The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman Part 1

The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman.

by Walt Whitman.

I

POEMS OF WAR

THICK-SPRINKLED BUNTING

Thick-sprinkled bunting! flag of stars!

Long yet your road, fateful flag--long yet your road, and lined with b.l.o.o.d.y death, For the prize I see at issue at last is the world, All its ships and sh.o.r.es I see interwoven with your threads greedy banner; Dream'd again the flags of kings, highest borne, to flaunt unrival'd?

O hasten flag of man--O with sure and steady step, pa.s.sing highest flags of kings, Walk supreme to the heavens mighty symbol--run up above them all, Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!

BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS!

Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow!

Through the windows--through doors--burst like a ruthless force, Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation, Into the school where the scholar is studying; Leave not the bridegroom quiet--no happiness must he have now with his bride, Not the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain, So fierce you whirr and pound you drums--so shrill you bugles blow.

Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow!

Over the traffic of cities--over the rumble of wheels in the streets; Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds, No bargainers' bargains by day--no brokers or speculators--would they continue?

Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?

Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?

Then rattle quicker, heavier drums--you bugles wilder blow.

Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow!

Make no parley--stop for no expostulation, Mind not the timid--mind not the weeper or prayer, Mind not the old man beseeching the young man, Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties, Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hea.r.s.es, So strong you thump O terrible drums--so loud you bugles blow.

CITY OF SHIPS

City of ships!

(O the black ships! O the fierce ships!

O the beautiful sharp-bow'd steam-ships and sail-ships!) City of the world! (for all races are here, All the lands of the earth make contributions here); City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!

City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirling in and out with eddies and foam!

City of wharves and stores--city of tall facades of marble and iron!

Proud and pa.s.sionate city--mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!

Spring up O city--not for peace alone, but be indeed yourself, warlike!

Fear not--submit to no models but your own, O city!

Behold me--incarnate me as I have incarnated you!

I have rejected nothing you offer'd me--whom you adopted I have adopted, Good or bad I never question you--I love all--I do not condemn anything, I chant and celebrate all that is yours--yet peace no more, In peace I chanted peace, but now the drum of war is mine, War, red war is my song through your streets, O city!

A MARCH IN THE RANKS HARD-PREST, AND THE ROAD UNKNOWN

A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown, A route through a heavy wood with m.u.f.fled steps in the darkness, Our army foil'd with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating, Till after midnight glimmer upon us the lights of a dim-lighted building, We come to an open s.p.a.ce in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted building, 'Tis a large old church at the crossing roads, now an impromptu hospital, Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made, Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and lamps, And by one great pitchy torch stationary with wild red flame and clouds of smoke, By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some in the pews laid down, At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of bleeding to death (he is shot in the abdomen), I stanch the blood temporarily (the youngster's face is white as a lily), Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene fain to absorb it all, Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity, some of them dead, Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the odour of blood, The crowd, O the crowd of the b.l.o.o.d.y forms, the yard outside also fill'd, Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in the death-spasm sweating, An occasional scream or cry, the doctor's shouted orders or calls, The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the torches, These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odour, Then hear outside the orders given, _Fall in, my men, fall in_; But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile gives he me, Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness, Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks, The unknown road still marching.

COME UP FROM THE FIELDS FATHER

Come up from the fields father, here's a letter from our Pete, And come to the front door mother, here's a letter from thy dear son.

Lo, 'tis autumn, Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder, Cool and sweeten Ohio's villages with leaves fluttering in the moderate wind, Where apples ripe in the orchards hang and grapes on the trellis'd vines (Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?

Smell you the buckwheat where the bees were lately buzzing?), Above all, lo, the sky so calm, so transparent after the rain, and with wondrous clouds, Below too, all calm, all vital and beautiful, and the farm prospers well.

Down in the fields all prospers well, But now from the fields come father, come at the daughter's call, And come to the entry mother, to the front door come right away.

Fast as she can she hurries, something ominous, her steps trembling, She does not tarry to smooth her hair nor adjust her cap.

Open the envelope quickly, O this is not our son's writing, yet his name is sign'd, O a strange hand writes for our dear son, O stricken mother's soul!

All swims before her eyes, flashes with black, she catches the main words only, Sentences broken, _gunshot wound in the breast, cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital, At present low, but will soon be better._

Ah now the single figure to me, Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio with all its cities and farms, Sickly white in the face and dull in the head, very faint, By the jamb of a door leans.

_Grieve not so, dear mother_ (the just-grown daughter speaks through her sobs, The little sisters huddle around speechless and dismay'd), _See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will soon be better._

Alas poor boy, he will never be better (nor may be needs to be better, that brave and simple soul), While they stand at home at the door he is dead already, The only son is dead.

But the mother needs to be better, She with thin form presently drest in black, By day her meals untouch'd, then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking, In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing, O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life escape and withdraw, To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.

A TWILIGHT SONG

As I sit in twilight late alone by the flickering oak-flame, Musing on long-pa.s.s'd war-scenes--of the countless buried unknown soldiers, Of the vacant names, as unindented air's and sea's--the unreturn'd, The brief truce after battle, with grim burial-squads, and the deep-fill'd trenches Of gather'd dead from all America, North, South, East, West, whence they came up, From wooded Maine, New-England's farms, from fertile Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, From the measureless West, Virginia, the South, the Carolinas, Texas (Even here in my room-shadows and half-lights in the noiseless flickering flames, Again I see the stalwart ranks on-filing, rising--I hear the rhythmic tramp of the armies); You million unwrit names all, all--you dark bequest from all the war, A special verse for you--a flash of duty long neglected--your mystic roll strangely gather'd here, Each name recall'd by me from out the darkness and death's ashes, Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my heart recording, for many a future year, Your mystic roll entire of unknown names, or North or South, Embalm'd with love in this twilight song.

A SIGHT IN CAMP IN THE DAYBREAK GRAY AND DIM