Then I chant it for thee-I glorify thee above all; I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come un falteringly. Approach, strong Deliveress! When it is so-when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead, Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee, Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death. From me to thee glad serenades, 150 Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee-adornments and feastings for thee; And the sights of the open landscape, and the high-spread sky, are fitting, And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night. The night, in silence, under many a star; The ocean shore, and the husky whispering wave, whose voice I know; And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well-veil'd Death, Over the tree-tops I float thee a song! 160 Over the rising and sinking waves—over the myriad fields, and the prairies wide; Over the dense-pack'd cities all, and the teeming wharves and ways, I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O Death! To the tally of my soul, 17 Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird, With pure, deliberate notes, spreading, filling the night. Loud in the pines and cedars dim, Clear in the freshness moist, and the swamp-perfume; While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed, "Lilacs reads "Approach, encompassing Death-strong Deliveress!" 170 18 I saw askant the armies ;1 And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags; Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc'd with missiles, I saw them, And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody; And at last but a few shreds' left on the staffs, (and all in silence,) And the staffs all splinter'd and broken. I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, And the white skeletons of young men-I saw them; I saw the debris and debris of all the dead soldiers of the war ;3 But I saw they were not as was thought; They themselves were fully at rest-they suffer'd not; The living remain'd and suffer'd-the mother suffer'd, 180 And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer'd, And the armies that remain'd suffer'd. 19 Passing the visions, passing the night; Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades' hands; Passing the song of the hermit bird, and the tallying song of my soul, (Victorious song, death's outlet song, yet varying, ever-altering song, As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night, 190 Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy, Covering the earth, and filling the spread of the heaven, I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring. 1 Lilacs reads "I saw the vision of armies." 2 Lilacs reads "shreds of the flags left," etc. 3 "of the war" added in 1870. Lilacs reads "Must I leave thee," etc. 5 Lilacs reads "Must I leave thee," etc. I cease from my song for thee;' From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, commun ing with thee, O comrade lustrous, with silver face in the night. 20 200 Yet each I keep, and all, retrievements out of the night;" of woe, 4 With the lilac tall, and its blossoms of mastering odor; bird," Comrades mine, and I in the midst, and their memory ever I keep for the dead I loved so well; For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands. . . and this for his dear sake; Lilac and star and bird, twined with the chant of my soul, O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN ! First published in "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd," 1865-6. I O CAPTAIN ! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won; O the bleeding drops of red," Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. 1 Lilacs reads "Must I pass from my song for thee." "retrievements out of the night 31870 adds "I keep." 1870 adds "I keep." " added in 1870. 5 Line 204 in "Lilacs" is next to the last line. 2 ΙΟ O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; This arm beneath your head ;1 It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead. 3 My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. HUSH'D BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY. (MAY 4, 1865.)3 First published in "Drum-Taps," 1865. HUSH'D be the camps to-day; I And, soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons; Our dear commander's death. No more for him life's stormy conflicts; Nor victory, nor defeat-no more time's dark events, But sing, poet, in our name; 2 Sing of the love we bore him-because you, dweller in camps, know it truly. 1 Lilacs reads "This arm I push beneath you." 2 Lilacs. For "mournful" reads "silent." 3 Added in 1870. 1865 reads "A. L. Buried, April 19, 1865." As they invault the coffin there; Sing as they close the doors of earth upon him—one verse,1 For the heavy hearts of soldiers. ΙΟ THIS DUST WAS ONCE THE MAN. First published in 1870. THIS dust was once the Man, Gentle, plain, just and resolute-under whose cautious hand, Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age, Was saved the Union of These States. POEM OF JOYS. First published in 1860. I O To make the' most jubilant poem ! Even to set off these, and merge with these, the carols of Death.3 O full of music! full of manhood, womanhood, infancy! Full of common employments! full of grain and trees. O for the voices of animals! O for the swiftness and balance of fishes! O for the dropping of rain-drops in a poem ! O for the sunshine, and motion of waves in a poem.* O the joy of my spirit! it is uncaged! it darts like lightning! It is not enough to have this globe, or a certain time—I will have thousands of globes, and all time. 1 Drum-Taps reads " Sing, with the shovel'd clods that fill the grave--a verse." 2 1860 for "the" reads "a." 3 Line 2 added in 1870. After line 7, 1860 '67 read "O to be on the sea! the wind, the wide waters around; O to sail in a ship under full sail at sea." |