DT1865	1	FIRST, O songs, for a prelude,
DT1865	2	Lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum, pride and joy in my city,
DT1865	3	How she led the rest to arms—how she gave the cue,
DT1865	4	How at once with lithe limbs, unwaiting a moment, she sprang;
DT1865	5	(O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless!
DT1865	6	O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steel!)
DT1865	7	How you sprang! how you threw off the costumes of peace with indifferent hand;
DT1865	8	How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were heard in their stead;
DT1865	9	How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our pre-lude prelude songs of soldiers,)
DT1865	10	How Manhattan drum-taps led.
DT1865	11	Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading;
DT1865	12	Forty years as a pageant—till unawares, the Lady of this teeming and turbulent city,
DT1865	13	Sleepless, amid her ships, her houses, her incalculable wealth,
DT1865	14	With her million children around her—suddenly,
DT1865	15	At dead of night, at news from the south,
DT1865	16	Incens'd, struck with clench'd hand the pavement.
DT1865	17	A shock electric—the night sustain'd it;
DT1865	18	Till with ominous hum, our hive at day-break, pour'd out its myriads.
DT1865	19	From the houses then, and the workshops, and through all the doorways,
DT1865	20	Leapt they tumultuous—and lo! Manhattan arming.
DT1865	21	To the drum-taps prompt,
DT1865	22	The young men falling in and arming;
DT1865	23	The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, theblacksmith's hammer, tost aside with precipi-tationprecipitaion;)
DT1865	24	The lawyer leaving his office, and arming—the judge leaving the court;
DT1865	25	The driver deserting his wagon in the street, jumping down, throwing the reins abruptly down on the horses' backs;
DT1865	26	The salesman leaving the store—the boss, book-keeper,porter, all leaving;
DT1865	27	Squads gathering everywhere by common consent, and arming;
DT1865	28	The new recruits, even boys—the old men show them how to wear their accoutrements—they buckle the straps carefully;
DT1865	29	Outdoors arming—indoors arming—the flash of the musket-barrels;
DT1865	30	The white tents cluster in camps—the arm'd sentries around—the sunrise cannon, and again at sunset;
DT1865	31	Arm'd regiments arrive every day, pass through the city, and embark from the wharves;
DT1865	32	(How good they look, as they tramp down to the river,sweaty, with their guns on their shoulders!
DT1865	33	How I love them! how I could hug them, with theirbrown faces, and their clothes and knapsacks cov-er'd cover'd with dust!)
DT1865	34	The blood of the city up—arm'd! arm'd! the cry everywhere;
DT1865	35	The flags flung out from the steeples of churches, and from all the public buildings and stores;
DT1865	36	The tearful parting—the mother kisses her son—the son kisses his mother;
DT1865	37	(Loth is the mother to part—yet not a word does she speak to detain him;)
DT1865	38	The tumultuous escort—the ranks of policemen preceed-ingpreceeding, clearing the way;
DT1865	39	The unpent enthusiasm—the wild cheers of the crowd for their favorites;
DT1865	40	The artillery—the silent cannons, bright as gold, drawn along, rumble lightly over the stones;
DT1865	41	(Silent cannons—soon to cease your silence!
DT1865	42	Soon, unlimber'd, to begin the red business;)
DT1865	43	All the mutter of preparation—all the determin'd arming;
DT1865	44	The hospital service—the lint, bandages, and medi-cinesmedicines;
DT1865	45	The women volunteering for nurses—the work begun for, in earnest—no mere parade now;
DT1865	46	War! an arm'd race is advancing!—the welcome for battle—no turning away;
DT1865	47	War! be it weeks, months, or years—an arm'd race is advancing to welcome it.
DT1865	48	Mannahatta a-march!—and it's O to sing it well!
DT1865	49	It's O for a manly life in the camp!
DT1865	50	And the sturdy artillery!
DT1865	51	The guns, bright as gold—the work for giants—to serve well the guns:
DT1865	52	Unlimber them! no more, as the past forty years, for salutes for courtesies merely;
DT1865	53	Put in something else now besides powder and wadding.
DT1865	54	And you, Lady of Ships! you Mannahatta!
DT1865	55	Old matron of the city! this proud, friendly, turbulent city!
DT1865	56	Often in peace and wealth you were pensive, or covertly frown'd amid all your children;
DT1865	57	But now you smile with joy, exulting old Mannahatta!
DT1865	58	SHUT not your doors to me, proud libraries,
DT1865	59	For that which was lacking among you all, yet needed most, I bring;
DT1865	60	A book I have made for your dear sake, O soldiers,
DT1865	61	And for you, O soul of man, and you, love of comrades;
DT1865	62	The words of my book nothing, the life of it every-thingeverything;
DT1865	63	A book separate, not link'd with the rest, nor felt by the intellect;
DT1865	64	But you will feel every word, O Libertad! arm'd Libertad!
DT1865	65	It shall pass by the intellect to swim the sea, the air,
DT1865	66	With joy with you, O soul of man.
DT1865	67	A LINE in long array, where they wind betwixt green islands;
DT1865	68	They take a serpentine course—their arms flash in the sun—Hark to the musical clank;
DT1865	69	Behold the silvery river—in it the splashing horses,loitering, stop to drink;
DT1865	70	Behold the brown-faced men—each group, each person,a picture—the negligent rest on the saddles;
DT1865	71	Some emerge on the opposite bank—others are just entering the ford;
DT1865	72	The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind.
DT1865	73	O A new song, a free song,
DT1865	74	Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping, by sounds, by voices clearer,
DT1865	75	By the wind's voice and that of the drum,
DT1865	76	By the banner's voice, and child's voice, and sea's voice,and father's voice,
DT1865	77	Low on the ground and high in the air,
DT1865	78	On the ground where father and child stand,
DT1865	79	In the upward air where their eyes turn,
DT1865	80	Where the banner at day-break is flapping.
DT1865	81	Words! book-words! what are you?
DT1865	82	Words no more, for hearken and see,
DT1865	83	My song is there in the open air—and I must sing,
DT1865	84	With the banner and pennant a-flapping.
DT1865	85	I'll weave the chord and twine in,
DT1865	86	Man's desire and babe's desire—I'll twine them in, I'll put in life;
DT1865	87	I'll put the bayonet's flashing point—I'll let bullets and slugs whizz;
DT1865	88	I ll pour the verse with streams of blood, full of volition,full of joy;
DT1865	89	Then loosen, launch forth, to go and compete,
DT1865	90	With the banner and pennant a-flapping.
DT1865	91	Come up here, bard, bard;
DT1865	92	Come up here, soul, soul;
DT1865	93	Come up here, dear little child,
DT1865	94	To fly in the clouds and winds with us, and play with the measureless light.
DT1865	95	Father, what is that in the sky beckoning to me with long finger?
DT1865	96	And what does it say to me all the while?
DT1865	97	Nothing, my babe, you see in the sky;
DT1865	98	And nothing at all to you it says. But look you, my babe,
DT1865	99	Look at these dazzling things in the houses, and see you the money-shops opening;
DT1865	100	And see you the vehicles preparing to crawl along the streets with goods:
DT1865	101	These! ah, these! how valued and toil'd for, these!
DT1865	102	How envied by all the earth!
DT1865	104	Fresh and rosy red, the sun is mounting high;
DT1865	105	On floats the sea in distant blue, careering through its channels;
DT1865	106	On floats the wind over the breast of the sea, setting in toward land;
DT1865	107	The great steady wind from west and west-by-south,
DT1865	108	Floating so buoyant, with milk-white foam on the waters.
DT1865	109	But I am not the sea, nor the red sun;
DT1865	110	I am not the wind, with girlish laughter;
DT1865	111	Not the immense wind which strengthens—not the wind which lashes;
DT1865	112	Not the spirit that ever lashes its own body to terror and death:
DT1865	113	But I am of that which unseen comes and sings, sings,sings,
DT1865	114	Which babbles in brooks and scoots in showers on the land;
DT1865	115	Which the birds know in the woods, mornings and evenings,
DT1865	116	And the shore-sands know, and the hissing wave, and that banner and pennant,
DT1865	117	Aloft there flapping and flapping.
DT1865	118	O father, it is alive—it is full of people—it has children!
DT1865	119	O now it seems to me it is talking to its children!
DT1865	120	I hear it—it talks to me—O it is wonderful!
DT1865	121	O it stretches—it spreads and runs so fast! O my father,
DT1865	122	It is so broad, it covers the whole sky!
DT1865	123	Cease, cease, my foolish babe,
DT1865	124	What you are saying is sorrowful to me—much it dis-pleases displeases me;
DT1865	125	Behold with the rest, again I say—behold not banners and pennants aloft;
DT1865	126	But the well-prepared pavements behold—and mark the solid-wall'd houses.
DT1865	127	Speak to the child, O bard, out of Manhattan;
DT1865	128	Speak to our children all, or north or south of Manhat-tanManhattan,
DT1865	129	Where our factory-engines hum, where our miners delve the ground,
DT1865	130	Where our hoarse Niagara rumbles, where our prairie-plows prairie-plows are plowing;
DT1865	131	Speak, O bard! point this day, leaving all the rest, to us over all—and yet we know not why;
DT1865	132	For what are we, mere strips of cloth, profiting nothing,
DT1865	133	Only flapping in the wind?
DT1865	134	I hear and see not strips of cloth alone;
DT1865	135	I hear the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging sentry;
DT1865	136	I hear the jubilant shouts of millions of men—I hear LIBERTY!
DT1865	137	I hear the drums beat, and the trumpets blowing;
DT1865	138	I myself move abroad, swift-rising, flying then;
DT1865	139	I use the wings of the land-bird, and use the wings of the sea-bird, and look down as from a height;
DT1865	140	I do not deny the precious results of peace—I see pop-ulous populous cities, with wealth incalculable;
DT1865	141	I see numberless farms—I see the farmers working in their fields or barns;
DT1865	142	I see mechanics working—I see buildings everywhere founded, going up, or finish'd;
DT1865	143	I see trains of cars swiftly speeding along railroad tracks, drawn by the locomotives;
DT1865	144	I see the stores, depots, of Boston, Baltimore, Charles-tonCharleston, New Orleans;
DT1865	145	I see far in the west the immense area of grain—I dwell awhile, hovering;
DT1865	146	I pass to the lumber forests of the north, and againto the southern plantation, and again to Cali-forniaCalifornia;
DT1865	147	Sweeping the whole, I see the countless profit, the busy gatherings, earned wages;
DT1865	148	See the identity formed out of thirty-six spacious and haughty States, (and many more to come;)
DT1865	149	See forts on the shores of harbors—see ships sailing in and out;
DT1865	150	Then over all, (aye! aye!) my little and lengthen'd pen-nant pennant shaped like a sword,
DT1865	151	Runs swiftly up, indicating war and defiance—And now the halyards have rais'd it,
DT1865	152	Side of my banner broad and blue—side of my starry banner,
DT1865	153	Discarding peace over all the sea and land.
DT1865	154	Yet louder, higher, stronger, bard! yet farther,wider cleave!
DT1865	155	No longer let our children deem us riches and peace alone;
DT1865	156	We can be terror and carnage also, and are so now;
DT1865	157	Not now are we one of these spacious and haughty States, (nor any five, nor ten;)
DT1865	158	Nor market nor depot are we, nor money-bank in the city;
DT1865	159	But these, and all, and the brown and spreading land,and the mines below, are ours;
DT1865	160	And the shores of the sea are ours, and the rivers great and small;
DT1865	161	And the fields they moisten are ours, and the crops and the fruits are ours;
DT1865	162	Bays and channels, and ships sailing in and out, are ours —and we over all,
DT1865	163	Over the area spread below, the three millions of square miles—the capitals,
DT1865	164	The thirty-five millions of people—O bard! in life and death supreme,
DT1865	165	We, even we, from this day flaunt out masterful, high up above,
DT1865	166	Not for the present alone, for a thousand years, chant-ing chanting through you,
DT1865	167	This song to the soul of one poor little child.
DT1865	168	O my father, I like not the houses;
DT1865	169	They will never to me be anything—nor do I like money;
DT1865	170	But to mount up there I would like, O father dear— that banner I like;
DT1865	171	That pennant I would be, and must be.
DT1865	172	Child of mine, you fill me with anguish;
DT1865	173	To be that pennant would be too fearful;
DT1865	174	Little you know what it is this day, and henceforth forever;
DT1865	175	It is to gain nothing, but risk and defy everything;
DT1865	176	Forward to stand in front of wars—and O, such wars!—what have you to do with them?
DT1865	177	With passions of demons, slaughter, premature death?
DT1865	178	Demons and death then I sing;
DT1865	179	Put in all, aye all, will I—sword-shaped pennant for war, and banner so broad and blue,
DT1865	180	And a pleasure new and extatic, and the prattled yearn-ing yearning of children,
DT1865	181	Blent with the sounds of the peaceful land, and the liquid wash of the sea;
DT1865	182	And the icy cool of the far, far north, with rustling cedars and pines;
DT1865	183	And the whirr of drums, and the sound of soldiers marching, and the hot sun shining south;
DT1865	184	And the beach-waves combing over the beach on my eastern shore, and my western shore the same;
DT1865	185	And all between those shores, and my ever running Mississippi, with bends and chutes;
DT1865	186	And my Illinois fields, and my Kansas fields, and my fields of Missouri;
DT1865	187	The CONTINENT—devoting the whole identity, without reserving an atom,
DT1865	188	Pour in! whelm that which asks, which sings, with all,and the yield of all.
DT1865	189	Aye all! for ever, for all!
DT1865	190	From sea to sea, north and south, east and west,
DT1865	191	Fusing and holding, claiming, devouring the whole;
DT1865	192	No more with tender lip, nor musical labial sound,
DT1865	193	But, out of the night emerging for good, our voice per-suasive persuasive no more,
DT1865	194	Croaking like crows here in the wind.
DT1865	195	My limbs, my veins dilate;
DT1865	196	The blood of the world has fill'd me full—my theme is clear at last:
DT1865	197	—Banner so broad, advancing out of the night, I sing you haughty and resolute;
DT1865	198	I burst through where I waited long, too long, deafen'd and blinded;
DT1865	199	My sight, my hearing and tongue, are come to me, (a little child taught me;)
DT1865	200	I hear from above, O pennant of war, your ironical call and demand;
DT1865	201	Insensate! insensate! (yet I at any rate chant you,) O banner!
DT1865	202	Not houses of peace are you, nor any nor all their pros-perityprosperity, (if need be, you shall have every one ofthose houses to destroy them;
DT1865	203	You thought not to destroy those valuable houses, stand-ing standing fast, full of comfort, built with money;
DT1865	204	May they stand fast, then? Not an hour, unless you,above them and all, stand fast;)
DT1865	205	—O banner! not money so precious are you, nor farm produce you, nor the material good nutriment,
DT1865	206	Nor excellent stores, nor landed on wharves from the ships;
DT1865	207	Not the superb ships, with sail-power or steam-power,fetching and carrying cargoes,
DT1865	208	Nor machinery, vehicles, trade, nor revenues,—But you, as henceforth I see you,
DT1865	209	Running up out of the night, bringing your cluster of stars, (ever-enlarging stars;)
DT1865	210	Divider of day-break you, cutting the air, touch'd by the sun, measuring the sky,
DT1865	211	(Passionately seen and yearn'd for by one poor little child,
DT1865	212	While others remain busy, or smartly talking, forever teaching thrift, thrift;)
DT1865	213	O you up there! O pennant! where you undulate like a snake, hissing so curious,
DT1865	214	Out of reach—an idea only—yet furiously fought for,risking bloody death—loved by me!
DT1865	215	So loved! O you banner leading the day, with stars brought from the night!
DT1865	216	Valueless, object of eyes, over all and demanding all— O banner and pennant!
DT1865	217	I too leave the rest—great as it is, it is nothing— houses, machines are nothing—I see them not;
DT1865	218	I see but you, O warlike pennant! O banner so broad,with stripes, I sing you only,
DT1865	219	Flapping up there in the wind.
DT1865	220	By the bivouac's fitful flame,
DT1865	221	A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow;—but first I note,
DT1865	222	The tents of the sleeping army, the fields' and woods' dim outline,
DT1865	223	The darkness, lit spots of kindled fire—the silence;
DT1865	224	Like a phantom far or near an occasional figure moving;
DT1865	225	The shrubs and trees, (as I left my eyes they seem to be stealthily watching me;)
DT1865	226	While wind in procession thoughts, O tender and wond'rous thoughts,
DT1865	227	Of life and death—of home and the past and loved,and of those that are far away;
DT1865	228	A solemn and slow procession there as I sit on the ground,
DT1865	229	By the bivouac's fitful flame.
DT1865	230	ARM'D year! year of the struggle!
DT1865	231	No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you,terrible year!
DT1865	232	Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisp-ing lisping cadenzas piano;
DT1865	233	But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes,advancing, carrying a rifle on your shoulder,
DT1865	234	With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands— with a knife in the belt at your side,
DT1865	235	As I heard you shouting loud—your sonorous voice ringing across the continent;
DT1865	236	Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities,
DT1865	237	Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the workmen, the dwellers in Manhattan;
DT1865	238	Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and Indiana,
DT1865	239	Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and de-scending descending the Alleghanies;
DT1865	240	Or down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on deck along the Ohio river;
DT1865	241	Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers,or at Chattanooga on the mountain top,
DT1865	242	Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing weapons, robust year;
DT1865	243	Heard your determin'd voice, launch'd forth again and again;
DT1865	244	Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round lipp'd cannon,
DT1865	245	I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.
DT1865	246	FROM Paumanok starting, I fly like a bird,
DT1865	247	Around and around to soar, to sing the idea of all;
DT1865	248	To the north betaking myself, to sing there arctic songs,
DT1865	249	To Kanada, 'till I absorb Kanada in myself—to Michi-gan Michigan then,
DT1865	250	To Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to sing their songs,(they are inimitable;)
DT1865	251	Then to Ohio and Indiana to sing theirs—to Missouri and Kansas and Arkansas to sing theirs,
DT1865	252	To Tennessee and Kentucky—to the Carolinas and Georgia, to sing theirs,
DT1865	253	To Texas, and so along up toward California, to roam accepted everywhere;
DT1865	254	To sing first, (to the tap of the war-drum, if need be,)
DT1865	255	The idea of all—of the western world, one and insep-arableinseparable,
DT1865	256	And then the song of each member of These States.
DT1865	257	BEGINNING my studies, the first step pleas'd me so much,
DT1865	258	The mere fact, consciousness—these forms—the pow-er power of motion,
DT1865	259	The least insect or animal—the senses—eyesight;
DT1865	260	The first step, I say, aw'd me and pleas'd me so much,
DT1865	261	I have never gone, and never wish'd to go, any farther,
DT1865	262	But stop and loiter all my life, to sing it in extatic songs.
DT1865	263	Give me your hand, old Revolutionary;
DT1865	264	The hill-top is nigh—but a few steps, (make room,gentlemen;)
DT1865	265	Up the path you have follow'd me well, spite of your hundred and extra years;
DT1865	266	You can walk, old man, though your eyes are almost done;
DT1865	267	Your faculties serve you, and presently I must have them serve me.
DT1865	268	Rest, while I tell what the crowd around us means;
DT1865	269	On the plain below, recruits are drilling and exercising;
DT1865	270	There is the camp—one regiment departs to morrow;
DT1865	271	Do you hear the officers giving the orders?
DT1865	272	Do you hear the clank of the muskets?
DT1865	273	Why, what comes over you now, old man?
DT1865	274	Why do you tremble, and clutch my hand so convul- convulsively sively?
DT1865	275	The troops are but drilling—they are yet surrounded with smiles;
DT1865	276	Around them at hand, the well drest friends and the women;
DT1865	277	While splendid and warm the afternoon sun shines down;
DT1865	278	Green the midsummer verdure, and fresh blows the dal-lying dallying breeze,
DT1865	279	O'er proud and peaceful cities, and arm of the sea be- between tween.
DT1865	280	But drill and parade are over—they march back to quarters;
DT1865	281	Only hear that approval of hands! hear what a clap-ping clapping !
DT1865	282	As wending, the crowds now part and disperse—but we, old man,
DT1865	283	Not for nothing have I brought you hither—we must remain;
DT1865	284	You to speak in your turn, and I to listen and tell.
DT1865	285	When I clutch'd your hand, it was not with terror;
DT1865	286	But suddenly, pouring about me here, on every side,
DT1865	287	And below there where the boys were drilling, and up the slopes they ran,
DT1865	288	And where tents are pitch'd, and wherever you see,south and south-east and south-west,
DT1865	289	Over hills, across lowlands, and in the skirts of woods,
DT1865	290	And along the shores, in mire (now fill'd over,) came again, and suddenly raged,
DT1865	291	As eighty-five years a-gone, no mere parade receiv'd with applause of friends,
DT1865	292	But a battle, which I took part in myself—aye, long ago as it is, I took part in it,
DT1865	293	Walking then this hill-top, this same ground.
DT1865	294	Aye, this is the ground;
DT1865	295	My blind eyes, even as I speak, behold it re-peopled from graves:
DT1865	296	The years recede, pavements and stately houses disap-peardisappear:
DT1865	297	Rude forts appear again, the old hoop'd guns are mounted;
DT1865	298	I see the lines of rais'd earth stretching from river to bay;
DT1865	299	I mark the vista of waters, I mark the uplands and slopes:
DT1865	300	Here we lay encamp'd—it was this time in summer also.
DT1865	301	As I talk, I remember all—I remember the Declara-tionDeclaration:
DT1865	302	It was read here—the whole army paraded—it was read to us here;
DT1865	303	By his staff surrounded, the general stood in the mid-dle middle —he held up his unsheath'd sword,
DT1865	304	It glitter'd in the sun in full sight of the army.
DT1865	305	'Twas a bold act then;
DT1865	306	The English war ships had just arrived—the king had sent them from over the sea;
DT1865	307	We could watch down the lower bay where they lay at anchor,
DT1865	308	And the transports, swarming with soldiers.
DT1865	309	A few days more, and they landed—and then the battle.
DT1865	310	Twenty thousand were brought against us,
DT1865	311	A veteran force, furnish'd with good artillery.
DT1865	312	I tell not now the whole of the battle;
DT1865	313	But one brigade, early in the forenoon, order'd forward to engage the red-coats;
DT1865	314	Of that brigade I tell, and how steadily it march'd,
DT1865	315	And how long and how well it stood, confronting death.
DT1865	316	Who do you think that was, marching steadily, stern-ly sternly confronting death?
DT1865	317	It was the brigade of the youngest men, two thousand strong,
DT1865	318	Rais'd in Virginia and Maryland, and many of them known personally to the General.
DT1865	319	Jauntily forward they went with quick step toward Gowanus' waters;
DT1865	320	Till of a sudden, unlook'd for, by defiles through the woods, gain'd at night,
DT1865	321	The British advancing, wedging in from the east,fiercely playing their guns,
DT1865	322	That brigade of the youngest was cut off, and at the enemy's mercy.
DT1865	323	The General watch'd them from this hill;
DT1865	324	They made repeated desperate attempts to burst their environment;
DT1865	325	Then drew close together, very compact, their flag flying in the middle;
DT1865	326	But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and thinning them!
DT1865	327	It sickens me yet, that slaughter!
DT1865	328	I saw the moisture gather in drops on the face of the General;
DT1865	329	I saw how he wrung his hands in anguish.
DT1865	330	Meanwhile the British maneuver'd to draw us out for a pitch'd battle;
DT1865	331	But we dared not trust the chances of a pitch'd battle.
DT1865	332	We fought the fight in detachments;
DT1865	333	Sallying forth, we fought at several points—but in each the luck was against us;
DT1865	334	Our foe advancing, steadily getting the best of it, push'd us back to the works on this hill;
DT1865	335	Till we turn'd menacing, here, and then he left us.
DT1865	336	That was the going out of the brigade of the young-est youngest men, two thousand strong;
DT1865	337	Few return'd—nearly all remain in Brooklyn.
DT1865	338	That, and here, my General's first battle;
DT1865	339	No women looking on, nor sunshine to bask in—it did not conclude with applause;
DT1865	340	Nobody clapp'd hands here then.
DT1865	341	But in darkness, in mist, on the ground, under a chill rain,
DT1865	342	Wearied that night we lay, foil'd and sullen;
DT1865	343	While scornfully laugh'd many an arrogant lord, off against us encamp'd,
DT1865	344	Quite within hearing, feasting, klinking wine-glasses together over their victory.
DT1865	345	So, dull and damp and another day;
DT1865	346	But the night of that, mist lifting, rain ceasing,
DT1865	347	Silent as a ghost, while they thought they were sure of him, my General retreated.
DT1865	348	I saw him at the river-side,
DT1865	349	Down by the ferry, lit by torches, hastening the embar-cationembarcation;
DT1865	350	My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were all pass'd over;
DT1865	351	And then, (it was just ere sunrise,) these eyes rested on him for the last time.
DT1865	352	Every one else seem'd fill'd with gloom;
DT1865	353	Many no doubt thought of capitulation.
DT1865	354	But when my General pass'd me,
DT1865	355	As he stood in his boat, and look'd toward the coming sun,
DT1865	356	I saw something different from capitulation.
DT1865	357	Enough—the Centenarian's story ends;
DT1865	358	The two, the past and present, have interchanged;
DT1865	359	I myself, as connecter, as chansonnier of a great future,am now speaking.
DT1865	360	And is this the ground Washington trod?
DT1865	361	And these waters I listlessly daily cross, are these the waters he cross'd,
DT1865	362	As resolute in defeat, as other generals in their proudest triumphs?
DT1865	363	It is well—a lesson like that, always comes good;
DT1865	364	I must copy the story, and send it eastward and west-wardwestward;
DT1865	365	I must preserve that look, as it beam'd on you, rivers of Brooklyn.
DT1865	366	See! as the annual round returns, the phantoms return;
DT1865	367	It is the 27th of August, and the British have landed;
DT1865	368	The battle begins, and goes against us—behold! through the smoke Washington's face;
DT1865	369	The brigade of Virginia and Maryland have march'd forth to intercept the enemy;
DT1865	370	They are cut off—murderous artillery from the hills plays upon them;
DT1865	371	Rank after rank falls, while over them silently droops the flag,
DT1865	372	Baptized that day in many a young man's bloody wounds,
DT1865	373	In death, defeat, and sisters', mothers' tears.
DT1865	374	Ah, hills and slopes of Brooklyn! I perceive you are more valuable than your owners supposed;
DT1865	375	Ah, river! henceforth you will be illumin'd to me at sunrise with something besides the sun.
DT1865	376	Encampments new! in the midst of you stands an encampment very old;
DT1865	377	Stands forever the camp of the dead brigade.
DT1865	378	COME, my tan-faced children,
DT1865	379	Follow well in order, get your weapons ready;
DT1865	380	Have you your pistols? have you your sharp edged axes?
DT1865	381	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	382	For we cannot tarry here,
DT1865	383	We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
DT1865	384	We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
DT1865	385	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	386	O you youths, western youths,
DT1865	387	So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
DT1865	388	Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
DT1865	389	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	390	Have the elder races halted?
DT1865	391	Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas?
DT1865	392	We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson,
DT1865	393	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	394	All the past we leave behind;
DT1865	395	We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world;
DT1865	396	Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,
DT1865	397	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	398	We detachments steady throwing,
DT1865	399	Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
DT1865	400	Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways,
DT1865	401	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	402	We primeval forests felling,
DT1865	403	We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep the mines within;
DT1865	404	We the surface broad surveying, and the virgin soil up-heavingupheaving,
DT1865	405	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	406	Colorado men are we,
DT1865	407	From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,
DT1865	408	From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come,
DT1865	409	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	410	From Nebraska, from Arkansas,
DT1865	411	Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the con-tinental continental blood intervein'd;
DT1865	412	All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern,
DT1865	413	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	414	O resistless, restless race!
DT1865	415	O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
DT1865	416	O I mourn and yet exult—I am rapt with love for all,
DT1865	417	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	418	Raise the mighty mother mistress,
DT1865	419	Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,)
DT1865	420	Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive,weapon'd mistress,
DT1865	421	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	422	See, my children, resolute children,
DT1865	423	By those swarms upon our rear, we must never yield or falter,
DT1865	424	Ages back in ghostly millions, frowning there behind us urging,
DT1865	425	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	426	On and on, the compact ranks,
DT1865	427	With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd,
DT1865	428	Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping,
DT1865	429	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	430	O to die advancing on!
DT1865	431	Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come?
DT1865	432	Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill'd,
DT1865	433	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	434	All the pulses of the world,
DT1865	435	Falling in, they beat for us, with the western movement beat;
DT1865	436	Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front,all for us,
DT1865	437	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	438	Life's involv'd and varied pageants,
DT1865	439	All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,
DT1865	440	All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves,
DT1865	441	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	442	All the hapless silent lovers,
DT1865	443	All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,
DT1865	444	All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying,
DT1865	445	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	446	I too with my soul and body,
DT1865	447	We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way,
DT1865	448	Through these shores, amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing,
DT1865	449	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	450	Lo! the darting bowling orb!
DT1865	451	Lo! the brother orbs around! all the clustering suns and planets;
DT1865	452	All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams,
DT1865	453	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	454	These are of us, they are with us,
DT1865	455	All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind,
DT1865	456	We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel clearing,
DT1865	457	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	458	O you daughters of the west!
DT1865	459	O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!
DT1865	460	Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,
DT1865	461	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	462	Minstrels latent on the prairies!
DT1865	463	(Shrouded bards of other lands! you may sleep—you have done your work;)
DT1865	464	Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us,
DT1865	465	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	466	Not for delectations sweet;
DT1865	467	Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious;
DT1865	468	Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame en-joymentenjoyment,
DT1865	469	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	470	Do the feasters gluttonous feast?
DT1865	471	Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors?
DT1865	472	Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground,
DT1865	473	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	474	Has the night descended?
DT1865	475	Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discour-ageddiscouraged, nodding on our way?
DT1865	476	Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious,
DT1865	477	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	478	Till with sound of trumpet,
DT1865	479	Far, far off the day-break call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind;
DT1865	480	Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your places,
DT1865	481	Pioneers! O pioneers!
DT1865	482	QUICKSAND years that whirl me I know not whither,
DT1865	483	Your schemes, politics, fail—lines give way— substan-ces substances mock and elude me;
DT1865	484	Only the theme I sing, the great and strong-possess'd soul, eludes not;
DT1865	485	One's-self, must never give way—that is the final sub-tance substance —that out of all is sure;
DT1865	486	Out of politics, triumphs, battles, death—what at last finally remains?
DT1865	487	When shows break up, what but One's-Self is sure?
DT1865	488	An old man bending, I come, among new faces,
DT1865	489	Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to chil-drenchildren,
DT1865	490	Come tell us old man, as from young men and maidens that love me;
DT1865	491	Years hence of these scenes, of these furious passions,these chances,
DT1865	492	Of unsurpass'd heroes, (was one side so brave? the other was equally brave;)
DT1865	493	Now be witness again—paint the mightiest armies of earth;
DT1865	494	Of those armies so rapid, so wondrous, what saw you to tell us?
DT1865	495	What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious panics,
DT1865	496	Of hard-fought engagements, or sieges tremendous,what deepest remains?
DT1865	497	O maidens and young men I love, and that love me,
DT1865	498	What you ask of my days, those the strangest and sud-den sudden your talking recals;
DT1865	499	Soldier alert I arrive, after a long march, cover'd with sweat and dust;
DT1865	500	In the nick of time I come, plunge in the fight, loudly shout in the rush of successful charge;
DT1865	501	Enter the captur'd works . . . . yet lo! like a swift-runningswift-running river, they fade;
DT1865	502	Pass and are gone, they fade—I dwell not on soldiers' perils or soldiers' joys;
DT1865	503	(Both I remember well—many the hardships, few the joys, yet I was content.)
DT1865	504	But in silence, in dream's projections,
DT1865	505	While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on,
DT1865	506	So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the sand,
DT1865	507	In nature's reverie sad, with hinged knees returning, I enter the doors—(while for you up there,
DT1865	508	Whoever you are, follow me without noise, and be of strong heart.)
DT1865	509	Bearing the bandages, water and sponge,
DT1865	510	Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
DT1865	511	Where they lie on the ground, after the battle brought in;
DT1865	512	Where their priceless blood reddens the grass, the ground;
DT1865	513	Or to the rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof'd hospital;
DT1865	514	To the long rows of cots, up and down, each side, I return;
DT1865	515	To each and all, one after another, I draw near—not one do I miss;
DT1865	516	An attendant follows, holding a tray—he carries a refuse pail,
DT1865	517	Soon to be fill'd with clotted rags and blood, emptied,and fill'd again.
DT1865	518	I onward go, I stop,
DT1865	519	With hinged knees and steady hand, to dress wounds;
DT1865	520	I am firm with each—the pangs are sharp, yet unavoid-ableunavoidable;
DT1865	521	One turns to me his appealing eyes—(poor boy! I never knew you,
DT1865	522	Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you.)
DT1865	523	On, on I go—(open, doors of time! open, hospital doors!)
DT1865	524	The crush'd head I dress, (poor crazed hand, tear not the bandage away;)
DT1865	525	The neck of the cavalry-man, with the bullet through and through, I examine;
DT1865	526	Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye,yet life struggles hard;
DT1865	527	(Come, sweet death! be persuaded, O beautiful death!
DT1865	528	In mercy come quickly.)
DT1865	529	From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
DT1865	530	I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood;
DT1865	531	Back on his pillow the soldier bends, with curv'd neck,and side-falling head;
DT1865	532	His eyes are closed, his face is pale, he dares not look on the bloody stump,
DT1865	533	And has not yet looked on it.
DT1865	534	I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep;
DT1865	535	But a day or two more—for see, the frame all wasted and sinking,
DT1865	536	And the yellow-blue countenance see.
DT1865	537	I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bul-let bullet wound,
DT1865	538	Cleanse the one with a gnawing and putrid gangrene, so sickening, so offensive,
DT1865	539	While the attendant stands behind aside me, holding the tray and pail.
DT1865	540	I am faithful, I do not give out;
DT1865	541	The fractur'd thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdo-menabdomen,
DT1865	542	These and more I dress with impassive hand—(yet deep in my breast a fire, a burning flame.)
DT1865	543	Thus in silence, in dream's projections,
DT1865	544	Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hos-pitalshospitals;
DT1865	545	The hurt and the wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
DT1865	546	I sit by the restless all the dark night—some are so young;
DT1865	547	Some suffer so much—I recall the experience sweet and sad;
DT1865	548	(Many a soldier's loving arms about this neck have cross'd and rested,
DT1865	549	Many a soldier's kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)
DT1865	550	WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer;
DT1865	551	When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
DT1865	552	When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add,divide, and measure them;
DT1865	553	When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
DT1865	554	How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
DT1865	555	Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
DT1865	556	In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
DT1865	557	Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
DT1865	558	RISE, O days, from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier and fiercer sweep!
DT1865	559	Long for my soul, hungering gymnastic, I devour'd what the earth gave me;
DT1865	560	Long I roam'd the woods of the north—long I watch'd Niagara pouring;
DT1865	561	I travel'd the prairies over, and slept on their breast—I cross'd the Nevadas, I cross'd the plateaus;
DT1865	562	I ascended the towering rocks along the Pacific, I sail'd out to sea;
DT1865	563	I sail'd through the storm, I was refresh'd by the storm;
DT1865	564	I watch'd with joy the threatening maws of the waves;
DT1865	565	I mark'd the white combs where they career'd so high,curling over;
DT1865	566	I heard the wind piping, I saw the black clouds;
DT1865	567	Saw from below what arose and mounted, (O superb! O wild as my heart, and powerful!)
DT1865	568	Heard the continuous thunder, as it bellow'd after the lightning;
DT1865	569	Noted the slender and jagged threads of lightning, as sudden and fast amid the din they chased each other across the sky;
DT1865	570	—These, and such as these, I, elate, saw—saw with wonder, yet pensive and masterful;
DT1865	571	All the menacing might of the globe uprisen around me;
DT1865	572	Yet there with my soul I fed—I fed content, super-cilious supercilious .
DT1865	573	'Twas well, O soul! 'twas a good preparation you gave me!
DT1865	574	Now we advance our latent and ampler hunger to fill;
DT1865	575	Now we go forth to receive what the earth and the sea never gave us;
DT1865	576	Not through the mighty woods we go, but through the mightier cities;
DT1865	577	Something for us is pouring now, more than Niagara pouring;
DT1865	578	Torrents of men, (sources and rills of the Northwest, are you indeed inexhaustible?)
DT1865	579	What, to pavements and homesteads here—what were those storms of the mountains and sea?
DT1865	580	What, to passions I witness around me to-day? Was the sea risen?
DT1865	581	Was the wind piping the pipe of death under the black clouds?
DT1865	582	Lo! from deeps more unfathomable, something more deadly and savage;
DT1865	583	Manhattan, rising, advancing with menacing front— Cincinnati, Chicago, unchain'd;
DT1865	584	—What was that swell I saw on the ocean? behold what comes here!
DT1865	585	How it climbs with daring feet and hands! how it dashes!
DT1865	586	How the true thunder bellows after the lightning! how bright the flashes of lightning!
DT1865	587	How DEMOCRACY, with desperate vengeful port strides on, shown through the dark by those flashes of lightning!
DT1865	588	Thunder on! stride on Democracy! strike with vengeful stroke!
DT1865	589	And do you rise higher than ever yet, O days, O cities!
DT1865	590	Crash heavier, heavier yet, O storms! you have done me good;
DT1865	591	My soul, prepared in the mountains, absorbs your im-mortal immortal strong nutriment;
DT1865	592	Long had I walk'd my cities, my country roads, through farms, only half satisfied;
DT1865	593	One doubt, nauseous, undulating like a snake, crawl'd on the ground before me,
DT1865	594	Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft,ironically hissing low;
DT1865	595	—The cities I loved so well, I abandon'd and left—I sped to the certainties suitable to me;
DT1865	596	Hungering, hungering, hungering, for primal energies,and Nature's dauntlessness,
DT1865	597	I refresh'd myself with it only, I could relish it only;
DT1865	598	I waited the bursting forth of the pent fire—on the water and air I waited long;
DT1865	599	—But now I no longer wait—I am fully satisfied—I am glutted;
DT1865	600	I have witness'd the true lighting—I have witness'd my cities electric;
DT1865	601	I have lived to behold man burst forth, and warlike America rise;
DT1865	602	Hence I will seek no more the food of the northern soli-tary solitary wilds,
DT1865	603	No more on the mountains roam, or sail the stormy sea.
DT1865	604	SILENT and amazed, even when a little boy,
DT1865	605	I remember I heard the preacher every Sunday put God in his statements,
DT1865	606	As contending against some being or influence.
DT1865	607	BEAT! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
DT1865	608	Through the windows—through doors—burst like a force of ruthless men,
DT1865	609	Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation;
DT1865	610	Into the school where the scholar is studying:
DT1865	611	Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride;
DT1865	612	Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, plowing his field or gathering his grain;
DT1865	613	So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.
DT1865	614	Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
DT1865	615	Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets:
DT1865	616	Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses?No sleepers must sleep in those beds;
DT1865	617	No bargainers' bargains by day—no brokers or specu-lators speculators —Would they continue?
DT1865	618	Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
DT1865	619	Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?
DT1865	620	Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.
DT1865	621	Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow!
DT1865	622	Make no parley—stop for no expostulation;
DT1865	623	Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer;
DT1865	624	Mind not the old man beseeching the young man;
DT1865	625	Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's en-treatiesentreaties;
DT1865	626	Make even the trestles to shake the dead, where they lie awaiting the hearses,
DT1865	627	So strong you thump, O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.
DT1865	628	Come up from the fields, father, here's a letter from our Pete;
DT1865	629	And come to the front door, mother—here's a letter from thy dear son.
DT1865	630	Lo, 'tis autumn;
DT1865	631	Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder,
DT1865	632	Cool and sweeten Ohio's villages, with leaves fluttering in the moderate wind;
DT1865	633	Where apples ripe in the orchards hang, and grapes on the trellis'd vines;
DT1865	634	(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?
DT1865	635	Smell you the buckwheat, where the bees were lately buzzing?)
DT1865	636	Above all, lo, the sky, so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds;
DT1865	637	Below, too, all calm, all vital and beautiful—and the farm prospers well.
DT1865	638	Down in the fields all prospers well;
DT1865	639	But now from the fields come, father—come at the daughter's call;
DT1865	640	And come to the entry, mother—to the front door come,right away.
DT1865	641	Fast as she can she hurries—something ominous— her steps trembling;
DT1865	642	She does not tarry to smooth her white hair, nor adjust her cap.
DT1865	643	Open the envelope quickly;
DT1865	644	O this is not our son's writing, yet his name is sign'd;
DT1865	645	O a strange hand writes for our dear son—O stricken mother's soul!
DT1865	646	All swims before her eyes—flashes with black—she catches the main words only;
DT1865	647	Sentences broken—gun-shot wound in the breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital,
DT1865	648	At present low, but will soon be better.
DT1865	649	Ah, now the single figure to me,
DT1865	650	Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio, with all its cities and farms,
DT1865	651	Sickly white in the face and dull in the head, very faint,
DT1865	652	By the jamb of a door leans.
DT1865	653	Grieve not so, dear mother, (the just-grown daughter speaks through her sobs;
DT1865	654	The little sisters huddle around, speechless and dis-may'ddismay'd;)
DT1865	655	See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be better.
DT1865	656	Alas, poor boy, he will never be better, (nor may-be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul;)
DT1865	657	While they stand at home at the door, he is dead already;
DT1865	658	The only son is dead.
DT1865	659	But the mother needs to be better;
DT1865	660	She, with thin form, presently drest in black;
DT1865	661	By day her meals untouch'd—then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking,
DT1865	662	In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing,
DT1865	663	O that she might withdraw unnoticed—silent from life,escape and withdraw,
DT1865	664	To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.
DT1865	665	CITY of ships!
DT1865	666	(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!
DT1865	667	O the beautiful, sharp bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!)
DT1865	668	City of the world! (for all races are here;
DT1865	669	All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
DT1865	670	City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!
DT1865	671	City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede,whirling in and out, with eddies and foam!
DT1865	672	City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of mar-ble marble and iron!
DT1865	673	Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extrava-gant extravagant city!
DT1865	674	Spring up, O city! not for peace alone, but be indeed yourself, warlike!
DT1865	675	Fear not! submit to no models but your own, O city!
DT1865	676	Behold me! incarnate me, as I have incarnated you!
DT1865	677	I have rejected nothing you offer'd me—whom you adopted, I have adopted;
DT1865	678	Good or bad, I never question you—I love all—I do not condemn anything;
DT1865	679	I chant and celebrate all that is yours—yet peace no more;
DT1865	680	In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is mine;
DT1865	681	War, red war, is my song through your streets, O city!
DT1865	682	I SEE the sleeping babe, nestling the breast of its mother;
DT1865	683	The sleeping mother and babe—hush'd, I study them long and long.
DT1865	684	VIGIL strange I kept on the field one night,
DT1865	685	When you, my son and my comrade, dropt at my side that day,
DT1865	686	One look I but gave, which your dear eyes return'd,with a look I shall never forget;
DT1865	687	One touch of your hand to mine, O boy, reach'd up as you lay on the ground;
DT1865	688	Then onward I sped in the battle, the even-contested battle;
DT1865	689	Till late in the night reliev'd, to the place at last again I made my way;
DT1865	690	Found you in death so cold, dear comrade—found your body, son of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding;)
DT1865	691	Bared your face in the starlight—curious the scene— cool blew the moderate night-wind;
DT1865	692	Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me the battle-field spreading;
DT1865	693	Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet, there in the fragrant silent night;
DT1865	694	But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh—Long,long I gazed;
DT1865	695	Then on the earth partially reclining, sat by your side,leaning my chin in my hands;
DT1865	696	Passing sweet hours, immortal and mystic hours with you, dearest comrade—Not a tear, not a word;
DT1865	697	Vigil of silence, love and death—vigil for you, my son and my soldier,
DT1865	698	As onward silently stars aloft, eastward new ones up-ward upward stole;
DT1865	699	Vigil final for you, brave boy, (I could not save you,swift was your death,
DT1865	700	I faithfully loved you and cared for you living—I think we shall surely meet again;)
DT1865	701	Till at latest lingering of the night, indeed just as the dawn appear'd,
DT1865	702	My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop'd well his form,
DT1865	703	Folded the blanket well, tucking it carefully over head,and carefully under feet;
DT1865	704	And there and then, and bathed by the rising sun, myson in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I de-positeddeposited;
DT1865	705	Ending my vigil strange with that—vigil of night and battle-field dim;
DT1865	706	Vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding;)
DT1865	707	Vigil for comrade swiftly slain—vigil I never forget,how as day brighten'd,
DT1865	708	I rose from the chill ground, and folded my soldier well in his blanket,
DT1865	709	And buried him where he fell.
DT1865	710	BATHED in war's perfume—delicate flag!
DT1865	711	O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like a beautiful woman!
DT1865	712	O to hear the tramp, tramp, of a million answering men!O the ships they arm with joy!
DT1865	713	O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of ships!
DT1865	714	O to see you peering down on the sailors on the decks!
DT1865	715	Flag like the eyes of women.
DT1865	716	A MARCH in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown;
DT1865	717	A route through a heavy wood, with muffled steps in the darkness;
DT1865	718	Our army foil'd with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating;
DT1865	719	Till after midnight glimmer upon us, the lights of a dim-lighted building;
DT1865	720	We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted building;
DT1865	721	'Tis a large old church, at the crossing roads—'tis now an impromptu hospital;
DT1865	722	—Entering but for a minute, I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made:
DT1865	723	Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and lamps,
DT1865	724	And by one great pitchy torch, stationary, with wild red flame, and clouds of smoke;
DT1865	725	By these, crowds, groups of forms, vaguely I see, on the floor, some in the pews laid down;
DT1865	726	At my feet more distinctly, a soldier, a mere lad, indanger of bleeding to death, (he is shot in the ab-domenabdomen;)
DT1865	727	I staunch the blood temporarily, (the youngster's face is white as a lily;)
DT1865	728	Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene,fain to absorb it all;
DT1865	729	Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity, some of them dead;
DT1865	730	Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the odor of blood;
DT1865	731	The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms of soldiers —the yard outside also fill'd;
DT1865	732	Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers,some in the death-spasm sweating;
DT1865	733	An occasional scream or cry, the doctor's shouted orders or calls;
DT1865	734	The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the torches;
DT1865	735	These I resume as I chant—I see again the forms, I smell the odor;
DT1865	736	Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, Fall in;
DT1865	737	But first I bend to the dying lad—his eyes open—a half-smile gives he me;
DT1865	738	Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
DT1865	739	Resuming, marching, as ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks,
DT1865	740	The unknown road still marching.
DT1865	741	LONG, too long, O land,
DT1865	742	Traveling roads all even and peaceful, you learn'd from joys and prosperity only;
DT1865	743	But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish—ad-vancingadvancing, grappling with direst fate, and recoilingnot;
DT1865	744	And now to conceive, and show to the world, what your children en-masse really are;
DT1865	745	(For who except myself has yet conceived what your children en-masse really are?)
DT1865	746	A SIGHT in camp in the day-break grey and dim,
DT1865	747	As from my tent I emerge so early, sleepless,
DT1865	748	As slow I walk in the cool fresh air, the path near by the hospital-tent,
DT1865	749	Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there,untended lying,
DT1865	750	Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woolen blanket,
DT1865	751	Grey and heavy blanket, folding, covering all.
DT1865	752	Curious, I halt, and silent stand;
DT1865	753	Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest,the first, just lift the blanket:
DT1865	754	Who are you, elderly man so gaunt and grim, with well-grey'd hair, and flesh all sunken about the eyes?
DT1865	755	Who are you, my dear comrade?
DT1865	756	Then to the second I step—And who are you, my child and darling?
DT1865	757	Who are you, sweet boy, with cheeks yet blooming?
DT1865	758	Then to the third—a face nor child, nor old, very calm, as of beautiful yellow-white ivory:
DT1865	759	Young man, I think I know you—I think this face of yours is the face of the Christ himself;
DT1865	760	Dead and divine, and brother of all, and here again he lies.
DT1865	761	THROUGH the ample open door of the peaceful country barn,
DT1865	762	A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding.
DT1865	763	GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzlingfull-dazzling;
DT1865	764	Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard;
DT1865	765	Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows;
DT1865	766	Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape;
DT1865	767	Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving animals, teaching content;
DT1865	768	Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars;
DT1865	769	Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers,where I can walk undisturb'd;
DT1865	770	Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman, of whom I should never tire;
DT1865	771	Give me a perfect child—give me, away, aside from the noise of the world, a rural domestic life;
DT1865	772	Give me to warble spontaneous songs, reliev'd, recluse by myself, for my own ears only;
DT1865	773	Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again,O Nature, your primal sanities!
DT1865	774	—These, demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless excitement, and rack'd by the war-strife;)
DT1865	775	These to procure, incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart,
DT1865	776	While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city;
DT1865	777	Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking your streets,
DT1865	778	Where you hold me enchain'd a certain time, refusing to give me up;
DT1865	779	Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich'd of soul—you give me forever faces;
DT1865	780	(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries;
DT1865	781	I see my own soul trampling down what it ask'd for.)
DT1865	782	Keep your splendid silent sun;
DT1865	783	Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places by the woods;
DT1865	784	Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-fields corn-fields and orchards;
DT1865	785	Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields, where the Ninth-month Ninth-monthh bees hum;
DT1865	786	Give me faces and streets! give me these phantoms in-cessant incessant and endless along the trottoirs!
DT1865	787	Give me interminable eyes! give me women! give me comrades and lovers by the thousand!
DT1865	788	Let me see new ones every day! let me hold new ones by the hand every day!
DT1865	789	Give me such shows! give me the streets of Manhattan!
DT1865	790	Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching—give me the sound of the trumpets and drums!
DT1865	791	(The soldiers in companies or regiments—some, starting away, flush'd and reckless;
DT1865	792	Some, their time up, returning, with thinn'd ranks— young, yet very old, worn, marching, noticing nothing;)
DT1865	793	—Give me the shores and the wharves heavy-fringed with the black ships!
DT1865	794	O such for me! O an intense life! O full to repletion,and varied!
DT1865	795	The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me!
DT1865	796	The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for me! the torch-light procession!
DT1865	797	The dense brigade, bound for the war, with high piled military wagons following;
DT1865	798	People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions,pageants;
DT1865	799	Manhattan streets, with their powerful throbs, with the beating drums, as now;
DT1865	800	The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of muskets, (even the sight of the wounded;)
DT1865	801	Manhattan crowds with their turbulent musical chorus —with varied chorus and light of the sparkling eyes;
DT1865	802	Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me.
DT1865	803	OVER the carnage rose prophetic a voice,
DT1865	804	Be not dishearten'd—Affection shall solve the problems of Freedom yet;
DT1865	805	Those who love each other shall become invincible— they shall yet make Columbia victorious.
DT1865	806	Sons of the Mother of All! you shall yet be victo-rious! victorious
DT1865	807	You shall yet laugh to scorn the attacks of all the re-mainder remainder of the earth.
DT1865	808	No danger shall balk Columbia's lovers;
DT1865	809	If need be, a thousand shall sternly immolate themselves for one.
DT1865	810	One from Massachusetts shall be a Missourian's com-radecomrade;
DT1865	811	From Maine and from hot Carolina, and another an Ore-goneseOregonese, shall be friends triune,
DT1865	812	More precious to each other than all the riches of the earth.
DT1865	813	To Michigan, Florida perfumes shall tenderly come;
DT1865	814	Not the perfumes of flowers, but sweeter, and wafted beyond death.
DT1865	815	It shall be customary in the houses and streets to see manly affection;
DT1865	816	The most dauntless and rude shall touch face to face lightly;
DT1865	817	The dependence of Liberty shall be lovers,
DT1865	818	The continuance of Equality shall be comrades.
DT1865	819	These shall tie you and band you stronger than hoops of iron;
DT1865	820	I, extatic, O partners! O lands! with the love of lovers tie you.
DT1865	821	Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers?
DT1865	822	Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?
DT1865	823	—Nay—nor the world, nor any living thing, will so cohere.
DT1865	824	DID YOU ask dulcet rhymes from me?
DT1865	825	Did you find what I sang erewhile so hard to follow,to understand?
DT1865	826	Why I was not singing erewhile for you to follow, to understand—nor am I now;
DT1865	827	—What to such as you, anyhow, such a poet as I?—therefore leave my works,
DT1865	828	And go lull yourself with what you can understand;
DT1865	829	For I lull nobody—and you will never understand me.
DT1865	830	YEAR of meteors! brooding year!
DT1865	831	I would bind in words retrospective, some of your deeds and signs;
DT1865	832	I would sing your contest for the 19th Presidentiad;
DT1865	833	I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair,mounted the scaffold in Virginia;
DT1865	834	(I was at hand—silent I stood, with teeth shut close—I watch'd;
DT1865	835	I stood very near you, old man, when cool and indiffer-entindifferent, but trembling with age and your unheal'd wounds, you mounted the scaffold;)
DT1865	836	I would sing in my copious song your census returns of The States,
DT1865	837	The tables of population and products—I would sing of your ships and their cargoes,
DT1865	838	The proud black ships of Manhattan, arriving, some fill'd with immigrants, some from the isthmus with cargoes of gold;
DT1865	839	Songs thereof would I sing—to all that hitherward comes would I welcome give;
DT1865	840	And you would I sing, fair stripling! welcome to you from me, sweet boy of England!
DT1865	841	Remember you surging Manhattan's crowds, as you passed with your cortege of nobles?
DT1865	842	There in the crowds stood I, and singled you out with attachment;
DT1865	843	I know not why, but I loved you…(and so go forth little song,
DT1865	844	Far over sea speed like an arrow, carrying my love all folded,
DT1865	845	And find in his palace the youth I love, and drop these lines at his feet;)
DT1865	846	—Nor forget I to sing of the wonder, the ship as she swam up my bay,
DT1865	847	Well-shaped and stately the Great Eastern swam up my bay, she was 600 feet long,
DT1865	848	Her moving swiftly, surrounded by myriads of small craft, I forget not to sing;
DT1865	849	Nor the comet that came unannounced, out of the north,flaring in heaven,
DT1865	850	Nor the strange huge meteor procession, dazzling and clear, shooting over our heads,
DT1865	851	(A moment, a moment long, it sail'd its balls of unearth-ly unearthly light over our heads,
DT1865	852	Then departed, dropt in the night, and was gone;)
DT1865	853	—Of such, and fitful as they, I sing—with gleams from them would I gleam and patch these chants;
DT1865	854	Your chants, O year all mottled with evil and good!year of forebodings! year of the youth I love!
DT1865	855	Year of comets and meteors transient and strange!—lo!even here, one equally transient and strange!
DT1865	856	As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone,what is this book,
DT1865	857	What am I myself but one of your meteors?
DT1865	858	On my northwest coast in the midst of the night, a fishermen's group stands watching;
DT1865	859	Out on the lake, expanding before them, others are spearing salmon;
DT1865	860	The canoe, a dim and shadowy thing, moves across the black water,
DT1865	861	Bearing a Torch a-blaze at the prow.
DT1865	862	YEARS of the unperform'd! your horizon rises—I see it parting away for more august dramas;
DT1865	863	I see not America only—I see not only Liberty's nation,but other nations preparing;
DT1865	864	I see tremendous entrances and exits—I see new com-binations combinations —I see the solidarity of races;
DT1865	865	I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage;
DT1865	866	(Have the old forces played their parts? are the acts suitable to them closed?)
DT1865	867	I see Freedom, completely arm'd, and victorious, and very haughty, with Law by her side, both issuing forth against the idea of caste;
DT1865	868	—What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach?
DT1865	869	I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil-lionsmillions;
DT1865	870	I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken;
DT1865	871	I see the landmarks of European kings removed;
DT1865	872	I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;)
DT1865	873	Never were such sharp questions ask'd as this day;
DT1865	874	Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God;
DT1865	875	Lo, how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest;
DT1865	876	His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere—he col-onizes colonizes the Pacific, the archipelagoes;
DT1865	877	With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the news-papernewspaper, the wholesale engines of war,
DT1865	878	With these, and the world-spreading factories, he inter-links interlinks all geography, all lands;
DT1865	879	—What whispers are these, O lands, running ahead of you, passing under the seas?
DT1865	880	Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe?
DT1865	881	Is humanity forming, en-masse?—for lo! tyrants trem-bletremble, crowns grow dim;
DT1865	882	The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a gen-eral general divine war;
DT1865	883	No one knows what will happen next—such portents fill the days and nights;
DT1865	884	Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vain-ly vainly try to pierce it, is full of phantoms;
DT1865	885	Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me;
DT1865	886	This incredible rush and heat—this strange extactic fever of dreams, O years!
DT1865	887	Your dreams, O years, how they penetrate through me!(I know not whether I sleep or wake!)
DT1865	888	The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retiring in shadow behind me,
DT1865	889	The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance, ad-vance advance upon me.
DT1865	890	YEAR that trembled and reel'd beneath me!
DT1865	891	Your summer wind was warm enough—yet the air I breathed froze me;
DT1865	892	A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken'd me;
DT1865	893	Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself;
DT1865	894	Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baf-fled baffled ?
DT1865	895	And sullen hymns of defeat?
DT1865	896	WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long,
DT1865	897	And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the mys-tic mystic midnight passes,
DT1865	898	And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my infant,
DT1865	899	There in the room, as I wake from sleep, this vision presses upon me:
DT1865	900	The engagement opens there and then, in my busy brain unreal;
DT1865	901	The skirmishers begin—they crawl cautiously ahead— I hear the irregular snap! snap!
DT1865	902	I hear the sounds of the different missiles—the short t-h-t! t-h-t! of the rifle balls;
DT1865	903	I see the shells exploding, leaving small white clouds— I hear the great shells shrieking as they pass;
DT1865	904	The grape, like the hum and whirr of wind through the trees, (quick, tumultuous, now the contest rages!)
DT1865	905	All the scenes at the batteries themselves rise in detail before me again;
DT1865	906	The crashing and smoking—the pride of the men in their pieces;
DT1865	907	The chief gunner ranges and sights his piece, and selects a fuse of the right time;
DT1865	908	After firing, I see him lean aside, and look eagerly off to note the effect;
DT1865	909	—Elsewhere I hear the cry of a regiment charging— (the young colonel leads himself this time, with brandish'd sword;)
DT1865	910	I see the gaps cut by the enemy's volleys, (quickly fill'd up—no delay;)
DT1865	911	I breathe the suffocating smoke—then the flat clouds hover low, concealing all;
DT1865	912	Now a strange lull comes for a few seconds, not a shot fired on either side;
DT1865	913	Then resumed, the chaos louder than ever, with eager calls, and orders of officers;
DT1865	914	While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts to my ears a shout of applause, (some special success;)
DT1865	915	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;)
DT1865	916	And ever the hastening of infantry shifting positions— batteries, cavalry, moving hither and thither;
DT1865	917	(The falling, dying, I heed not—the wounded, drippingand red, I heed not—some to the rear are hob-blinghobbling;)
DT1865	918	Grime, heat, rush—aid-de-camps galloping by, or on a full run;
DT1865	919	With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my vision I hear or see,)
DT1865	920	And bombs bursting in air, and at night the vari-color'd rockets.
DT1865	921	O TAN-FACED prairie-boy!
DT1865	922	Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift;
DT1865	923	Praises and presents came, and nourishing food—till at last among the recruits,
DT1865	924	You came, taciturn, with nothing to give—we but look'd on each other,
DT1865	925	When lo! more than all the gifts of the world, you gave me.
DT1865	926	NOT alone our camps of white, O soldiers,
DT1865	927	When, as order'd forward, after a long march,
DT1865	928	Footsore and weary, soon as the light lessens, we halt for the night;
DT1865	929	Some of us so fatigued, carrying the gun and knapsack,dropping asleep in our tracks;
DT1865	930	Others pitching the little tents, and the fires lit up begin to sparkle;
DT1865	931	Outposts of pickets posted, surrounding, alert through the dark,
DT1865	932	And a word provided for countersign, careful for safety;
DT1865	933	Till to the call of the drummers at daybreak loudly beating the drums,
DT1865	934	We rise up refresh'd, the night and sleep pass'd over,and resume our journey,
DT1865	935	Or proceed to battle.
DT1865	936	Lo! the camps of the tents of green,
DT1865	937	Which the days of peace keep filling, and the days of war keep filling,
DT1865	938	With a mystic army, (is it too order'd forward? is it too only halting awhile,
DT1865	939	Till night and sleep pass over?)
DT1865	940	Now in those camps of green—in their tents dotting the world;
DT1865	941	In the parents, children, husbands, wives, in them— in the old and young,
DT1865	942	Sleeping under the sunlight, sleeping under the moon-lightmoonlight, content and silent there at last,
DT1865	943	Behold the mighty bivouac-field, and waiting-camp of us and ours and all,
DT1865	944	Of our corps and generals all, and the President over thecorps and generals all,
DT1865	945	And of each of us, O soldiers, and of each and all in the ranks we fight,
DT1865	946	(There without hatred we shall all meet.)
DT1865	947	For presently, O soldiers, we too camp in our place in the bivouac-camps of green;
DT1865	948	But we need not provide for outposts, nor word for the countersign,
DT1865	949	Nor drummer to beat the morning drum.
DT1865	950	AS TOILSOME I wander'd Virginia's woods,
DT1865	951	To the music of rustling leaves, kick'd by my feet, (for 'twas autumn,)
DT1865	952	I mark'd at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier;
DT1865	953	Mortally wounded he, and buried on the retreat, (easily all could I understand;)
DT1865	954	The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose —yet this sign left,
DT1865	955	On a tablet scrawl'd and nail'd on the tree by the grave,
DT1865	956	Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
DT1865	957	Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering;
DT1865	958	Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life;
DT1865	959	Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt,alone, or in the crowded street,
DT1865	960	Comes before me the unknown soldier's grave—comes the inscription rude in Virginia's woods,
DT1865	961	Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
DT1865	962	ONE breath, O my silent soul,
DT1865	963	A perfum'd thought—no more I ask, for the sake of all dead soldiers.
DT1865	964	Buglers off in my armies!
DT1865	965	At present I ask not you to sound;
DT1865	966	Not at the head of my cavalry, all on their spirited horses,
DT1865	967	With their sabres drawn and glist'ning, and carbinesclanking by their thighs—(ah, my brave horse-men horsemen !
DT1865	968	My handsome, tan-faced horsemen! what life, what joy and pride,
DT1865	969	With all the perils, were yours!)
DT1865	970	Nor you drummers—neither at reveille, at dawn,
DT1865	971	Nor the long roll alarming the camp—nor even the muffled beat for a burial;
DT1865	972	Nothing from you, this time, O drummers, bearing my warlike drums.
DT1865	973	But aside from these, and the crowd's hurrahs, and the land's congratulations,
DT1865	974	Admitting around me comrades close, unseen by the the rest, and voiceless,
DT1865	975	I chant this chant of my silent soul, in the name of all dead soldiers.
DT1865	976	Faces so pale, with wondrous eyes, very dear, gather closer yet;
DT1865	977	Draw close, but speak not.
DT1865	978	Phantoms, welcome, divine and tender!
DT1865	979	Invisible to the rest, henceforth become my compan-ionscompanions;
DT1865	980	Follow me ever! desert me not, while I live.
DT1865	981	Sweet are the blooming cheeks of the living! sweet are the musical voices sounding!
DT1865	982	But sweet, ah sweet, are the dead, with their silent eyes.
DT1865	983	Dearest comrades! all now is over;
DT1865	984	But love is not over—and what love, O comrades!
DT1865	985	Perfume from battle-fields rising—up from fœtor arising.
DT1865	986	Perfume therefore my chant, O love! immortal Love!
DT1865	987	Give me to bathe the memories of all dead soldiers.
DT1865	988	Perfume all! make all wholesome!
DT1865	989	O love! O chant! solve all with the last chemistry.
DT1865	990	Give me exhaustless—make me a fountain,
DT1865	991	That I exhale love from me wherever I go,
DT1865	992	For the sake of all dead soldiers.
DT1865	993	Lo! THE unbounded sea!
DT1865	994	On its breast a Ship, spreading all her sails—an ample Ship, carrying even her moonsails;
DT1865	995	The pennant is flying aloft, as she speeds, she speeds so stately—below, emulous waves press forward,
DT1865	996	They surround the Ship, with shining curving motions,and foam.
DT1865	997	OVER sea, hither from Niphon,
DT1865	998	Courteous, the Princes of Asia, swart-cheek'd princes,
DT1865	999	First-comers, guests, two-sworded princes,
DT1865	1000	Lesson-giving princes, leaning back in their open ba-rouchesbarouches, bare-headed, impassive,
DT1865	1001	This day they ride through Manhattan.
DT1865	1002	Libertad!
DT1865	1003	I do not know whether others behold what I behold,
DT1865	1004	In the procession, along with the Princes of Asia, the errand-bearers,
DT1865	1005	Bringing up the rear, hovering above, around, or in the ranks marching;
DT1865	1006	But I will sing you a song of what I behold, Libertad.
DT1865	1007	When million-footed Manhattan, unpent, descends to its pavements;
DT1865	1008	When the thunder-cracking guns arouse me with the proud roar I love;
DT1865	1009	When the round-mouth'd guns, out of the smoke and smell I love, spit their salutes;
DT1865	1010	When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me— when heaven-clouds canopy my city with a delicate thin haze;
DT1865	1011	When, gorgeous, the countless straight stems, the for-ests forests at the wharves, thicken with colors;
DT1865	1012	When every ship, richly drest, carries her flag at the peak;
DT1865	1013	When pennants trail, and street-festoons hang from the windows;
DT1865	1014	When Broadway is entirely given up to foot-passengers and foot-standers—when the mass is densest;
DT1865	1015	When the facades of the houses are alive with people— when eyes gaze, riveted, tens of thousands at a time;
DT1865	1016	When the guests from the islands advance—when the pageant moves forward, visible;
DT1865	1017	When the summons is made—when the answer that waited thousands of years, answers;
DT1865	1018	I too, arising, answering, descend to the pavements,merge with the crowd, and gaze with them.
DT1865	1019	Superb-faced Manhattan!
DT1865	1020	Comrade Americanos!—to us, then, at last, the Orient comes.
DT1865	1021	To us, my city,
DT1865	1022	Where our tall-topt marble and iron beauties range on opposite sides—to walk in the space between,
DT1865	1023	To-day our Antipodes comes.
DT1865	1024	The Originatress comes,
DT1865	1025	The land of Paradise—land of the Caucasus—the nest of birth,
DT1865	1026	The nest of languages, the bequeather of poems, the race of eld,
DT1865	1027	Florid with blood, pensive, rapt with musings, hot with passion,
DT1865	1028	Sultry with perfume, with ample and flowing garments,
DT1865	1029	With sunburnt visage, with intense soul and glittering eyes.
DT1865	1030	The race of Brahma comes!
DT1865	1031	See, my cantabile! these, and more, are flashing to us from the procession;
DT1865	1032	As it moves, changing, a kaleidoscope divine it moves,changing, before us.
DT1865	1033	Not the errand-bearing princes, nor the tann'd Japa-nee Japanee only;
DT1865	1034	Lithe and silent, the Hindoo appears—the whole Asiatic continent itself appears—the Past, the dead,
DT1865	1035	The murky night-morning of wonder and fable, inscruta-bleinscrutable,
DT1865	1036	The envelop'd mysteries, the old and unknown hive-beeshive-bees,
DT1865	1037	The North—the sweltering South—Assyria—the Hebrews—the Ancient of ancients,
DT1865	1038	Vast desolated cities—the gliding Present—all of these, and more, are in the pageant-procession.
DT1865	1039	Geography, the world, is in it;
DT1865	1040	The Great Sea, the brood of islands, Polynesia, the coast beyond;
DT1865	1041	The coast you, henceforth, are facing—you Libertad!from your Western golden shores;
DT1865	1042	The countries there, with their populations—the mil-lions millions en-masse, are curiously here;
DT1865	1043	The swarming market places—the temples, with idols ranged along the sides, or at the end—bonze,brahmin, and lama;
DT1865	1044	The mandarin, farmer, merchant, mechanic, and fisher-manfisherman;
DT1865	1045	The singing-girl and the dancing-girl—the ecstatic person—the divine Buddha;
DT1865	1046	The secluded Emperors—Confucius himself—the great poets and heroes—the warriors, the castes,all,
DT1865	1047	Trooping up, crowding from all directions—from the Altay mountains,
DT1865	1048	From Thibet—from the four winding and far-flowing rivers of China,
DT1865	1049	From the Southern peninsulas, and the demi-continental islands—from Malaysia;
DT1865	1050	These, and whatever belongs to them, palpable, show forth to me, and are seiz'd by me,
DT1865	1051	And I am seiz'd by them, and friendlily held by them,
DT1865	1052	Till, as here, them all I chant, Libertad! for themselves and for you.
DT1865	1053	For I too, raising my voice, join the ranks of this pageant;
DT1865	1054	I am the chanter—I chant aloud over the pageant;
DT1865	1055	I chant the world on my Western Sea;
DT1865	1056	I chant, copious, the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky;
DT1865	1057	I chant the new empire, grander than any before—As in a vision it comes to me;
DT1865	1058	I chant America, the Mistress—I chant a greater su-premacysupremacy;
DT1865	1059	I chant, projected, a thousand blooming cities yet, in time, on those groups of sea-islands;
DT1865	1060	I chant my sail-ships and steam-ships threading the ar-chipelagoesarchipelagoes;
DT1865	1061	I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in the wind;
DT1865	1062	I chant commerce opening, the sleep of ages having done its work—races, reborn, refresh'd;
DT1865	1063	Lives, works, resumed—The object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic, resumed, as it must be,
DT1865	1064	Commencing from this day, surrounded by the world.
DT1865	1065	And you, Libertad of the world!
DT1865	1066	You shall sit in the middle, well-pois'd, thousands of years;
DT1865	1067	As to-day, from one side, the Princes of Asia come to you;
DT1865	1068	As to-morrow, from the other side, the Queen of Eng-land England sends her eldest son to you.
DT1865	1069	The sign is reversing, the orb is enclosed,
DT1865	1070	The ring is circled, the journey is done;
DT1865	1071	The box-lid is but perceptibly open'd—nevertheless the perfume pours copiously out of the whole box.
DT1865	1072	Young Libertad!
DT1865	1073	With the venerable Asia, the all-mother,
DT1865	1074	Be considerate with her, now and ever, hot Libertad— for you are all;
DT1865	1075	Bend your proud neck to the long-off mother, now sending messages over the archipelagoes to you;
DT1865	1076	Bend your proud neck low for once, young Libertad.
DT1865	1077	Were the children straying westward so long? so wide the tramping?
DT1865	1078	Were the precedent dim ages debouching westward from Paradise so long?
DT1865	1079	Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, all the while unknown, for you, for reasons?
DT1865	1080	They are justified—they are accomplish'd—they shallnow be turn'd the other way also, to travel to-ward toward you thence;
DT1865	1081	They shall now also march obediently eastward, for your sake, Libertad.
DT1865	1082	FLAG of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!
DT1865	1083	Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road,and lined with bloody death!
DT1865	1084	For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world!
DT1865	1085	All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your threads, greedy banner!
DT1865	1086	—Dream'd again the flags of kings, highest borne, to flaunt unrivall'd?
DT1865	1087	O hasten, flag of man! O with sure and steady step,passing highest flags of kings,
DT1865	1088	Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol—run up above them all,
DT1865	1089	Flag of stars! thick sprinkled bunting!
DT1865	1090	FAR hence, amid an isle of wondrous beauty,
DT1865	1091	Crouching over a grave, an ancient sorrowful mother,
DT1865	1092	Once a queen—now lean and tatter'd, seated on the ground,
DT1865	1093	Her old white hair drooping dishevel'd round her shoul-dersshoulders;
DT1865	1094	At her feet fallen an unused royal harp,
DT1865	1095	Long silent—she too long silent—mourning her shroud-ed shrouded hope and heir;
DT1865	1096	Of all the earth her heart most full of sorrow, because most full of love.
DT1865	1097	Yet a word, ancient mother;
DT1865	1098	You need crouch there no longer on the cold ground,with forehead between your knees;
DT1865	1099	O you need not sit there, veil'd in your old white hair, so dishevel'd;
DT1865	1100	For know you, the one you mourn is not in that grave;
DT1865	1101	It was an illusion—the heir, the son you love, was not really dead;
DT1865	1102	The Lord is not dead—he is risen again, young and strong, in another country;
DT1865	1103	Even while you wept there by your fallen harp, by the grave,
DT1865	1104	What you wept for, was translated, pass'd from the grave,
DT1865	1105	The winds favor'd, and the sea sail'd it,
DT1865	1106	And now with rosy and new blood,
DT1865	1107	Moves to-day in a new country.
DT1865	1108	LOOK down, fair moon, and bathe this scene;
DT1865	1109	Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghast-lyghastly, swollen, purple;
DT1865	1110	On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss'd wide,
DT1865	1111	Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.
DT1865	1112	OUT of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently to me,
DT1865	1113	Whispering, I love you, before long I die,
DT1865	1114	I have travel'd a long way, merely to look on you, to touch you,
DT1865	1115	For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
DT1865	1116	For I fear'd I might afterward lose you.
DT1865	1117	(Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe;
DT1865	1118	Return in peace to the ocean my love;
DT1865	1119	I too am part of that ocean, my love—we are not so much separated;
DT1865	1120	Behold the great rondure—the cohesion of all, how per-fect perfect !
DT1865	1121	But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separ-ate separate us,
DT1865	1122	As for an hour carrying us diverse—yet cannot carry us diverse for ever;
DT1865	1123	Be not impatient—a little space—know you, I salute the air, the ocean and the land,
DT1865	1124	Every day, at sundown, for your dear sake, my love.)
DT1865	1125	WORLD, take good notice, silver stars fading,
DT1865	1126	Milky hue ript, weft of white detaching,
DT1865	1127	Coals thirty-six, baleful and burning,
DT1865	1128	Scarlet, significant, hands off warning,
DT1865	1129	Now and henceforth flaunt from these shores.
DT1865	1130	I saw old General at bay;
DT1865	1131	(Old as he was, his grey eyes yet shone out in battle like stars;)
DT1865	1132	His small force was now completely hemmed in, in his works;
DT1865	1133	He call'd for volunteers to run the enemy's lines—a desperate emergency;
DT1865	1134	I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks— but two or three were selected;
DT1865	1135	I saw them receive their orders aside—they listen'd with care—the adjutant was very grave;
DT1865	1136	I saw them depart with cheerfulness, freely risking their lives.
DT1865	1137	OTHERS may praise what they like;
DT1865	1138	But I, from the banks of the running Missouri, praise nothing, in art, or aught else,
DT1865	1139	Till it has breathed well the atmosphere of this river— also the western prairie-scent,
DT1865	1140	And fully exudes it again.
DT1865	1141	SOLID, ironical, rolling orb!
DT1865	1142	Master of all, and matter of fact!—at last I accept your terms;
DT1865	1143	Bringing to practical, vulgar tests, of all my ideal dreams,
DT1865	1144	And of me, as lover and hero.
DT1865	1145	HUSH'D be the camps to-day;
DT1865	1146	And, soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons;
DT1865	1147	And each, with musing soul retire, to celebrate,
DT1865	1148	Our dear commander's death.
DT1865	1149	No more for him life's stormy conflicts;
DT1865	1150	Nor victory, nor defeat—No more time's dark events,
DT1865	1151	Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.
DT1865	1152	But sing, poet, in our name;
DT1865	1153	Sing of the love we bore him—because you, dweller in camps, know it truly.
DT1865	1154	Sing, to the lower'd coffin there;
DT1865	1155	Sing, with the shovel'd clods that fill the grave—a verse,
DT1865	1156	For the heavy hearts of soldiers.
DT1865	1157	WEAVE in! weave in, my hardy life!
DT1865	1158	Weave, weave a soldier strong and full, for great cam-paigns campaigns to come;
DT1865	1159	Weave in red blood! weave sinews in, like ropes! the senses, sight weave in!
DT1865	1160	Weave lasting sure! weave day and night the weft, the warp! incessant weave! tire not!
DT1865	1161	(We know not what the use, O life! nor know the aim,the end—nor really aught we know;
DT1865	1162	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;)
DT1865	1163	For great campaigns of peace the same, the wiry threads to weave;
DT1865	1164	We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.
DT1865	1165	TURN, O Libertad, no more doubting;
DT1865	1166	Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the past;
DT1865	1167	From the singers that sing the trailing glories of the past;
DT1865	1168	From the chants of the feudal world—the triumphs of kings, slavery, caste;
DT1865	1169	Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come— give up that backward world;
DT1865	1170	Leave to the singers of hitherto—give them the trailing past:
DT1865	1171	But what remains, remains for singers for you—wars to come are for you;
DT1865	1172	(Lo! how the wars of the past have duly inured to you —and the wars of the present shall also inure:)
DT1865	1173	—Then turn, and be not alarm'd, O Libertad—turn your undying face,
DT1865	1174	To where the future, greater than all the past,
DT1865	1175	Is swiftly, surely preparing for you.
DT1865	1176	I SEE before me now, a traveling army halting;
DT1865	1177	Below, a fertile valley spread, with barns, and the orch-ards orchards of summer;
DT1865	1178	Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain, abrupt in places, rising high;
DT1865	1179	Broken, with rocks, with clinging cedars, with tall shapes, dingily seen;
DT1865	1180	The numerous camp-fires scatter'd near and far, some away up on the mountain;
DT1865	1181	The shadowy forms of men and horses, looming, large-sizedlarge-sized, flickering;
DT1865	1182	And over all, the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach,studded with the eternal stars.
DT1865	1183	PENSIVE, on her dead gazing, I heard the Mother of All,
DT1865	1184	Desperate, on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battle-fields gazing;
DT1865	1185	As she call'd to her earth with mournful voice while she stalk'd:
DT1865	1186	Absorb them well, O my earth, she cried—I charge you,lose not my sons! lose not an atom;
DT1865	1187	And you streams, absorb them well, taking their dear blood;
DT1865	1188	And you local spots, and you airs that swim above lightly,
DT1865	1189	And all you essences of soil and growth—and you, O my rivers' depths;
DT1865	1190	And you mountain sides—and the woods where my dear children's blood, trickling, redden'd;
DT1865	1191	And you trees, down in your roots, to bequeath to all future trees,
DT1865	1192	My dead absorb—my young men's beautiful bodies ab-sorb absorb —and their precious, precious, preciousblood;
DT1865	1193	Which holding in trust for me, faithfully back again give me, many a year hence,
DT1865	1194	In unseen essence and odor of surface and grass, centu-ries centuries hence;
DT1865	1195	In blowing airs from the fields, back again give me my darlings—give my immortal heroes;
DT1865	1196	Exhale me them centuries hence—breathe me their breath—let not an atom be lost;
DT1865	1197	O years and graves! O air and soil! O my dead, an aroma sweet!
DT1865	1198	Exhale them perennial, sweet death, years, centuries hence.
DT1865	1199	NOT youth pertains to me,
DT1865	1200	Nor delicatesse—I cannot beguile the time with talk;
DT1865	1201	Awkward in the parlor, neither a dancer nor elegant;
DT1865	1202	In the learn'd coterie sitting constrain'd and still—for learning inures not to me;
DT1865	1203	Beauty, knowledge, fortune, inure not to me—yet there are two things inure to me;
DT1865	1204	I have nourish'd the wounded, and sooth'd many a dying soldier;
DT1865	1205	And at intervals I have strung together a few songs,
DT1865	1206	Fit for war, and the life of the camp.