And at last but a few shreds of the flags left on the staffs, (and all in silence,) And the staffs all splintered and broken. I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, And the white skeletons of young men—I saw them; But I saw they were not as was thought; They themselves were fully at rest—they suffered not; The living remained and suffered the mother suffered, And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffered, And the armies that remained suffered. I9. 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, Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy, Covering the earth, and filling the spread of the heaven, As that powerful psalm in the night, I heard from recesses. 20. Must I leave thee, lilac with heart-shaped leaves? Must I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring? Must I pass from my song for thee— From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee, O comrade lustrous, with silver face in the night? Yet each I keep, and all; 21. The song, the wondrous chant of the grey-brown bird, full of woe; With the lilac tall, and its blossoms of mastering odour; 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, With the holders holding my hand, nearing the call of the bird, There in the fragrant pines, and the cedars dusk and dim. O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN ! (For the Death of Lincoln.) I. CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done! The ship has weathered every wrack, the prize we sought is won. The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring. But, O heart! heart! heart! Leave you not the little spot Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. 2. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells! trills : For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths, for you the shores a-crowding: For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning. O Captain! dear father! This arm I push beneath you. 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 : My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will. But the ship, the ship is anchored safe, its voyage closed and done: From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won! Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells! But I, with silent tread, Walk the spot my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. PIONEERS! O PIONEERS! I. COME, my tan-faced children, Follow well in order, get your weapons ready; Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes? Pioneers! O pioneers! 2. For we cannot tarry here, We must march, my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend. Pioneers! O pioneers! 3. O you youths, western youths, So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship, Plain I see you, Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost, Pioneers! O pioneers! 4. Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers! 5. All the past we leave behind; We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world; |