turbulent
city!
Often in peace and wealth you were pensive, or covertly
frown'd amid all
your children;
But now you smile with joy, exulting old Mannahatta!
SHUT NOT YOUR DOORS TO ME PROUD LIBRARIES.
SHUT not your doors to me, proud libraries,
For that which was lacking among you all, yet needed
most, I bring;
A book I have made for your dear sake, O soldiers,
And for you, O soul of man, and you, love of comrades;
The words of my book nothing, the life of it every-
thing;
A book separate, not link'd with the rest, nor felt by
the intellect;
But you will feel every word, O Libertad! arm'd
Libertad!
It shall pass by the intellect to swim the sea, the air,
With joy with you, O soul of man.
CAVALRY CROSSING A FORD.
A LINE in long array, where they wind betwixt green
islands;
They take a serpentine course—their arms flash in the
sun—Hark
to the musical clank;
Behold the silvery river—in it the splashing horses,
loitering, stop to
drink;
Behold the brown-faced men—each group, each person,
a picture—the
negligent rest on the saddles;
Some emerge on the opposite bank—others are just
entering the
ford;
The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind.
SONG OF THE BANNER AT DAY-BREAK.
POET.
O A new song, a free song,
Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping, by sounds, by
voices clearer,
By the wind's voice and that of the drum,
By the banner's voice, and child's voice, and sea's voice,
and father's
voice,
Low on the ground and high in the air,
On the ground where father and child stand,
In the upward air where their eyes turn,
Where the banner at day-break is flapping.
Words! book-words! what are you?
Words no more, for hearken and see,
My song is there in the open air—and I must sing,
With the banner and pennant a-flapping.
I'll weave the chord and twine in,
Man's desire and babe's desire—I'll twine them in, I'll
put in
life;
I'll put the bayonet's flashing point—I'll let bullets and
slugs
whizz;
I ll pour the verse with streams of blood, full of volition,
full of
joy;
Then loosen, launch forth, to go and compete,
With the banner and pennant a-flapping.
BANNER AND PENNANT.
Come up here, bard, bard;
Come up here, soul, soul;
Come up here, dear little child,
To fly in the clouds and winds with us, and play with
the measureless
light.
CHILD.
Father, what is that in the sky beckoning to me with
long finger?
And what does it say to me all the while?
FATHER.
Nothing, my babe, you see in the sky;
And nothing at all to you it says. But look you, my
babe,
Look at these dazzling things in the houses, and see you
the money-shops
opening;
And see you the vehicles preparing to crawl along the
streets with
goods:
These! ah, these! how valued and toil'd for, these!
How envied by all the earth!
POET.
Fresh and rosy red, the sun is mounting high;
On floats the sea in distant blue, careering through its
channels;
On floats the wind over the breast of the sea, setting in
toward land;
The great steady wind from west and west-by-south,
Floating so buoyant, with milk-white foam on the waters.
But I am not the sea, nor the red sun;
I am not the wind, with girlish laughter;
Not the immense wind which strengthens—not the
wind which
lashes;
Not the spirit that ever lashes its own body to terror and
death:
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But I am of that which unseen comes and sings, sings,
sings,
Which babbles in brooks and scoots in showers on the
land;
Which the birds know in the woods, mornings and
evenings,
And the shore-sands know, and the hissing wave, and
that banner and
pennant,
Aloft there flapping and flapping.
CHILD.
O father, it is alive—it is full of people—it has
children!
O now it seems to me it is talking to its children!
I hear it—it talks to me—O it is wonderful!
O it stretches—it spreads and runs so fast! O my
father,
It is so broad, it covers the whole sky!
FATHER.
Cease, cease, my foolish babe,
What you are saying is sorrowful to me—much it dis-
pleases me;
Behold with the rest, again I say—behold not banners
and pennants
aloft;
But the well-prepared pavements behold—and mark
the solid-wall'd
houses.
BANNER AND PENNANT.
Speak to the child, O bard, out of Manhattan;
Speak to our children all, or north or south of Manhat-
tan,
Where our factory-engines hum, where our miners
delve the ground,
Where our hoarse Niagara rumbles, where our prairie-
plows are plowing;
Speak, O bard! point this day, leaving all the rest, to
us over
all—and yet we know not why;
For what are we, mere strips of cloth, profiting nothing,
Only flapping in the wind?
POET.
I hear and see not strips of cloth alone;
I hear the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging
sentry;
I hear the jubilant shouts of millions of men—I hear
LIBERTY!
I hear the drums beat, and the trumpets blowing;
I myself move abroad, swift-rising, flying then;
I use the wings of the land-bird, and use the wings of
the sea-bird, and
look down as from a height;
I do not deny the precious results of peace—I see pop-
ulous cities, with wealth incalculable;
I see numberless farms—I see the farmers working in
their fields or
barns;
I see mechanics working—I see buildings everywhere
founded, going
up, or finish'd;
I see trains of cars swiftly speeding along railroad
tracks, drawn by the
locomotives;
I see the stores, depots, of Boston, Baltimore, Charles-
ton, New Orleans;
I see far in the west the immense area of grain—I
dwell awhile,
hovering;
I pass to the lumber forests of the north, and again
to the southern
plantation, and again to Cali-
fornia;
Sweeping the whole, I see the countless profit, the
busy gatherings,
earned wages;
See the identity formed out of thirty-six spacious and
haughty States,
(and many more to come;)
See forts on the shores of harbors—see ships sailing in
and out;
Then over all, (aye! aye!) my little and lengthen'd pen-
nant shaped like a sword,
Runs swiftly up, indicating war and defiance—And now
the halyards
have rais'd it,
Side of my banner broad and blue—side of my starry
banner,
Discarding peace over all the sea and land.
BANNER AND PENNANT.
Yet louder, higher, stronger, bard! yet farther,
wider cleave!
No longer let our children deem us riches and peace
alone;
We can be terror and carnage also, and are so now;
Not now are we one of these spacious and haughty
States, (nor any five,
nor ten;)
Nor market nor depot are we, nor money-bank in the
city;
But these, and all, and the brown and spreading land,
and the mines below,
are ours;
And the shores of the sea are ours, and the rivers great
and small;
And the fields they moisten are ours, and the crops and
the fruits are
ours;
Bays and channels, and ships sailing in and out, are ours
—and we
over all,
Over the area spread below, the three millions of square
miles—the
capitals,
The thirty-five millions of people—O bard! in life and
death
supreme,
We, even we, from this day flaunt out masterful, high
up above,
Not for the present alone, for a thousand years, chant-
ing through you,
This song to the soul of one poor little child.
CHILD.
O my father, I like not the houses;
They will never to me be anything—nor do I like
money;
But to mount up there I would like, O father dear—
that banner I
like;
That pennant I would be, and must be.
FATHER.
Child of mine, you fill me with anguish;
To be that pennant would be too fearful;
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Little you know what it is this day, and henceforth
forever;
It is to gain nothing, but risk and defy everything;
Forward to stand in front of wars—and O, such wars!
—what have
you to do with them?
With passions of demons, slaughter, premature death?
POET.
Demons and death then I sing;
Put in all, aye all, will I—sword-shaped pennant for
war, and banner
so broad and blue,
And a pleasure new and extatic, and the prattled yearn-
ing of children,
Blent with the sounds of the peaceful land, and the
liquid wash of the
sea;
And the icy cool of the far, far north, with rustling
cedars and
pines;
And the whirr of drums, and the sound of soldiers
marching, and the hot
sun shining south;
And the beach-waves combing over the beach on my
eastern shore, and my
western shore the same;
And all between those shores, and my ever running
Mississippi, with bends
and chutes;
And my Illinois fields, and my Kansas fields, and my
fields of
Missouri;
The CONTINENT—devoting the whole identity, without
reserving an
atom,
Pour in! whelm that which asks, which sings, with all,
and the yield of
all.
BANNER AND PENNANT.
Aye all! for ever, for all!
From sea to sea, north and south, east and west,
Fusing and holding, claiming, devouring the whole;
No more with tender lip, nor musical labial sound,
But, out of the night emerging for good, our voice per-
suasive no more,
Croaking like crows here in the wind.
POET. (Finale.)
My limbs, my veins dilate;
The blood of the world has fill'd me full—my theme is
clear at last:
—Banner so broad, advancing out of the night, I sing
you haughty and
resolute;
I burst through where I waited long, too long, deafen'd
and blinded;
My sight, my hearing and tongue, are come to me, (a
little child taught
me;)
I hear from above, O pennant of war, your ironical call
and demand;
Insensate! insensate! (yet I at any rate chant you,) O
banner!
Not houses of peace are you, nor any nor all their pros-
perity, (if need be, you shall have every one of
those houses to destroy
them;
You thought not to destroy those valuable houses, stand-
ing fast, full of comfort, built with money;
May they stand fast, then? Not an hour, unless you,
above them and all,
stand fast;)
—O banner! not money so precious are you, nor farm
produce you, nor
the material good nutriment,
Nor excellent stores, nor landed on wharves from the
ships;
Not the superb ships, with sail-power or steam-power,
fetching and carrying
cargoes,
Nor machinery, vehicles, trade, nor revenues,—But
you, as henceforth
I see you,
Running up out of the night, bringing your cluster of
stars,
(ever-enlarging stars;)
Divider of day-break you, cutting the air, touch'd by
the sun, measuring
the sky,
(Passionately seen and yearn'd for by one poor little
child,
While others remain busy, or smartly talking, forever
teaching thrift,
thrift;)
O you up there! O pennant! where you undulate like
a snake, hissing so
curious,
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Out of reach—an idea only—yet furiously fought for,
risking
bloody death—loved by me!
So loved! O you banner leading the day, with stars
brought from the
night!
Valueless, object of eyes, over all and demanding all—
O banner and
pennant!
I too leave the rest—great as it is, it is nothing—
houses,
machines are nothing—I see them not;
I see but you, O warlike pennant! O banner so broad,
with stripes, I sing
you only,
Flapping up there in the wind.
BY THE BIVOUAC'S FITFUL FLAME.
By the bivouac's fitful flame,
A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and
slow;—but first I
note,
The tents of the sleeping army, the fields' and woods'
dim outline,
The darkness, lit spots of kindled fire—the silence;
Like a phantom far or near an occasional figure moving;
The shrubs and trees, (as I left my eyes they seem to be
stealthily watching
me;)
While wind in procession thoughts, O tender and
wond'rous thoughts,
Of life and death—of home and the past and loved,
and of those that are
far away;
A solemn and slow procession there as I sit on the
ground,
By the bivouac's fitful flame.
1861.
ARM'D year! year of the struggle!
No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you,
terrible year!
Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisp-
ing
cadenzas piano;
But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes,
advancing, carrying a
rifle on your shoulder,
With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands—
with a knife in
the belt at your side,
As I heard you shouting loud—your sonorous voice
ringing across the
continent;
Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great
cities,
Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the
workmen, the dwellers in
Manhattan;
Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois
and Indiana,
Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and de-
scending
the Alleghanies;
Or down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on
deck along the Ohio
river;
Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers,
or at Chattanooga on
the mountain top,
Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed
in blue, bearing
weapons, robust year;
Heard your determin'd voice, launch'd forth again and
again;
Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round
lipp'd cannon,
I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.
FROM PAUMANOK STARTING I FLY LIKE A BIRD.
FROM Paumanok starting, I fly like a bird,
Around and around to soar, to sing the idea of all;
To the north betaking myself, to sing there arctic songs,
To Kanada, 'till I absorb Kanada in myself—to Michi-
gan
then,
To Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to sing their songs,
(they are
inimitable;)
Then to Ohio and Indiana to sing theirs—to Missouri
and Kansas and
Arkansas to sing theirs,
To Tennessee and Kentucky—to the Carolinas and
Georgia, to sing
theirs,
To Texas, and so along up toward California, to roam
accepted
everywhere;
To sing first, (to the tap of the war-drum, if need be,)
The idea of all—of the western world, one and insep-
arable,
And then the song of each member of These States.
BEGINNING MY STUDIES.
BEGINNING my studies, the first step pleas'd me so
much,
The mere fact, consciousness—these forms—the pow-
er
of motion,
The least insect or animal—the senses—eyesight;
The first step, I say, aw'd me and pleas'd me so much,
I have never gone, and never wish'd to go, any farther,
But stop and loiter all my life, to sing it in extatic songs.
THE CENTENARIAN'S STORY.
VOLUNTEER OF 1861, (At Washington Park, Brooklyn, assisting the Centenarian.)
Give me your hand, old Revolutionary;
The hill-top is nigh—but a few steps, (make room,
gentlemen;)
Up the path you have follow'd me well, spite of your
hundred and extra
years;
You can walk, old man, though your eyes are almost
done;
Your faculties serve you, and presently I must have
them serve me.
Rest, while I tell what the crowd around us means;
On the plain below, recruits are drilling and exercising;
There is the camp—one regiment departs to morrow;
Do you hear the officers giving the orders?
Do you hear the clank of the muskets?
Why, what comes over you now, old man?
Why do you tremble, and clutch my hand so convul-
sively?
The troops are but drilling—they are yet surrounded
with smiles;
Around them at hand, the well drest friends and the
women;
While splendid and warm the afternoon sun shines
down;
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Green the midsummer verdure, and fresh blows the dal-
lying breeze,
O'er proud and peaceful cities, and arm of the sea be-
tween.
But drill and parade are over—they march back to
quarters;
Only hear that approval of hands! hear what a clap-
ping!
As wending, the crowds now part and disperse—but
we, old man,
Not for nothing have I brought you hither—we must
remain;
You to speak in your turn, and I to listen and tell.
THE CENTENARIAN.
When I clutch'd your hand, it was not with terror;
But suddenly, pouring about me here, on every side,
And below there where the boys were drilling, and up
the slopes they
ran,
And where tents are pitch'd, and wherever you see,
south and south-east and
south-west,
Over hills, across lowlands, and in the skirts of woods,
And along the shores, in mire (now fill'd over,) came
again, and suddenly
raged,
As eighty-five years a-gone, no mere parade receiv'd
with applause of
friends,
But a battle, which I took part in myself—aye, long ago
as it is, I
took part in it,
Walking then this hill-top, this same ground.
Aye, this is the ground;
My blind eyes, even as I speak, behold it re-peopled
from graves:
The years recede, pavements and stately houses disap-
pear:
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Rude forts appear again, the old hoop'd guns are
mounted;
I see the lines of rais'd earth stretching from river to
bay;
I mark the vista of waters, I mark the uplands and
slopes:
Here we lay encamp'd—it was this time in summer also.
As I talk, I remember all—I remember the Declara-
tion:
It was read here—the whole army paraded—it was
read to us
here;
By his staff surrounded, the general stood in the mid-
dle—he held up his unsheath'd sword,
It glitter'd in the sun in full sight of the army.
'Twas a bold act then;
The English war ships had just arrived—the king had
sent them from
over the sea;
We could watch down the lower bay where they lay at
anchor,
And the transports, swarming with soldiers.
A few days more, and they landed—and then the
battle.
Twenty thousand were brought against us,
A veteran force, furnish'd with good artillery.
I tell not now the whole of the battle;
But one brigade, early in the forenoon, order'd forward
to engage the
red-coats;
Of that brigade I tell, and how steadily it march'd,
And how long and how well it stood, confronting death.
Who do you think that was, marching steadily, stern-
ly confronting death?
It was the brigade of the youngest men, two thousand
strong,
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Rais'd in Virginia and Maryland, and many of them
known personally to the
General.
Jauntily forward they went with quick step toward
Gowanus' waters;
Till of a sudden, unlook'd for, by defiles through the
woods, gain'd at
night,
The British advancing, wedging in from the east,
fiercely playing their
guns,
That brigade of the youngest was cut off, and at the
enemy's mercy.
The General watch'd them from this hill;
They made repeated desperate attempts to burst their
environment;
Then drew close together, very compact, their flag
flying in the
middle;
But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and
thinning them!
It sickens me yet, that slaughter!
I saw the moisture gather in drops on the face of the
General;
I saw how he wrung his hands in anguish.
Meanwhile the British maneuver'd to draw us out
for a pitch'd battle;
But we dared not trust the chances of a pitch'd battle.
We fought the fight in detachments;
Sallying forth, we fought at several points—but in each
the luck was
against us;
Our foe advancing, steadily getting the best of it, push'd
us back to the
works on this hill;
Till we turn'd menacing, here, and then he left us.
That was the going out of the brigade of the young-
est men, two thousand strong;
Few return'd—nearly all remain in Brooklyn.
That, and here, my General's first battle;
No women looking on, nor sunshine to bask in—it
did not conclude
with applause;
Nobody clapp'd hands here then.
But in darkness, in mist, on the ground, under a
chill rain,
Wearied that night we lay, foil'd and sullen;
While scornfully laugh'd many an arrogant lord, off
against us
encamp'd,
Quite within hearing, feasting, klinking wine-glasses
together over their
victory.
So, dull and damp and another day;
But the night of that, mist lifting, rain ceasing,
Silent as a ghost, while they thought they were sure of
him, my General
retreated.
I saw him at the river-side,
Down by the ferry, lit by torches, hastening the embar-
cation;
My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were
all pass'd over;
And then, (it was just ere sunrise,) these eyes rested on
him for the last
time.
Every one else seem'd fill'd with gloom;
Many no doubt thought of capitulation.
But when my General pass'd me,
As he stood in his boat, and look'd toward the coming
sun,
I saw something different from capitulation.
TERMINUS.
Enough—the Centenarian's story ends;
The two, the past and present, have interchanged;
I myself, as connecter, as chansonnier of a great future,
am now
speaking.
And is this the ground Washington trod?
And these waters I listlessly daily cross, are these the
waters he
cross'd,
As resolute in defeat, as other generals in their proudest
triumphs?
It is well—a lesson like that, always comes good;
I must copy the story, and send it eastward and west-
ward;
I must preserve that look, as it beam'd on you, rivers of
Brooklyn.
See! as the annual round returns, the phantoms
return;
It is the 27th of August, and the British have landed;
The battle begins, and goes against us—behold! through
the smoke
Washington's face;
The brigade of Virginia and Maryland have march'd
forth to intercept the
enemy;
They are cut off—murderous artillery from the hills
plays upon
them;
Rank after rank falls, while over them silently droops
the flag,
Baptized that day in many a young man's bloody
wounds,
In death, defeat, and sisters', mothers' tears.
Ah, hills and slopes of Brooklyn! I perceive you
are more valuable than
your owners supposed;
Ah, river! henceforth you will be illumin'd to me at
sunrise with
something besides the sun.
Encampments new! in the midst of you stands an
encampment very old;
Stands forever the camp of the dead brigade.
PIONEERS! O PIONEERS!
1
COME, my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged
axes?
Pioneers! O pioneers!
2
For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of
danger,
We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
3
O you youths, western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and
friendship,
Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with
the
foremost,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
4
Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there
beyond the
seas?
We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the
lesson,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
5
All the past we leave behind;
We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied
world;
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and
the
march,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
6
We detachments steady throwing,
Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains
steep,
Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the
unknown
ways,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
7
We primeval forests felling,
We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep
the mines within;
We the surface broad surveying, and the virgin soil up-
heaving,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
8
Colorado men are we,
From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the
high plateaus,
From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting
trail we
come,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
9
From Nebraska, from Arkansas,
Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the con-
tinental blood intervein'd;
All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all
the
Northern,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
10
O resistless, restless race!
O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender
love for all!
O I mourn and yet exult—I am rapt with love for all,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
11
Raise the mighty mother mistress,
Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry
mistress, (bend
your heads all,)
Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive,
weapon'd
mistress,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
12
See, my children, resolute children,
By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or
falter,
Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us
urging,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
13
On and on, the compact ranks,
With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the
dead quickly
fill'd,
Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and
never
stopping,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
14
O to die advancing on!
Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour
come?
Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the
gap is
fill'd,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
15
All the pulses of the world,
Falling in, they beat for us, with the western movement
beat;
Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front,
all for
us,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
16
Life's involv'd and varied pageants,
All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their
work,
All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with
their
slaves,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
17
All the hapless silent lovers,
All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and
the wicked,
All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the
dying,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
18
I too with my soul and body,
We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way,
Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the
apparitions
pressing,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
19
Lo! the darting bowling orb!
Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and
planets;
All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
20
These are of us, they are with us,
All for primal needed work, while the followers there in
embryo wait
behind,
We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel
clearing,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
21
O you daughters of the west!
O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and
you wives!
Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move
united,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
22
Minstrels latent on the prairies!
(Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep—you
have done your
work;)
Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and
tramp amid
us,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
23
Not for delectations sweet;
Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and
the studious;
Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame en-
joyment,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
24
Do the feasters gluttonous feast?
Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and
bolted doors?
Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the
ground,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
25
Has the night descended?
Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discour-
aged, nodding on our way?
Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause
oblivious,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
26
Till with sound of trumpet,
Far, far off the day-break call—hark! how loud and
clear I hear it
wind;
Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to
your
places,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
QUICKSAND YEARS THAT WHIRL ME I KNOW NOT WHITHER.
QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither,
Your schemes, politics, fail—lines give way—substan-
ces
mock and elude me;
Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd
soul, eludes not;
One's-self, must never give way—that is the final sub-
tance
—that out of all is sure;
Out of politics, triumphs, battles, death—what at last
finally
remains?
When shows break up, what but One's-Self is sure?
THE DRESSER.
An old man bending, I come, among new faces,
Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to chil-
dren,
Come tell us old man, as from young men and maidens
that love me;
Years hence of these scenes, of these furious passions,
these chances,
Of unsurpass'd heroes, (was one side so brave? the
other was equally
brave;)
Now be witness again—paint the mightiest armies of
earth;
Of those armies so rapid, so wondrous, what saw you to
tell us?
What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious
panics,
Of hard-fought engagements, or sieges tremendous,
what deepest remains?
O maidens and young men I love, and that love me,
What you ask of my days, those the strangest and sud-
den
your talking recals;
Soldier alert I arrive, after a long march, cover'd with
sweat and dust;
In the nick of time I come, plunge in the fight, loudly
shout in the rush of
successful charge;
Enter the captur'd works . . . . yet lo! like a swift-
running river, they fade;
Pass and are gone, they fade—I dwell not on soldiers'
perils or
soldiers' joys;
(Both I remember well—many the hardships, few the
joys, yet I was
content.)
But in silence, in dream's projections,
While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes
on,
So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the
imprints off the
sand,
In nature's reverie sad, with hinged knees returning, I
enter the
doors—(while for you up there,
Whoever you are, follow me without noise, and be of
strong heart.)
Bearing the bandages, water and sponge,
Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
Where they lie on the ground, after the battle brought
in;
Where their priceless blood reddens the grass, the
ground;
Or to the rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof'd
hospital;
To the long rows of cots, up and down, each side, I
return;
To each and all, one after another, I draw near—not
one do I miss;
An attendant follows, holding a tray—he carries a
refuse pail,
Soon to be fill'd with clotted rags and blood, emptied,
and fill'd again.
I onward go, I stop,
With hinged knees and steady hand, to dress wounds;
I am firm with each—the pangs are sharp, yet unavoid-
able;
One turns to me his appealing eyes—(poor boy! I
never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for
you, if that would
save you.)
On, on I go—(open, doors of time! open, hospital
doors!)
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The crush'd head I dress, (poor crazed hand, tear not the
bandage away;)
The neck of the cavalry-man, with the bullet through
and through, I
examine;
Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye,
yet life struggles
hard;
(Come, sweet death! be persuaded, O beautiful death!
In mercy come quickly.)
From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the
matter and
blood;
Back on his pillow the soldier bends, with curv'd neck,
and side-falling
head;
His eyes are closed, his face is pale, he dares not look on
the bloody
stump,
And has not yet looked on it.
I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep;
But a day or two more—for see, the frame all wasted
and sinking,
And the yellow-blue countenance see.
I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bul-
let
wound,
Cleanse the one with a gnawing and putrid gangrene, so
sickening, so
offensive,
While the attendant stands behind aside me, holding
the tray and pail.
I am faithful, I do not give out;
The fractur'd thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdo-
men,
These and more I dress with impassive hand—(yet
deep in my breast a
fire, a burning flame.)
Thus in silence, in dream's projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hos-
pitals;
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The hurt and the wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night—some are so
young;
Some suffer so much—I recall the experience sweet
and sad;
(Many a soldier's loving arms about this neck have
cross'd and rested,
Many a soldier's kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)
WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER.
WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns
before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add,
divide, and measure
them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he
lectured with much applause
in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
RISE O DAYS FROM YOUR FATHOMLESS DEEPS
1
RISE, O days, from your fathomless deeps, till you
loftier
and fiercer sweep!
Long for my soul, hungering gymnastic, I devour'd
what the earth gave
me;
Long I roam'd the woods of the north—long I watch'd
Niagara
pouring;
I travel'd the prairies over, and slept on their breast—I
cross'd
the Nevadas, I cross'd the plateaus;
I ascended the towering rocks along the Pacific, I sail'd
out to sea;
I sail'd through the storm, I was refresh'd by the storm;
I watch'd with joy the threatening maws of the waves;
I mark'd the white combs where they career'd so high,
curling over;
I heard the wind piping, I saw the black clouds;
Saw from below what arose and mounted, (O superb! O
wild as my heart, and
powerful!)
Heard the continuous thunder, as it bellow'd after the
lightning;
Noted the slender and jagged threads of lightning, as
sudden and fast amid
the din they chased each
other across the sky;
—These, and such as these, I, elate, saw—saw with
wonder, yet
pensive and masterful;
All the menacing might of the globe uprisen around me;
Yet there with my soul I fed—I fed content, super-
cilious.
2
'Twas well, O soul! 'twas a good preparation you gave
me!
Now we advance our latent and ampler hunger to fill;
Now we go forth to receive what the earth and the sea
never gave us;
Not through the mighty woods we go, but through the
mightier cities;
Something for us is pouring now, more than Niagara
pouring;
Torrents of men, (sources and rills of the Northwest, are
you indeed
inexhaustible?)
What, to pavements and homesteads here—what were
those storms of the
mountains and sea?
What, to passions I witness around me to-day? Was
the sea risen?
Was the wind piping the pipe of death under the black
clouds?
Lo! from deeps more unfathomable, something more
deadly and savage;
Manhattan, rising, advancing with menacing front—
Cincinnati,
Chicago, unchain'd;
—What was that swell I saw on the ocean? behold
what comes here!
How it climbs with daring feet and hands! how it
dashes!
How the true thunder bellows after the lightning! how
bright the flashes
of lightning!
How DEMOCRACY, with desperate vengeful port strides
on, shown through the
dark by those flashes of
lightning!
(Yet a mournful wail and low sob I fancied I heard
through the dark,
In a lull of the deafening confusion.)
3
Thunder on! stride on Democracy! strike with vengeful
stroke!
And do you rise higher than ever yet, O days, O cities!
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Crash heavier, heavier yet, O storms! you have done
me good;
My soul, prepared in the mountains, absorbs your im-
mortal strong nutriment;
Long had I walk'd my cities, my country roads, through
farms, only half
satisfied;
One doubt, nauseous, undulating like a snake, crawl'd
on the ground before
me,
Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft,
ironically hissing
low;
—The cities I loved so well, I abandon'd and left—I
sped to
the certainties suitable to me;
Hungering, hungering, hungering, for primal energies,
and Nature's
dauntlessness,
I refresh'd myself with it only, I could relish it only;
I waited the bursting forth of the pent fire—on the
water and air I
waited long;
—But now I no longer wait—I am fully satisfied—I
am
glutted;
I have witness'd the true lighting—I have witness'd
my cities
electric;
I have lived to behold man burst forth, and warlike
America rise;
Hence I will seek no more the food of the northern soli-
tary wilds,
No more on the mountains roam, or sail the stormy sea.
A CHILD'S AMAZE.
SILENT and amazed, even when a little boy,
I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God
in his statements,
As contending against some being or influence.
BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS!
1
BEAT! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows—through doors—burst like a
force of
ruthless men,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation;
Into the school where the scholar is studying:
Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must
he have now with
his bride;
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, plowing his field or
gathering his
grain;
So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums—so shrill
you bugles
blow.
2
Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in
the
streets:
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses?
No sleepers must
sleep in those beds;
No bargainers' bargains by day—no brokers or specu-
lators—Would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt
to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case
before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder
blow.
3
Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley—stop for no expostulation;
Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer;
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man;
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's en-
treaties;
Make even the trestles to shake the dead, where they lie
awaiting the
hearses,
So strong you thump, O terrible drums—so loud
you bugles blow.
COME UP FROM THE FIELDS FATHER.
Come up from the fields, father, here's a letter from
our Pete;
And come to the front door, mother—here's a letter
from thy dear
son.
Lo, 'tis autumn;
Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder,
Cool and sweeten Ohio's villages, with leaves fluttering
in the moderate
wind;
Where apples ripe in the orchards hang, and grapes on
the trellis'd
vines;
(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?
Smell you the buckwheat, where the bees were lately
buzzing?)
Above all, lo, the sky, so calm, so transparent after
the rain, and with
wondrous clouds;
Below, too, all calm, all vital and beautiful—and the
farm prospers
well.
Down in the fields all prospers well;
But now from the fields come, father—come at the
daughter's call;
And come to the entry, mother—to the front door come,
right away.
Fast as she can she hurries—something ominous—
her steps
trembling;
She does not tarry to smooth her white hair, nor adjust
her cap.
Open the envelope quickly;
O this is not our son's writing, yet his name is sign'd;
O a strange hand writes for our dear son—O stricken
mother's soul!
All swims before her eyes—flashes with black—she
catches the
main words only;
Sentences broken—gun-shot wound in the breast,
cavalry
skirmish, taken to hospital,
At present low, but will soon be better.
Ah, now the single figure to me,
Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio, with all its cities
and farms,
Sickly white in the face and dull in the head, very faint,
By the jamb of a door leans.
Grieve not so, dear mother, (the just-grown daughter
speaks through her sobs;
The little sisters huddle around, speechless and dis-
may'd;)
See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be
better.
Alas, poor boy, he will never be better, (nor may-be
needs to be better,
that brave and simple soul;)
While they stand at home at the door, he is dead already;
The only son is dead.
But the mother needs to be better;
She, with thin form, presently drest in black;
By day her meals untouch'd—then at night fitfully
sleeping, often
waking,
In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep
longing,
O that she might withdraw unnoticed—silent from life,
escape and
withdraw,
To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.
CITY OF SHIPS.
CITY of ships!
(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!
O the beautiful, sharp bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!)
City of the world! (for all races are here;
All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!
City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede,
whirling in and out,
with eddies and foam!
City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of mar-
ble
and iron!
Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extrava-
gant
city!
Spring up, O city! not for peace alone, but be indeed
yourself, warlike!
Fear not! submit to no models but your own, O city!
Behold me! incarnate me, as I have incarnated you!
I have rejected nothing you offer'd me—whom you
adopted, I have
adopted;
Good or bad, I never question you—I love all—I do
not condemn
anything;
I chant and celebrate all that is yours—yet peace no
more;
In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is
mine;
War, red war, is my song through your streets, O city!
MOTHER AND BABE.
I SEE the sleeping babe, nestling the breast of its
mother;
The sleeping mother and babe—hush'd, I study them
long and long.
VIGIL STRANGE I KEPT ON THE FIELD ONE NIGHT.
VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night,
When you, my son and my comrade, dropt at my side
that day,
One look I but gave, which your dear eyes return'd,
with a look I shall never
forget;
One touch of your hand to mine, O boy, reach'd up as
you lay on the
ground;
Then onward I sped in the battle, the even-contested
battle;
Till late in the night reliev'd, to the place at last again I
made my
way;
Found you in death so cold, dear comrade—found your
body, son of
responding kisses, (never again on
earth responding;)
Bared your face in the starlight—curious the scene—
cool blew
the moderate night-wind;
Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me
the battle-field
spreading;
Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet, there in the fragrant
silent night;
But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh—Long,
long I gazed;
Then on the earth partially reclining, sat by your side,
leaning my chin in
my hands;
Passing sweet hours, immortal and mystic hours with
you, dearest
comrade—Not a tear, not a word;
Vigil of silence, love and death—vigil for you, my son
and my
soldier,
As onward silently stars aloft, eastward new ones up-
ward
stole;
Vigil final for you, brave boy, (I could not save you,
swift was your
death,
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I faithfully loved you and cared for you living—I think
we shall
surely meet again;)
Till at latest lingering of the night, indeed just as the
dawn appear'd,
My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop'd well his
form,
Folded the blanket well, tucking it carefully over head,
and carefully under
feet;
And there and then, and bathed by the rising sun, my
son in his grave, in his
rude-dug grave I de-
posited;
Ending my vigil strange with that—vigil of night and
battle-field
dim;
Vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth
responding;)
Vigil for comrade swiftly slain—vigil I never forget,
how as day
brighten'd,
I rose from the chill ground, and folded my soldier well
in his blanket,
And buried him where he fell.
BATHED IN WAR'S PERFUME.
BATHED in war's perfume—delicate flag!
O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like
a beautiful
woman!
O to hear the tramp, tramp, of a million answering men!
O the ships they arm
with joy!
O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of
ships!
O to see you peering down on the sailors on the decks!
Flag like the eyes of women.
A MARCH IN THE RANKS HARD-PREST, AND THE ROAD UNKNOWN.
A MARCH in the ranks hard-prest, and the road
unknown;
A route through a heavy wood, with muffled steps in the
darkness;
Our army foil'd with loss severe, and the sullen remnant
retreating;
Till after midnight glimmer upon us, the lights of a
dim-lighted
building;
We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the
dim-lighted
building;
'Tis a large old church, at the crossing roads—'tis now
an impromptu
hospital;
—Entering but for a minute, I see a sight beyond all
the pictures and
poems ever made:
Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving
candles and lamps,
And by one great pitchy torch, stationary, with wild red
flame, and clouds
of smoke;
By these, crowds, groups of forms, vaguely I see, on the
floor, some in the
pews laid down;
At my feet more distinctly, a soldier, a mere lad, in
danger of bleeding to
death, (he is shot in the ab-
domen;)
I staunch the blood temporarily, (the youngster's face is
white as a
lily;)
Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene,
fain to absorb it
all;
Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in
obscurity, some of
them dead;
Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell
of ether, the odor
of blood;
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The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms of soldiers
—the yard
outside also fill'd;
Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers,
some in the
death-spasm sweating;
An occasional scream or cry, the doctor's shouted orders
or calls;
The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the
glint of the
torches;
These I resume as I chant—I see again the forms, I
smell the odor;
Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men,
Fall in;
But first I bend to the dying lad—his eyes open—a
half-smile
gives he me;
Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to
the darkness,
Resuming, marching, as ever in darkness marching, on
in the ranks,
The unknown road still marching.
LONG, TOO LONG, O LAND.
LONG, too long, O land,
Traveling roads all even and peaceful, you learn'd from
joys and prosperity
only;
But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish—ad-
vancing, grappling with direst fate, and recoiling
not;
And now to conceive, and show to the world, what your
children en-masse
really are;
(For who except myself has yet conceived what your
children en-masse really
are?)
A SIGHT IN CAMP IN THE DAY-BREAK GREY AND DIM.
A SIGHT in camp in the day-break grey and dim,
As from my tent I emerge so early, sleepless,
As slow I walk in the cool fresh air, the path near by
the
hospital-tent,
Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there,
untended lying,
Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woolen
blanket,
Grey and heavy blanket, folding, covering all.
Curious, I halt, and silent stand;
Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest,
the first, just lift
the blanket:
Who are you, elderly man so gaunt and grim, with
well-grey'd hair, and flesh
all sunken about the
eyes?
Who are you, my dear comrade?
Then to the second I step—And who are you, my
child and darling?
Who are you, sweet boy, with cheeks yet blooming?
Then to the third—a face nor child, nor old, very
calm, as of
beautiful yellow-white ivory:
Young man, I think I know you—I think this face of
yours is the face
of the Christ himself;
Dead and divine, and brother of all, and here again he
lies.
A FARM PICTURE.
THROUGH the ample open door of the peaceful country
barn,
A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding.
GIVE ME THE SPLENDID SILENT SUN.
1
GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-
dazzling;
Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the
orchard;
Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows;
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape;
Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving
animals, teaching
content;
Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west
of the
Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars;
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers,
where I can walk
undisturb'd;
Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman, of whom
I should never
tire;
Give me a perfect child—give me, away, aside from the
noise of the
world, a rural domestic life;
Give me to warble spontaneous songs, reliev'd, recluse
by myself, for my
own ears only;
Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again,
O Nature, your
primal sanities!
—These, demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless
excitement,
and rack'd by the war-strife;)
These to procure, incessantly asking, rising in cries from
my heart,
While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city;
Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking
your streets,
Where you hold me enchain'd a certain time, refusing
to give me up;
Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich'd of soul—you
give me forever
faces;
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 48]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing
my cries;
I see my own soul trampling down what it ask'd for.)
2
Keep your splendid silent sun;
Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places by
the woods;
Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-
fields and orchards;
Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields, where the Ninth-
month bees hum;
Give me faces and streets! give me these phantoms in-
cessant and endless along the trottoirs!
Give me interminable eyes! give me women! give me
comrades and lovers by
the thousand!
Let me see new ones every day! let me hold new ones
by the hand every
day!
Give me such shows! give me the streets of Manhattan!
Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching—give
me the sound of
the trumpets and drums!
(The soldiers in companies or regiments—some, starting
away, flush'd
and reckless;
Some, their time up, returning, with thinn'd ranks—
young, yet very
old, worn, marching, noticing
nothing;)
—Give me the shores and the wharves heavy-fringed
with the black
ships!
O such for me! O an intense life! O full to repletion,
and varied!
The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me!
The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for
me! the torch-light
procession!
The dense brigade, bound for the war, with high piled
military wagons
following;
People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions,
pageants;
Manhattan streets, with their powerful throbs, with the
beating drums, as
now;
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The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of
muskets, (even the
sight of the wounded;)
Manhattan crowds with their turbulent musical chorus
—with varied
chorus and light of the sparkling
eyes;
Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me.
OVER THE CARNAGE ROSE PROPHETIC A VOICE.
OVER the carnage rose prophetic a voice,
Be not dishearten'd—Affection shall solve the problems
of Freedom
yet;
Those who love each other shall become invincible—
they shall yet make
Columbia victorious.
Sons of the Mother of All! you shall yet be victo-
rious!
You shall yet laugh to scorn the attacks of all the re-
mainder
of the earth.
No danger shall balk Columbia's lovers;
If need be, a thousand shall sternly immolate themselves
for one.
One from Massachusetts shall be a Missourian's com-
rade;
From Maine and from hot Carolina, and another an Ore-
gonese, shall be friends triune,
More precious to each other than all the riches of the
earth.
To Michigan, Florida perfumes shall tenderly come;
Not the perfumes of flowers, but sweeter, and wafted
beyond death.
It shall be customary in the houses and streets to see
manly affection;
The most dauntless and rude shall touch face to face
lightly;
The dependence of Liberty shall be lovers,
The continuance of Equality shall be comrades.
These shall tie you and band you stronger than hoops
of iron;
I, extatic, O partners! O lands! with the love of lovers
tie you.
Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers?
Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?
—Nay—nor the world, nor any living thing, will so
cohere.
DID YOU ASK DULCET RHYMES FROM ME?
DID YOU ask dulcet rhymes from me?
Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow,
to understand?
Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to
understand—nor am
I now;
—What to such as you, anyhow, such a poet as I?
—therefore leave
my works,
And go lull yourself with what you can understand;
For I lull nobody—and you will never understand me.
YEAR OF METEORS. (1859-60.)
YEAR of meteors! brooding year!
I would bind in words retrospective, some of your deeds
and signs;
I would sing your contest for the 19th Presidentiad;
I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair,
mounted the scaffold in
Virginia;
(I was at hand—silent I stood, with teeth shut close—I
watch'd;
I stood very near you, old man, when cool and indiffer-
ent, but trembling with age and your unheal'd
wounds, you mounted the
scaffold;)
I would sing in my copious song your census returns of
The States,
The tables of population and products—I would sing of
your ships and
their cargoes,
The proud black ships of Manhattan, arriving, some
fill'd with immigrants,
some from the isthmus
with cargoes of gold;
Songs thereof would I sing—to all that hitherward
comes would I
welcome give;
And you would I sing, fair stripling! welcome to you
from me, sweet boy of
England!
Remember you surging Manhattan's crowds, as you
passed with your cortege of
nobles?
There in the crowds stood I, and singled you out with
attachment;
I know not why, but I loved you…(and so go forth
little song,
Far over sea speed like an arrow, carrying my love all
folded,
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And find in his palace the youth I love, and drop these
lines at his
feet;)
—Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she
swam up my
bay,
Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my
bay, she was 600 feet
long,
Her moving swiftly, surrounded by myriads of small
craft, I forget not to
sing;
Nor the comet that came unannounced, out of the north,
flaring in heaven,
Nor the strange huge meteor procession, dazzling and
clear, shooting over
our heads,
(A moment, a moment long, it sail'd its balls of unearth-
ly
light over our heads,
Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)
—Of such, and fitful as they, I sing—with gleams from
them would
I gleam and patch these chants;
Your chants, O year all mottled with evil and good!
year of forebodings! year
of the youth I love!
Year of comets and meteors transient and strange!—lo!
even here, one
equally transient and strange!
As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone,
what is this
book,
What am I myself but one of your meteors?
THE TORCH.
On my northwest coast in the midst of the night, a
fishermen's group stands
watching;
Out on the lake, expanding before them, others are
spearing salmon;
The canoe, a dim and shadowy thing, moves across the
black water,
Bearing a Torch a-blaze at the prow.
YEARS OF THE UNPERFORM'D.
YEARS of the unperform'd! your horizon rises—I
see it
parting away for more august dramas;
I see not America only—I see not only Liberty's nation,
but other
nations preparing;
I see tremendous entrances and exits—I see new com-
binations
—I see the solidarity of races;
I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the
world's stage;
(Have the old forces played their parts? are the acts
suitable to them
closed?)
I see Freedom, completely arm'd, and victorious, and
very haughty, with Law
by her side, both issuing
forth against the idea of caste;
—What historic denouements are these we so rapidly
approach?
I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil-
lions;
I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies
broken;
I see the landmarks of European kings removed;
I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all
others give
way;)
Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day;
Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more
like a God;
Lo, how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no
rest;
His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere—he col-
onizes
the Pacific, the archipelagoes;
With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the news-
paper, the wholesale engines of war,
With these, and the world-spreading factories, he inter-
links
all geography, all lands;
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 54]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
—What whispers are these, O lands, running ahead of
you, passing under
the seas?
Are all nations communing? is there going to be but
one heart to the
globe?
Is humanity forming, en-masse?—for lo! tyrants trem-
ble, crowns grow dim;
The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a gen-
eral
divine war;
No one knows what will happen next—such portents
fill the days and
nights;
Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vain-
ly
try to pierce it, is full of phantoms;
Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes
around me;
This incredible rush and heat—this strange extactic
fever of dreams, O
years!
Your dreams, O years, how they penetrate through me!
(I know not whether I
sleep or wake!)
The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retiring
in shadow behind me,
The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance, ad-
vance
upon me.
YEAR THAT TREMBLED AND REEL'D BENEATH ME.
YEAR that trembled and reel'd beneath me!
Your summer wind was warm enough—yet the air I
breathed froze me;
A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken'd
me;
Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself;
Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baf-
fled
?
And sullen hymns of defeat?
THE VETERAN'S VISION.
WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars
are over long,
And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the mys-
tic
midnight passes,
And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just
hear, the breath
of my infant,
There in the room, as I wake from sleep, this vision
presses upon me:
The engagement opens there and then, in my busy brain
unreal;
The skirmishers begin—they crawl cautiously ahead—
I hear the
irregular snap! snap!
I hear the sounds of the different missiles—the short
t-h-t! t-h-t! of the rifle balls;
I see the shells exploding, leaving small white clouds—
I hear the
great shells shrieking as they pass;
The grape, like the hum and whirr of wind through the
trees, (quick,
tumultuous, now the contest rages!)
All the scenes at the batteries themselves rise in detail
before me
again;
The crashing and smoking—the pride of the men in
their pieces;
The chief gunner ranges and sights his piece, and selects
a fuse of the
right time;
After firing, I see him lean aside, and look eagerly off
to note the
effect;
—Elsewhere I hear the cry of a regiment charging—
(the young
colonel leads himself this time, with
brandish'd sword;)
I see the gaps cut by the enemy's volleys, (quickly
fill'd up—no
delay;)
I breathe the suffocating smoke—then the flat clouds
hover low,
concealing all;
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Now a strange lull comes for a few seconds, not a shot
fired on either
side;
Then resumed, the chaos louder than ever, with eager
calls, and orders of
officers;
While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts
to my ears a shout
of applause, (some special
success;)
And ever the sound of the cannon, far or near, (rousing,
even in dreams, a
devilish exultation, and all the
old mad joy, in the depths of my soul;)
And ever the hastening of infantry shifting positions—
batteries,
cavalry, moving hither and thither;
(The falling, dying, I heed not—the wounded, dripping
and red, I heed
not—some to the rear are hob-
bling;)
Grime, heat, rush—aid-de-camps galloping by, or on a
full run;
With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the
rifles, (these in my vision I hear or see,)
And bombs bursting in air, and at night the vari-color'd
rockets.
O TAN-FACED PRAIRIE-BOY.
O TAN-FACED prairie-boy!
Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift;
Praises and presents came, and nourishing food—till at
last among the
recruits,
You came, taciturn, with nothing to give—we but
look'd on each
other,
When lo! more than all the gifts of the world, you
gave me.
CAMPS OF GREEN.
NOT alone our camps of white, O soldiers,
When, as order'd forward, after a long march,
Footsore and weary, soon as the light lessens, we halt
for the night;
Some of us so fatigued, carrying the gun and knapsack,
dropping asleep in our
tracks;
Others pitching the little tents, and the fires lit up begin
to sparkle;
Outposts of pickets posted, surrounding, alert through
the dark,
And a word provided for countersign, careful for safety;
Till to the call of the drummers at daybreak loudly
beating the drums,
We rise up refresh'd, the night and sleep pass'd over,
and resume our
journey,
Or proceed to battle.
Lo! the camps of the tents of green,
Which the days of peace keep filling, and the days of
war keep filling,
With a mystic army, (is it too order'd forward? is it too
only halting
awhile,
Till night and sleep pass over?)
Now in those camps of green—in their tents dotting
the world;
In the parents, children, husbands, wives, in them—
in the old and
young,
Sleeping under the sunlight, sleeping under the moon-
light, content and silent there at last,
Behold the mighty bivouac-field, and waiting-camp of
us and ours and
all,
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Of our corps and generals all, and the President over the
corps and generals
all
And each of us, O soldiers, and of each and all in the
ranks we fight,
(There without hatred we shall all meet.)
For presently, O soldiers, we too camp in our place
in the bivouac-camps of
green;
But we need not provide for outposts, nor word for
the countersign,
Nor drummer to beat the morning drum.
AS TOILSOME I WANDER'D VIRGINIA'S WOODS.
AS TOILSOME I wander'd Virginia's woods,
To the music of rustling leaves, kick'd by my feet, (for
'twas autumn,)
I mark'd at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier;
Mortally wounded he, and buried on the retreat, (easily
all could I
understand;)
The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose
—yet this sign
left,
On a tablet scrawl'd and nail'd on the tree by the grave,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering;
Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of
life;
Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt,
alone, or in the
crowded street,
Comes before me the unknown soldier's grave—comes
the inscription rude
in Virginia's woods,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
HYMN OF DEAD SOLDIERS.
ONE breath, O my silent soul,
A perfum'd thought—no more I ask, for the sake of all
dead
soldiers.
Buglers off in my armies!
At present I ask not you to sound;
Not at the head of my cavalry, all on their spirited
horses,
With their sabres drawn and glist'ning, and carbines
clanking by their
thighs—(ah, my brave horse-
men
!
My handsome, tan-faced horsemen! what life, what joy
and pride,
With all the perils, were yours!)
Nor you drummers—neither at reveille, at dawn,
Nor the long roll alarming the camp—nor even the
muffled beat for a
burial;
Nothing from you, this time, O drummers, bearing my
warlike drums.
But aside from these, and the crowd's hurrahs, and
the land's
congratulations,
Admitting around me comrades close, unseen by the
the rest, and
voiceless,
I chant this chant of my silent soul, in the name of all
dead soldiers.
Faces so pale, with wondrous eyes, very dear, gather
closer yet;
Draw close, but speak not.
Phantoms, welcome, divine and tender!
Invisible to the rest, henceforth become my compan-
ions;
Follow me ever! desert me not, while I live.
Sweet are the blooming cheeks of the living! sweet
are the musical voices
sounding!
But sweet, ah sweet, are the dead, with their silent eyes.
Dearest comrades! all now is over;
But love is not over—and what love, O comrades!
Perfume from battle-fields rising—up from fœtor
arising.
Perfume therefore my chant, O love! immortal Love!
Give me to bathe the memories of all dead soldiers.
Perfume all! make all wholesome!
O love! O chant! solve all with the last chemistry.
Give me exhaustless—make me a fountain,
That I exhale love from me wherever I go,
For the sake of all dead soldiers.
THE SHIP.
Lo! THE unbounded sea!
On its breast a Ship, spreading all her sails—an ample
Ship, carrying
even her moonsails;
The pennant is flying aloft, as she speeds, she
speeds so
stately—below, emulous waves press
forward,
They surround the Ship, with shining curving motions,
and foam.
A BROADWAY PAGEANT.
(RECEPTION JAPANESE EMBASSY, JUNE 16, 1860.)
OVER sea, hither from Niphon,
Courteous, the Princes of Asia, swart-cheek'd princes,
First-comers, guests, two-sworded princes,
Lesson-giving princes, leaning back in their open ba-
rouches, bare-headed, impassive,
This day they ride through Manhattan.
Libertad!
I do not know whether others behold what I behold,
In the procession, along with the Princes of Asia, the
errand-bearers,
Bringing up the rear, hovering above, around, or in the
ranks marching;
But I will sing you a song of what I behold, Libertad.
When million-footed Manhattan, unpent, descends to
its pavements;
When the thunder-cracking guns arouse me with the
proud roar I love;
When the round-mouth'd guns, out of the smoke and
smell I love, spit their
salutes;
When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me—
when heaven-clouds
canopy my city with a
delicate thin haze;
When, gorgeous, the countless straight stems, the for-
ests
at the wharves, thicken with colors;
When every ship, richly drest, carries her flag at the
peak;
When pennants trail, and street-festoons hang from the
windows;
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When Broadway is entirely given up to foot-passengers
and
foot-standers—when the mass is densest;
When the facades of the houses are alive with people—
when eyes gaze,
riveted, tens of thousands at a
time;
When the guests from the islands advance—when the
pageant moves
forward, visible;
When the summons is made—when the answer that
waited thousands of
years, answers;
I too, arising, answering, descend to the pavements,
merge with the crowd,
and gaze with them.
Superb-faced Manhattan!
Comrade Americanos!—to us, then, at last, the Orient
comes.
To us, my city,
Where our tall-topt marble and iron beauties range on
opposite
sides—to walk in the space between,
To-day our Antipodes comes.
The Originatress comes,
The land of Paradise—land of the Caucasus—the nest
of birth,
The nest of languages, the bequeather of poems, the
race of eld,
Florid with blood, pensive, rapt with musings, hot with
passion,
Sultry with perfume, with ample and flowing garments,
With sunburnt visage, with intense soul and glittering
eyes.
The race of Brahma comes!
See, my cantabile! these, and more, are flashing to us
from the
procession;
As it moves, changing, a kaleidoscope divine it moves,
changing, before
us.
Not the errand-bearing princes, nor the tann'd Japa-
nee
only;
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 63]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Lithe and silent, the Hindoo appears—the whole Asiatic
continent
itself appears—the Past, the dead,
The murky night-morning of wonder and fable, inscruta-
ble,
The envelop'd mysteries, the old and unknown hive-
bees,
The North—the sweltering South—Assyria—the
Hebrews—the Ancient of ancients,
Vast desolated cities—the gliding Present—all of
these, and
more, are in the pageant-procession.
Geography, the world, is in it;
The Great Sea, the brood of islands, Polynesia, the coast
beyond;
The coast you, henceforth, are facing—you Libertad!
from your Western
golden shores;
The countries there, with their populations—the mil-
lions
en-masse, are curiously here;
The swarming market places—the temples, with idols
ranged along the
sides, or at the end—bonze,
brahmin, and lama;
The mandarin, farmer, merchant, mechanic, and fisher-
man;
The singing-girl and the dancing-girl—the ecstatic
person—the
divine Buddha;
The secluded Emperors—Confucius himself—the
great poets and
heroes—the warriors, the castes,
all,
Trooping up, crowding from all directions—from the
Altay
mountains,
From Thibet—from the four winding and far-flowing
rivers of China,
From the Southern peninsulas, and the demi-continental
islands—from
Malaysia;
These, and whatever belongs to them, palpable, show
forth to me, and are
seiz'd by me,
And I am seiz'd by them, and friendlily held by them,
Till, as here, them all I chant, Libertad! for themselves
and for you.
For I too, raising my voice, join the ranks of this
pageant;
I am the chanter—I chant aloud over the pageant;
I chant the world on my Western Sea;
I chant, copious, the islands beyond, thick as stars in
the sky;
I chant the new empire, grander than any before—As
in a vision it
comes to me;
I chant America, the Mistress—I chant a greater su-
premacy;
I chant, projected, a thousand blooming cities yet, in
time, on those groups
of sea-islands;
I chant my sail-ships and steam-ships threading the ar-
chipelagoes;
I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in the wind;
I chant commerce opening, the sleep of ages having
done its
work—races, reborn, refresh'd;
Lives, works, resumed—The object I know not—but
the old, the
Asiatic, resumed, as it must be,
Commencing from this day, surrounded by the world.
And you, Libertad of the world!
You shall sit in the middle, well-pois'd, thousands of
years;
As to-day, from one side, the Princes of Asia come to
you;
As to-morrow, from the other side, the Queen of Eng-
land
sends her eldest son to you.
The sign is reversing, the orb is enclosed,
The ring is circled, the journey is done;
The box-lid is but perceptibly open'd—nevertheless the
perfume pours
copiously out of the whole box.
Young Libertad!
With the venerable Asia, the all-mother,
Be considerate with her, now and ever, hot Libertad—
for you are
all;
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 65]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Bend your proud neck to the long-off mother, now
sending messages over the
archipelagoes to you;
Bend your proud neck low for once, young Libertad.
Were the children straying westward so long? so
wide the tramping?
Were the precedent dim ages debouching westward
from Paradise so long?
Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, all the
while unknown, for
you, for reasons?
They are justified—they are accomplish'd—they shall
now be turn'd
the other way also, to travel to-
ward
you thence;
They shall now also march obediently eastward, for
your sake, Libertad.
FLAG OF STARS, THICK-SPRINKLED BUNTING.
FLAG of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!
Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road,
and lined with
bloody death!
For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world!
All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your
threads, greedy
banner!
—Dream'd again the flags of kings, highest borne, to
flaunt
unrivall'd?
O hasten, flag of man! O with sure and steady step,
passing highest flags of
kings,
Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol—run up
above them all,
Flag of stars! thick sprinkled bunting!
OLD IRELAND.
FAR hence, amid an isle of wondrous beauty,
Crouching over a grave, an ancient sorrowful mother,
Once a queen—now lean and tatter'd, seated on the
ground,
Her old white hair drooping dishevel'd round her shoul-
ders;
At her feet fallen an unused royal harp,
Long silent—she too long silent—mourning her shroud-
ed
hope and heir;
Of all the earth her heart most full of sorrow, because
most full of
love.
Yet a word, ancient mother;
You need crouch there no longer on the cold ground,
with forehead between
your knees;
O you need not sit there, veil'd in your old white
hair, so dishevel'd;
For know you, the one you mourn is not in that grave;
It was an illusion—the heir, the son you love, was not
really
dead;
The Lord is not dead—he is risen again, young and
strong, in another
country;
Even while you wept there by your fallen harp, by the
grave,
What you wept for, was translated, pass'd from the
grave,
The winds favor'd, and the sea sail'd it,
And now with rosy and new blood,
Moves to-day in a new country.
LOOK DOWN FAIR MOON.
LOOK down, fair moon, and bathe this scene;
Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghast-
ly, swollen, purple;
On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss'd wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.
OUT OF THE ROLLING OCEAN, THE CROWD.
1
OUT of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently
to me,
Whispering, I love you, before long I die,
I have travel'd a long way, merely to look on you, to touch
you,
For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
For I fear'd I might afterward lose you.
2
(Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe;
Return in peace to the ocean my love;
I too am part of that ocean, my love—we are not so
much
separated;
Behold the great rondure—the cohesion of all, how per-
fect!
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separ-
ate us,
As for an hour carrying us diverse—yet cannot carry
us diverse for
ever;
Be not impatient—a little space—know you, I salute
the air,
the ocean and the land,
Every day, at sundown, for your dear sake, my love.)
WORLD, TAKE GOOD NOTICE.
WORLD, take good notice, silver stars fading,
Milky hue ript, weft of white detaching,
Coals thirty-six, baleful and burning,
Scarlet, significant, hands off warning,
Now and henceforth flaunt from these shores.
I SAW OLD GENERAL AT BAY.
I saw old General at bay;
(Old as he was, his grey eyes yet shone out in battle
like stars;)
His small force was now completely hemmed in, in his
works;
He call'd for volunteers to run the enemy's lines—a
desperate
emergency;
I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks—
but two or three
were selected;
I saw them receive their orders aside—they listen'd
with
care—the adjutant was very grave;
I saw them depart with cheerfulness, freely risking their
lives.
OTHERS MAY PRAISE WHAT THEY LIKE.
OTHERS may praise what they like;
But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise
nothing, in art, or
aught else,
Till it has breathed well the atmosphere of this river—
also the
western prairie-scent,
And fully exudes it again.
SOLID, IRONICAL, ROLLING ORB.
SOLID, ironical, rolling orb!
Master of all, and matter of fact!—at last I accept your
terms;
Bringing to practical, vulgar tests, of all my ideal
dreams,
And of me, as lover and hero.
HUSH'D BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY.
A. L. BURIED APRIL 19, 1865.
HUSH'D be the camps to-day;
And, soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons;
And each, with musing soul retire, to celebrate,
Our dear commander's death.
No more for him life's stormy conflicts;
Nor victory, nor defeat—No more time's dark events,
Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.
But sing, poet, in our name;
Sing of the love we bore him—because you, dweller in
camps, know it
truly.
Sing, to the lower'd coffin there;
Sing, with the shovel'd clods that fill the grave—a
verse,
For the heavy hearts of soldiers.
WEAVE IN, WEAVE IN, MY HARDY LIFE.
WEAVE in! weave in, my hardy life!
Weave, weave a soldier strong and full, for great cam-
paigns
to come;
Weave in red blood! weave sinews in, like ropes! the
senses, sight weave
in!
Weave lasting sure! weave day and night the weft, the
warp! incessant weave!
tire not!
(We know not what the use, O life! nor know the aim,
the end—nor really
aught we know;
But know the work, the need goes on, and shall go
on—the
death-envelop'd march of peace as well
as war, goes on;)
For great campaigns of peace the same, the wiry
threads to weave;
We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.
TURN O LIBERTAD.
TURN, O Libertad, no more doubting;
Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the
past;
From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the
past;
From the chants of the feudal world—the triumphs of
kings, slavery,
caste;
Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come—
give up that
backward world;
Leave to the singers of hitherto—give them the trailing
past:
But what remains, remains for singers for you—wars
to come are for
you;
(Lo! how the wars of the past have duly inured to you
—and the wars of
the present shall also inure:)
—Then turn, and be not alarm'd, O Libertad—turn
your undying
face,
To where the future, greater than all the past,
Is swiftly, surely preparing for you.
BIVOUAC ON A MOUNTAIN SIDE.
I SEE before me now, a traveling army halting;
Below, a fertile valley spread, with barns, and the orch-
ards
of summer;
Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain, abrupt in
places, rising high;
Broken, with rocks, with clinging cedars, with tall
shapes, dingily
seen;
The numerous camp-fires scatter'd near and far, some
away up on the
mountain;
The shadowy forms of men and horses, looming, large-
sized, flickering;
And over all, the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach,
studded with the
eternal stars.
PENSIVE ON HER DEAD GAZING, I HEARD THE MOTHER OF ALL.
PENSIVE, on her dead gazing, I heard the Mother of
All,
Desperate, on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the
battle-fields
gazing;
As she call'd to her earth with mournful voice while she
stalk'd:
Absorb them well, O my earth, she cried—I charge you,
lose not my sons!
lose not an atom;
And you streams, absorb them well, taking their dear
blood;
And you local spots, and you airs that swim above
lightly,
And all you essences of soil and growth—and you, O
my rivers'
depths;
And you mountain sides—and the woods where my
dear children's blood,
trickling, redden'd;
And you trees, down in your roots, to bequeath to all
future trees,
My dead absorb—my young men's beautiful bodies ab-
sorb
—and their precious, precious, precious
blood;
Which holding in trust for me, faithfully back again give
me, many a year
hence,
In unseen essence and odor of surface and grass, centu-
ries
hence;
In blowing airs from the fields, back again give me my
darlings—give
my immortal heroes;
Exhale me them centuries hence—breathe me their
breath—let not
an atom be lost;
O years and graves! O air and soil! O my dead, an
aroma sweet!
Exhale them perennial, sweet death, years, centuries
hence.
NOT YOUTH PERTAINS TO ME.
NOT youth pertains to me,
Nor delicatesse—I cannot beguile the time with talk;
Awkward in the parlor, neither a dancer nor elegant;
In the learn'd coterie sitting constrain'd and still—for
learning
inures not to me;
Beauty, knowledge, fortune, inure not to me—yet
there are two things
inure to me;
I have nourish'd the wounded, and sooth'd many a
dying soldier;
And at intervals I have strung together a few songs,
Fit for war, and the life of the camp.
SEQUEL TO DRUM-TAPS.
(SINCE THE PRECEDING CAME FROM THE PRESS.)
WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOOR-YARD BLOOM'D.
AND OTHER PIECES.
WASHINGTON.
1865-6.
CONTENTS.
| When Lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd......... | 3 |
| Race of Veterans.................................. | 12 |
| O Captain! my Captain!............................ | 13 |
| Spirit whose work is done......................... | 14 |
| Chanting the Square Deific........................ | 15 |
| I heard you, solemn sweet pipes of the Organ...... | 17 |
| Not my Enemies ever invade me..................... | 17 |
| O me! O life!..................................... | 18 |
| Ah poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats........ | 18 |
| As I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado....... | 19 |
| This day, O Soul.................................. | 19 |
| In clouds descending, in midnight sleep........... | 20 |
| An Army on the march.............................. | 20 |
| Dirge for Two Veterans............................ | 21 |
| How solemn, as one by one......................... | 22 |
| Lo! Victress on the Peaks!........................ | 23 |
| Reconciliation.................................... | 23 |
| To the leaven'd Soil they trod.................... | 24 |
WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOOR-YARD BLOOM'D.
1
WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd,
And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the
night,
I mourn'd…and yet shall mourn with ever-returning
spring.
O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
2
O powerful, western, fallen star!
O shades of night! O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear'd! O the blank murk that hides the
star!
O cruel hands that hold me powerless! O helpless soul of
me!
O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul!
3
In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the
white-wash'd
palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves
of rich
green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the
perfume strong I
love,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 4]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
With every leaf a miracle……and from this bush in the
door-yard,
With its delicate-color'd blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves
of rich
green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break.
4
In the swamp, in secluded recesses,
A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.
Solitary, the thrush,
The hermit, withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements,
Sings by himself a song.
Song of the bleeding throat!
Death's outlet song of life—(for well, dear brother, I know,
If thou wast not gifted to sing, thou would'st surely die.)
5
Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,
Amid lanes, and through old woods, (where lately the
violets peep'd from
the ground, spotting the gray
debris;)
Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes—passing
the
endless grass;
Passing the yellow-spear'd wheat, every grain from its
shroud in the
dark-brown fields uprising;
Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the
orchards;
Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,
Night and day journeys a coffin.
6
Coffin that passes through lanes and streets,
Through day and night, with the great cloud darkening the
land,
With the pomp of the inloop'd flags, with the cities draped
in black,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 5]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
With the show of the States themselves, as of crape-veil'd
women,
standing,
With processions long and winding, and the flambeaus of
the night,
With the countless torches lit—with the silent sea of faces,
and the
unbared heads,
With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre
faces,
With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices
rising strong and
solemn;
With all the mournful voices of the dirges, pour'd around
the coffin,
The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs—Where
amid these you
journey,
With the tolling, tolling bells' perpetual clang;
Here! coffin that slowly passes.
I give you my sprig of lilac.
7
(Nor for you, for one, alone;
Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring:
For fresh as the morning—thus would I chant a song for
you, O sane
and sacred death.
All over bouquets of roses,
O death! I cover you over with roses and early lilies;
But mostly and now the lilac that blooms the first,
Copious, I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes:
With loaded arms I come, pouring for you,
For you and the coffins all of you, O death.)
8
O western orb, sailing the heaven!
Now I know what you must have meant, as a month since
we walk'd,
As we walk'd up and down in the dark blue so mystic,
As we walk'd in silence the transparent shadowy night,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 6]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As I saw you had something to tell, as you bent to me night
after
night,
As you droop'd from the sky low down, as if to my side,
(while the other
stars all look'd on;)
As we wander'd together the solemn night, (for something
I know not what,
kept me from sleep;)
As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west,
ere you went, how
full you were of woe;
As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze, in the cool
transparent
night,
As I watch'd where you pass'd and was lost in the nether-
ward black of the night,
As my soul, in its trouble, dissatisfied, sank, as where you,
sad orb,
Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone.
9
Sing on, there in the swamp!
O singer bashful and tender! I hear your notes—I hear
your call;
I hear—I come presently—I understand you;
But a moment I linger—for the lustrous star has detain'd
me;
The star, my comrade, departing, holds and detains me.
10
O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I
loved?
And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that
has gone?
And what shall my perfume be, for the grave of him I love?
Sea-winds, blown from east and west,
Blown from the eastern sea, and blown from the western sea,
till there on
the prairies meeting:
These, and with these, and the breath of my chant,
I perfume the grave of him I love.
11
O what shall I hang on the chamber walls?
And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,
To adorn the burial-house of him I love?
Pictures of growing spring, and farms, and homes,
With the Fourth-month eve at sundown, and the gray-smoke
lucid and
bright,
With floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, indolent,
sinking sun,
burning, expanding the air;
With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, and the pale green
leaves of the
trees prolific;
In the distance the flowing glaze, the breast of the river,
with a
wind-dapple here and there;
With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against
the sky, and
shadows;
And the city at hand, with dwellings so dense, and stacks
of chimneys,
And all the scenes of life, and the workshops, and the
workmen homeward
returning.
12
Lo! body and soul! this land!
Mighty Manhattan, with spires, and the sparkling and hur-
rying tides, and the ships;
The varied and ample land—the South and the North in
the
light—Ohio's shores, and flashing Missouri,
And ever the far-spreading prairies, cover'd with grass and
corn.
Lo! the most excellent sun, so calm and haughty;
The violet and purple morn, with just-felt breezes:
The gentle, soft-born, measureless light;
The miracle, spreading, bathing all—the fulfill'd noon;
The coming eve, delicious—the welcome night, and the
stars,
Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land.
13
Sing on! sing on, you gray-brown bird!
Sing from the swamps, the recesses—pour your chant from
the
bushes;
Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines.
Sing on, dearest brother—warble your reedy song;
Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe.
O liquid, and free, and tender!
O wild and loose to my soul! O wondrous singer!
You only I hear……yet the star holds me, (but will soon
depart;)
Yet the lilac, with mastering odor, holds me.
14
Now while I sat in the day, and look'd forth,
In the close of the day, with its light, and the fields of
spring, and the
farmer preparing his crops,
In the large unconscious scenery of my land, with its lakes
and
forests,
In the heavenly aerial beauty, (after the perturb'd winds,
and the
storms;)
Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing,
and the voices of
children and women,
The many-moving sea-tides,—and I saw the ships how they
sail'd,
And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields
all busy with
labor,
And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each
with its
meals and minutia of daily usages;
And the streets, how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities
pent,—lo! then and there,
Falling among them all, and upon them all, enveloping me
with the
rest,
Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail;
And I knew Death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge
of death.
15
Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of
me,
And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me,
And I in the middle, as with companions, and as holding the
hands of
companions,
I fled forth to the hiding receiving night, that talks not,
Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in
the dimness,
To the solemn shadowy cedars, and ghostly pines so still.
And the singer so shy to the rest receiv'd me;
The gray-brown bird I know, receiv'd us comrades three;
And he sang what seem'd the song of death, and a verse for
him I love.
From deep secluded recesses,
From the fragrant cedars, and the ghostly pines so still,
Came the singing of the bird.
And the charm of the singing rapt me,
As I held, as if by their hands, my comrades in the night;
And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
16
Come, lovely and soothing Death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate Death.
Prais'd be the fathomless universe,
For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious;
And for love, sweet love—But praise! O praise and praise,
For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.
Dark Mother, always gliding near, with soft feet,
Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[begin page 10]- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Then I chant it for thee—I glorify thee above all;
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come
unfalteringly.
Approach, encompassing Death—strong Deliveress!
When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing
the
dead,
Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee,
Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.
From me to thee glad serenades,
Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee—adornments and
feastings
for thee;
And the sights of the open landscape, and the high-spread
sky, are
fitting,
And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.
The night, in silence, under many a star;
The ocean shore, and the husky whispering wave, whose
voice I know;
And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well-veil'd Death,
And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.
Over the tree-tops I float thee a song!
Over the rising and sinking waves—over the myriad fields,
and the
prairies wide;
Over the dense-pack'd cities all, and the teeming wharves
and ways,
I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O Death!
17
To the tally of my soul,
Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird,
With pure, deliberate notes, spreading, filling the night.
Loud in the pines and cedars dim,
Clear in the freshness moist, and the swamp-perfume;
And I with my comrades there in the night.
While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed,
As to long panoramas of visions.
18
I saw the vision of armies;
And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags;
Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc'd with
missiles, I saw
them,
And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn
and bloody;
And at last but a few shreds of the flags left on the staffs,
(and all in
silence,)
And the staffs all splinter'd and broken.
I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men—I saw them;
I saw the debris and debris of all dead soldiers;
But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest—they suffer'd not;
The living remain'd and suffer'd—the mother suffer'd,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suf-
fer'd,
And the armies that remain'd suffer'd.
19
Passing the visions, passing the night;
Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades' hands;
Passing the song of the hermit bird, and the tallying song
of my soul,
Victorious song, death's outlet song, (yet varying, ever-
altering song,
As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling,
flooding the
night,
Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and
yet again bursting
with joy,)
Covering the earth, and filling the spread of the heaven,
As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses.
20
Must I leave thee, lilac with heart-shaped leaves?
Must I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, return-
ing with spring?
Must I pass from my song for thee;
From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, com-
muning with thee,
O comrade lustrous, with silver face in the night?
21
Yet each I keep, and all;
The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown bird, I keep,
And the tallying chant, the echo arous'd in my soul, I keep,
With the lustrous and drooping star, with the countenance
full of woe;
With the lilac tall, and its blossoms of mastering odor;
Comrades mine, and I in the midst, and their memory ever
I keep—for
the dead I loved so well;
For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands…
and this for
his dear sake;
Lilac and star and bird, twined with the chant of my soul,
With the holders holding my hand, nearing the call of the
bird,
There in the fragrant pines, and the cedars dusk and dim.
RACE OF VETERANS.
RACE of veterans!
Race of the soil, ready for conflict! race of the conquering
march!
(No more credulity's race, abiding-temper'd race;)
Race owning no law but the law of itself;
Race of passion and the storm.
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
1
O CAPTAIN! my captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is
won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
Leave you not the little spot,
Where on the deck my captain lies.
Fallen cold and dead.
2
O captain! my captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores
a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces
turning;
O captain! dear father!
This arm I push beneath you;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
3
My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will:
But the ship, the ship is anchor'd safe, its voyage closed and
done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won:
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with silent tread,
Walk the spot my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
SPIRIT WHOSE WORK IS DONE.
SPIRIT whose work is done! spirit of dreadful
hours!
Ere, departing, fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets;
Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts, (yet onward ever unfal-
tering
pressing;)
Spirit of many a solemn day, and many a savage scene!
Electric spirit!
That with muttering voice, through the years now closed,
like a tireless
phantom flitted,
Rousing the land with breath of flame, while you beat and
beat the drum;
—Now, as the sound of the drum, hollow and harsh to the
last,
reverberates round me;
As your ranks, your immortal ranks, return, return from
the battles;
While the muskets of the young men yet lean over their
shoulders;
While I look on the bayonets bristling over their shoulders;
While those slanted bayonets, whole forests of them, ap-
pearing
in the distance, approach and pass on, re-
turning
homeward,
Moving with steady motion, swaying to and fro, to the right
and left,
Evenly, lightly rising and falling, as the steps keep time:
—Spirit of hours I knew, all hectic red one day, but pale as
death
next day;
Touch my mouth, ere you depart—press my lips close!
Leave me your pulses of rage! bequeath them to me! fill
me with currents
convulsive!
Let them scorch and blister out of my chants, when you are
gone;
Let them identify you to the future in these songs.
CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC.
1
CHANTING the square deific, out of the One advancing, out
of the
sides;
Out of the old and new—out of the square entirely divine,
Solid, four-sided, (all the sides needed)…from this side
JEHOVAH am
I,
Old Brahm I, and I Saturnius am;
Not Time affects me—I am Time, modern as any;
Unpersuadable, relentless, executing righteous judgments;
As the Earth, the Father, the brown old Kronos, with laws,
Aged beyond computation—yet ever new—ever with those
mighty
laws rolling,
Relentless, I forgive no man—whoever sins, dies—I will
have
that man's life;
Therefore let none expect mercy—Have the seasons, gravi-
tation, the appointed days, mercy?—No more have I;
But as the seasons, and gravitation—and as all the appointed
days,
that forgive not,
I dispense from this side judgments inexorable, without the
least
remorse.
2
Consolator most mild, the promis'd one advancing,
With gentle hand extended, the mightier God am I,
Foretold by prophets and poets, in their most rapt proph-
ecies and poems;
From this side, lo! the Lord CHRIST gazes—lo! Hermes I—
lo!
mine is Hercules' face;
All sorrow, labor, suffering, I, tallying it, absorb in myself;
Many times have I been rejected, taunted, put in prison,
and
crucified—and many times shall be again;
All the world have I given up for my dear brothers' and
sisters'
sake—for the soul's sake;
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Wending my way through the homes of men, rich or
poor, with the kiss of
affection;
For I am affection—I am the cheer-bringing God, with hope,
and
all-enclosing Charity;
(Conqueror yet—for before me all the armies and soldiers
of the
earth shall yet bow—and all the weapons of
war become impotent:)
With indulgent words, as to children—with fresh and sane
words, mine
only;
Young and strong I pass, knowing well I am destin'd my-
self to an early death:
But my Charity has no death—my Wisdom dies not, neither
early nor
late,
And my sweet Love, bequeath'd here and elsewhere, never
dies.
3
Aloof, dissatisfied, plotting revolt,
Comrade of criminals, brother of slaves,
Crafty, despised, a drudge, ignorant,
With sudra face and worn brow—black, but in the depths
of my heart,
proud as any;
Lifted, now and always, against whoever, scorning, assumes
to rule me;
Morose, full of guile, full of reminiscences, brooding, with
many
wiles,
(Though it was thought I was baffled and dispell'd, and
my wiles
done—but that will never be;)
Defiant, I, SATAN, still live—still utter words—in new lands
duly appearing, (and old ones also;)
Permanent here, from my side, warlike, equal with any,
real as any,
Nor time, nor change, shall ever change me or my words.
4
Santa SPIRITA, breather, life,
Beyond the light, lighter than light,
Beyond the flames of hell—joyous, leaping easily above hell;
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Beyond Paradise—perfumed solely with mine own perfume;
Including all life on earth—touching, including God—
including
Saviour and Satan;
Ethereal, pervading all, (for without me, what were all?
what were
God?)
Essence of forms—life of the real identities, permanent,
positive,
(namely the unseen,)
Life of the great round world, the sun and stars, and of
man—I, the
general Soul,
Here the square finishing, the solid, I the most solid,
Breathe my breath also through these little songs.
I HEARD YOU, SOLEMN-SWEET PIPES OF THE ORGAN.
I HEARD you, solemn-sweet pipes of the organ, as last
Sunday morn I pass'd the church;
Winds of autumn!—as I walk'd the woods at dusk, I
heard your
long-stretch'd sighs, up above, so
mournful;
I heard the perfect Italian tenor, singing at the opera—I
heard the
soprano in the midst of the quartet singing;
…Heart of my love!—you too I heard, murmuring low,
through one of
the wrists around my head;
Heard the pulse of you, when all was still, ringing little
bells last night
under my ear.
NOT MY ENEMIES EVER INVADE ME.
NOT my enemies ever invade me—no harm to my
pride from
them I fear;
But the lovers I recklessly love—lo! how they master me!
Lo! me, ever open and helpless, bereft of my strength!
Utterly abject, grovelling on the ground before them.
O ME! O LIFE!
O ME! O life!…of the questions of these
recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill'd with
the
foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more fool-
ish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of
the
struggle ever renew'd;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds
I see
around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me
intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid
these, O me, O
life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a
verse.
AH POVERTIES, WINCINGS, AND SULKY RETREATS.
AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats!
Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me!
(For what is my life, or any man's life, but a conflict with
foes—the
old, the incessant war?)
You degradations—you tussle with passions and appetites;
You smarts from dissatisfied friendships, (ah wounds, the
sharpest of
all;)
You toil of painful and choked articulations—you mean-
nesses;
You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the shal-
lowest
of any;)
You broken resolutions, you racking angers, you smother'd
ennuis;
Ah, think not you finally triumph—My real self has yet to
come
forth;
It shall yet march forth o'ermastering, till all lies beneath me;
It shall yet stand up the soldier of unquestion'd victory.
AS I LAY WITH MY HEAD IN YOUR LAP, CAMERADO.
As I lay with my head in your lap, camerado,
The confession I made I resume—what I said to you and
the open air I
resume:
I know I am restless, and make others so;
I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;
(Indeed I am myself the real soldier;
It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-striped
artilleryman;)
For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to
unsettle
them;
I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could
ever have been
had all accepted me;
I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cau-
tions, majorities, nor ridicule;
And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing to
me;
And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing
to me;
…Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward
with me, and still
urge you, without the least idea
what is our destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and
defeated.
THIS DAY, O SOUL.
THIS day, O soul, I give you a wondrous mirror;
Long in the dark, in tarnish and cloud it lay—But the cloud
has
pass'd, and the tarnish gone;
…Behold, O soul! it is now a clean and bright mirror,
Faithfully showing you all the things of the world.
IN CLOUDS DESCENDING, IN MIDNIGHT SLEEP.
1
IN clouds descending, in midnight sleep, of many a face of
anguish,
Of the look at first of the mortally wounded—of that inde-
scribable look;
Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide,
I dream, I dream, I dream.
2
Of scenes of nature, the fields and the mountains;
Of the skies, so beauteous after the storm—and at night the
moon so
unearthly bright,
Shining sweetly, shining down, where we dig the trenches
and gather the
heaps,
I dream, I dream, I dream.
3
Long have they pass'd, long lapsed—faces and trenches and
fields;
Long through the carnage I moved with a callous compos-
ure—or away from the fallen,
Onward I sped at the time—But now of their forms at night,
I dream, I dream, I dream.
AN ARMY ON THE MARCH.
WITH its cloud of skirmishers in advance,
With now the sound of a single shot, snapping like a whip,
and now an
irregular volley,
The swarming ranks press on and on, the dense brigades
press on;
Glittering dimly, toiling under the sun, the dust-cover'd men,
In columns rise and fall to the undulations of the ground,
With artillery interspers'd—the wheels rumble, the horses
sweat,
As the army resistless advances.
DIRGE FOR TWO VETERANS.
1
THE last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish'd Sabbath,
On the pavement here—and there beyond, it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.
2
Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the east, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.
3
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles;
All the channels of the city streets they're flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
4
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring;
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.
5
For the son is brought with the father;
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell;
Two veterans, son and father, dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)
6
Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive;
And the day-light o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
7
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin'd;
('T is some mother's large, transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)
8
O strong dead-march, you please me!
O moon immense, with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans, passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
9
The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music;
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.
HOW SOLEMN, AS ONE BY ONE.
How solemn, as one by one,
As the ranks returning, all worn and sweaty—as the men
file by where I
stand;
As the faces, the masks appear—as I glance at the faces,
studying the
masks;
(As I glance upward out of this page, studying you, dear
friend, whoever you
are;)
How solemn the thought of my whispering soul, to each in
the ranks, and to
you;
I see behind each mask, that wonder, a kindred soul:
O the bullet could never kill what you really are, dear
friend,
Nor the bayonet stab what you really are:
…The soul! yourself I see,
great as any, good as the best,
Waiting secure and content, which the bullet could never
kill,
Nor the bayonet stab, O friend!
LO! VICTRESS ON THE PEAKS!
Lo! Victress on the peaks!
Where thou standest, with mighty brow, regarding the
world,
(The world, O Libertad, that vainly conspired against thee;)
Out of its countless, beleaguering toils, after thwarting
them all;
Where thou, dominant, with the dazzling sun around thee,
Towerest now unharm'd, in immortal soundness and bloom—
lo! in this
hour supreme,
No poem proud I, chanting, bring to thee—nor mastery's
rapturous
verse;
But a little book, containing night's darkness, and blood-
dripping
wounds
And psalms of the dead.
RECONCILIATION.
WORD over all, beautiful as the sky!
Beautiful that war, and all its deeds of carnage, must in
time be utterly
lost;
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night, incessantly
softly wash
again, and ever again, this soil'd world:
…For my enemy is dead—a man divine as myself is dead;
I look where he lies, white-faced and still, in the coffin—I
draw
near;
I bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face
in the coffin.
TO THE LEAVEN'D SOIL THEY TROD.
To the leaven'd soil they trod, calling, I sing, for the last;
(Not cities, nor man alone, nor war, nor the dead,
But forth from my tent emerging for good—loosing, unty-
ing
the tent-ropes;)
In the freshness, the forenoon air, in the far-stretching cir-
cuits
and vistas, again to peace restored,
To the fiery fields emanative, and the endless vistas beyond—
to the
south and the north;
To the leaven'd soil of the general western world, to attest
my songs,
(To the average earth, the wordless earth, witness of war
and peace,)
To the Alleghanian hills, and the tireless Mississippi,
To the rocks I, calling, sing, and all the trees in the woods,
To the plain of the poems of heroes, to the prairie spreading
wide,
To the far-off sea, and the unseen winds, and the sane im-
palpable
air;
…And responding, they answer all, (but not in words.)
The average earth, the witness of war and peace, acknowl-
edges
mutely;
The prairie draws me close, as the father, to bosom broad,
the son;
The Northern ice and rain, that began me, nourish me
to the end;
But the hot sun of the South is to ripen my songs.
FINIS.
