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Little Bells Last Night

About This Item

  • Title: Little Bells Last Night
  • Date: 12 October 1861
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00077
  • Source: New York Leader 12 October 1861: [2]. Our transcription is based on a digital image of an original issue. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the periodical poems, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang April Lambert Susan Belasco
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Little Bells Last Night." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 25 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00077.xml (TEI)
per.00077.001per.00077.001_cropped

LITTLE BELLS LAST NIGHT.1

BY WALT WHITMAN. War-suggesting trumpets, I heard you; And you I heard beating, you chorus of small and 
  large drums; You round-lipp'd cannons!—you I heard, thunder- 
  cracking, saluting the frigate from France; 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; Lady! you, too, I heard, as with white arms in your 
  parlor, you play'd for me delicious music on the 
  harp; 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.

Notes

1. Revised as "I Heard You Solemn Sweet Pipes of the Organ" in Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865–66). [back]

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