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VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night; When you my son and my comrade dropt at my side that day

battle, the even-contested battle, Till late in the night reliev'd to the place at last again I made my

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

smoke, By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some in the pews laid down, At my

stanch the blood temporarily, (the youngster's face is white as a lily,) Then before I depart I sweep my

resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odor, Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my

A SIGHT in camp in the daybreak gray and dim, As from my tent I emerge so early sleepless, As slow I

Who are you my dear comrade? Then to the second I step—and who are you my child and darling?

AS toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods, To the music of rustling leaves kick'd by my feet, (for 'twas

this sign left, On a tablet scrawl'd and nail'd on the tree by the grave, Bold, cautious, true, and my

Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering, Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of

soldier's grave, comes the inscrip- tion inscription rude in Virginia's woods, Bold, cautious, true, and my

the air I breathed froze me, A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken'd me, Must I change my

that love me, (Arous'd and angry, I'd thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war, But soon my

fingers fail'd me, my face droop'd and I resign'd myself, To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or

2 O maidens and young men I love and that love me, What you ask of my days those the strangest and sudden

Bearing the bandages, water and sponge, Straight and swift to my wounded I go, Where they lie on the

thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdomen, These and more I dress with impassive hand, (yet deep in my

noise of the world a rural domestic life, Give me to warble spontaneous songs recluse by myself, for my

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

enrich'd of soul, you give me forever faces; (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

O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial! What I have I also give you.

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.

WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long, And my head on the pillow rests

night midnight passes, And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my

with eager calls and orders of officers, While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts to my

far or near, (rousing even in dreams a devilish exultation and all the old mad joy in the depths of my

galloping by or on a full run, With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my

Me master years a hundred since from my parents sunder'd, A little child, they caught me as the savage

of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd world; For my

look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin—I draw near, Bend down and touch lightly with my

glance upward out of this page studying you, dear friend, whoever you are,) How solemn the thought of my

As I Lay With My Head in Your Lap Camerado. 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

Covering all my lands—all my seashores lining! Flag of death!

Ah my silvery beauty—ah my woolly white and crimson! Ah to sing the song of you, my matron mighty!

My sacred one, my mother.

therefore leave my works, And go lull yourself with what you can understand, and with piano- tunes piano-tunes

Ere departing fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets; Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts, (yet

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

TO the leaven'd soil they trod calling I sing for the last, (Forth from my tent emerging for good, loosing

vistas beyond, to the South and the North, To the leaven'd soil of the general Western world to attest my

Northern ice and rain that began me nourish me to the end, But the hot sun of the South is to fully ripen my

And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?

O wild and loose to my soul—O wondrous singer!

voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.

While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed, As to long panoramas of visions.

I cease from my song for thee, From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee

O Captain! My Captain! O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! O CAPTAIN! my Captain!

O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain!

my Captain!

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse

But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

make the only growth by which I can be appreciated, I reject none, accept all, then reproduce all in my

What is this you bring my America? Is it uniform with my country?

Will it absorb into me as I absorb food, air, to appear again in my strength, gait, face?

rapt verse, my call, mock me not!

You by my charm I invoke.

In you whoe'er you are my book perusing, In I myself, in all the world, these currents flowing, All,

the West joyously sounding, Your tidings old, yet ever new and untranslatable, Infinitesimals out of my

life, and many a life, (For not my life and years alone I give—all, all I give,) These waifs from the

O earth that hast no voice, confide to me a voice, O harvest of my lands—O boundless summer growths,

you dread accruing army, O you regiments so piteous, with your mortal diarrhoea, with your fever, O my

Nor do I forget you Departed, Nor in winter or summer my lost ones, But most in the open air as now when

my soul is rapt and at peace, like pleasing phantoms, Your memories rising glide silently by me. 6 I

All till'd and untill'd fields expand before me, I see the true arenas of my race, or first or last,

BY the city dead-house by the gate, As idly sauntering wending my way from the clangor, I curious pause

Fair, fearful wreck—tenement of a soul—itself a soul, Unclaim'd, avoided house—take one breath from my

the still woods I loved, I will not go now on the pastures to walk, I will not strip the clothes from my

body to meet my lover the sea, I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me.

I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd, I will run a furrow with my plough,

I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath, I am sure I shall expose some of the

transparent green-wash of the sea which is so amorous after me, That it is safe to allow it to lick my

COURAGE yet, my brother or my sister!

that was not the end of those nations or any person of them, any more than this shall be the end of my

walk'dst thy years in barter, 'mid the haunts of brokers, Nor heroism thine, nor war, nor glory. 2 Silent, my

trod, by you Patapsco, You Hudson, you endless Mississippi—nor you alone, But to the high seas launch, my

the road or at some crevice door by chance, or open'd win- dow window , Pausing, inclining, baring my

MY spirit to yours dear brother, Do not mind because many sounding your name do not under- stand understand

you, I do not sound your name, but I understand you, I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you

- ousies jealousies , recriminations on every side, They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my

Me ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd with iron, or my ankles with iron?

do I exclude you, Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you, do my

My girl I appoint with you an appointment, and I charge you that you make preparation to be worthy to

As to me I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight

body, Unfolded only out of the inimitable poems of woman can come the poems of man, (only thence have my

WHAT am I after all but a child, pleas'd with the sound of my own name?

Who Learns My Lesson Complete? WHO LEARNS MY LESSON COMPLETE? WHO learns my lesson complete?

as every one is im- mortal immortal ; I know it is wonderful, but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and

how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful, And pass'd from a babe in the creeping

And that my soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other without ever seeing each other, and

ON my Northwest coast in the midst of the night a fishermen's group stands watching, Out on the lake

Dim smitten star, Orb not of France alone, pale symbol of my soul, its dearest hopes, The struggle and

IN a far-away northern county in the placid pastoral region, Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my

appears to them, (books, politics, poems, depart—all else departs,) I confess I envy only his fascination—my

WANDERING at morn, Emerging from the night from gloomy thoughts, thee in my thoughts, Yearning for thee

Thee coil'd in evil times my country, with craft and black dismay, with every meanness, treason thrust

its young, The singing thrush whose tones of joy and faith ecstatic, Fail not to certify and cheer my

If vermin so transposed, so used and bless'd may be, Then may I trust in you, your fortunes, days, my

My Picture-Gallery. MY PICTURE-GALLERY.

bugle-calls, Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me power- less powerless , Entering my

2 Come forward O my soul, and let the rest retire, Listen, lose not, it is toward thee they tend, Parting

the midnight, entering my slumber-chamber, For thee they sing and dance O soul.

cannot tell itself.) 3 Ah from a little child, Thou knowest soul how to me all sounds became music, My

6 Then I woke softly, And pausing, questioning awhile the music of my dream, And questioning all those

PASSAGE TO INDIA. 1 SINGING my days, Singing the great achievements of the present, Singing the strong

Struggles of many a captain, tales of many a sailor dead, Over my mood stealing and spreading they come

of you strong mountains of my land! Of you O prairies! of you gray rocks! O morning red! O clouds!

the blood burns in my veins! Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!

O my brave soul! O farther farther sail! O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?

Thou knowest my years entire, my life, My long and crowded life of active work, not adoration merely;

Thou knowest the prayers and vigils of my youth, Thou knowest my manhood's solemn and visionary meditations

All my emprises have been fill'd with Thee, My speculations, plans, begun and carried on in thoughts

, I yield my ships to Thee.

My hands, my limbs grow nerveless, My brain feels rack'd, bewilder'd, Let the old timbers part, I will

THE SLEEPERS. 1 I WANDER all night in my vision, Stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping

I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering and the most restless, I pass my hands

He whom I call answers me and takes the place of my lover, He rises with me silently from the bed.

. 2 I descend my western course, my sinews are flaccid, Perfume and youth course through me and I am

darn my grandson's stockings.

dear brothers' and sisters' sake, for the soul's sake, Wending my way through the homes of men, rich

words, mine only, Young and strong I pass knowing well I am destin'd myself 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

of reminiscences, brooding, with many wiles, (Though it was thought I was baffled and dispel'd, and my

side, warlike, equal with any, real as any, Nor time nor change shall ever change me or my words. 4

in the room where I eat or sleep, I should be satisfied, And if the corpse of any one I love, or if my

YET, yet, ye downcast hours, I know ye also, Weights of lead, how ye clog and cling at my ankles, Earth

Despairing cries float ceaselessly toward me, The call of my nearest lover, putting forth, alarm'd, uncertain

, The sea I am quickly to sail, come tell me, Come tell me where I am speeding, tell me my destination

And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly

need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my

Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just feel it, I do not argue, I bend my head close and half

arrive, or pass'd on farther than those of the earth, I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my