24 Do the feasters gluttonous feast? Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors? Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground, Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged, nodding on our way? Yet a passing hour I yield you, in your tracks to pause oblivious, Pioneers! O pioneers! Till with sound of trumpet, 26 100 Far, far off the day-break call-hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind; Swift to the head of the army !-swift! spring to your places, Pioneers O pioneers. TURN, O LIBERTAD. First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865. TURN, O Libertad, for the war is over,1 (From it and all henceforth expanding, doubting no more, resolute, sweeping the world,)2 Turn from lands retrospective, recording proofs of the past; Turn to the world, the triumphs reserv'd and to come-give up that backward world; Leave to the singers of hitherto give them the trailing past; But what remains, remains for singers for you-wars to come are for you; (Lo! how the wars of the past have duly inured to you—and the wars of the present also inure :) 1 "Drum Taps" reads "Turn, O Libertad, no more doubting." -Then turn, and be not alarm'd, O Libertad-turn your undy ing face, To where the future, greater than all the past, Is swiftly, surely preparing for you. ΙΟ ADIEU TO A SOLDIER. ADIEU, O soldier! First published in 1870. You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,) The rapid march, the life of the camp, The hot contention of opposing fronts-the long manoeuver, Red battles with their slaughter,—the stimulus-the strong, ter rific game, Spell of all brave and manly hearts-the trains of Time through you, and like of you, all fill'd, With war, and war's expression. Adieu, dear comrade! Your mission is fulfill'd-but I, more warlike, Myself, and this contentious soul of mine, Still on our own campaigning bound, Through untried roads, with ambushes, opponents lined, Through many a sharp defeat and many a crisis-often baffled, Here marching, ever marching on, a war fight out-aye here, To fiercer, weightier battles give expression. ΙΟ AS I WALK THESE BROAD, MAJESTIC DAYS. First published in 1860 in "Songs Before Parting," under title of "As I Walk Solitary, Unattended." See line 7. As I walk these broad, majestic days of peace, (For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O terrific Ideal! Against vast odds, having gloriously won, Now thou stridest on—yet perhaps in time toward denser wars, Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers, Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others'; -As I walk solitary, unattended, 1 Lines 1-6 added in 1870. Around me I hear that eclat of the world-politics, produce, The announcements of recognized things-science, The approved growth of cities, and the spread of inventions. 10 I see the ships, (they will last a few years,) The vast factories, with their foremen and workmen, And here the indorsement of all, and do not object to it. But I too announce solid things ;' Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing-I watch them, Like a grand procession, to music of distant bugles, pouring, triumphantly moving-and grander heaving in sight;" They stand for realities-all is as it should be. Then my realities; What else is so real as mine? Libertad, and the divine average-Freedom to every slave on the face of the earth, 20 The rapt promises and luminé of seers-the spiritual world--these centuries lasting songs, And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any. For we support all, fuse all, After the rest is done and gone, we remain ; There is no final reliance but upon us; Democracy rests finally upon us (I, my brethren, begin it,) And our visions sweep through eternity. WEAVE IN, WEAVE IN, MY HARDY LIFE. First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865. WEAVE in! weave in, my hardy life! Weave yet a soldier strong and full, for great campaigns to come; Weave in red blood! weave sinews in, like ropes the senses, 1 sight weave in ! Songs Before Parting" reads "But we too announce solid things." "Songs Before Parting." For "I watch them" reads " they serve. Line 16 added in 1870. • Drum Taps for "yet" reads "weave." Weave lasting sure! weave day and night the weft, the warp, incessant weave! tire not! (We know not what the use, O life! nor know the aim, the end -nor really aught we know ; But know the work, the need goes on, and shall go on-the death-envelop'd march of peace as well as war goes on ;) For great campaigns of peace the same, the wiry threads to weave; We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave. RACE OF VETERANS. First published in "When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloomed," 1865-6. Race of the soil, ready for conflict! race of the conquering march ! (No more credulity's race, abiding-temper'd race ;) Race henceforth' owning no law but the law of itself; LEAVES OF GRASS. THIS COMPOST. First published in 1856 under title of "Poem of Wonder at The Resurrection of The Wheat." SOMETHING startles me where I thought I was safest ; I withdraw from 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. O how can it be that the ground does not sicken ?3 1 "Race of Victors!" added in 1870. 2Race henceforth" added in 1870. 3 1856 reads "How can the ground not sicken of men ?" Earth! O how can the ground of you not sicken ?” 1860 reads "O How can you be alive, you growths of spring? How can you furnish health, you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain ? Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you?1 Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead? 10 Where have you disposed of their carcasses? Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations; I do not see any of it upon you to-day--or perhaps I am de ceiv'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 foul meat. 2 Behold this compost! behold it well!2 Perhaps every mite has once form'd part of a sick person-Yet behold! The grass of spring covers the prairies, The bean bursts noislessly through the mould in the garden, 20 The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward, The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches, The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves, The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mulberry-tree, The he-birds carol mornings and evenings, while the she-birds sit on their nests, The young of poultry break through the hatch'd eggs, The new-born of animals appear-the calf is dropt from the cow, the colt from the mare, Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves, Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk-the lilacs bloom in the door-yards ;* The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those strata of sour dead. What chemistry! That the winds are really not infectious, 1 1856 for "within you" reads "in the earth." 30 2 1856 '60 read "Behold! This is the compost of billions of premature corpses." s" of spring" added in 1870. "the lilacs bloom in the door yards" added in 1870. |