Leaves of Grass: First and Death-Bed Editions

by Walt Whitman

Give me your hand old Revolutionary,

  The hill-top is nigh, but a few steps, (make room gentlemen,)

  Up the path you have follow’d me well, spite of your hundred and

  extra years,

  You can walk old man, though your eyes are almost done,

  Your faculties serve you, and presently I must have them serve me.

  Rest, while I tell what the crowd around us means,

  On the plain below recruits are drilling and exercising,

  There is the camp, one regiment departs to-morrow,

  Do you hear the officers giving their orders?

  Do you hear the clank of the muskets?

  Why what comes over you now old man?

  Why do you tremble and clutch my hand so convulsively?

  The troops are but drilling, they are yet surrounded with smiles,

  Around them at hand the well-drest friends and the women,

  While splendid and warm the afternoon sun shines down,

  Green the midsummer verdure and fresh blows the dallying breeze,

  O‘er proud and peaceful cities and arm of the sea between.

  But drill and parade are over, they march back to quarters,

  Only hear that approval of hands! hear what a clapping!

  As wending the crowds now part and disperse—but we old man,

  Not for nothing have I brought you hither—we must remain,

  You to speak in your turn, and I to listen and tell.

  The Centenarian

  When I clutch’d your hand it was not with terror,

  But suddenly pouring about me here on every side,

  And below there where the boys were drilling, and up the slopes

  they ran,

  And where tents are pitch‘d, and wherever you see south and

  south-east and south-west,

  Over hills, across lowlands, and in the skirts of woods,

  And along the shores, in mire (now fill’d over) came again and

  suddenly raged,

  As eighty-five years a-gone no mere parade receiv’d with applause

  of friends,

  But a battle which I took part in myself—aye, long ago as it is, I

  took part in it,

  Walking then this hilltop, this same ground.

  Aye, this is the ground,

  My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re-peopled

  from graves,

  The years recede, pavements and stately houses disappear,

  Rude forts appear again, the old hoop’d guns are mounted,

  I see the lines of rais’d earth stretching from river to bay,

  I mark the vista of waters, I mark the uplands and slopes;

  Here we lay encamp‘d, it was this time in summer also.

  As I talk I remember all, I remember the Declaration,

  It was read here, the whole army paraded, it was read to us

  here,

  By his staff surrounded the General stood in the middle, he held

  up his unsheath’d sword,

  It glitter’d in the sun in full sight of the army.

  ‘Twas a bold act then—the English war-ships had just arrived,

  We could watch down the lower bay where they lay at anchor,

  And the transports swarming with soldiers.

  A few days more and they landed, and then the battle.

  Twenty thousand were brought against us,

  A veteran force furnish’d with good artillery.

  I tell not now the whole of the battle,

  But one brigade early in the forenoon order’d forward to engage

  the red-coats,

  Of that brigade I tell, and how steadily it march‘d,

  And how long and well it stood confronting death.

  Who do you think that was marching steadily sternly confronting

  death?

  It was the brigade of the youngest men, two thousand strong,

  Rais’d in Virginia and Maryland, and most of them known

  personally to the General.

  Jauntily forward they went with quick step toward Gowanus’ waters,

  Till of a sudden unlook’d for by defiles through the woods, gain’d

  at night,

  The British advancing, rounding in from the east, fiercely playing

  their guns,

  That brigade of the youngest was cut off and at the enemy’s mercy.

  The General watch’d them from this hill,

  They made repeated desperate attempts to burst their environment,

  Then drew close together, very compact, their flag flying in the

  middle,

  But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and thinning

  them!

  It sickens me yet, that slaughter!

  I saw the moisture gather in drops on the face of the General.

  I saw how he wrung his hands in anguish.

  Meanwhile the British manœuvr’d to draw us out for a pitch’d battle,

  But we dared not trust the chances of a pitch’d battle.

  We fought the fight in detachments,

  Sallying forth we fought at several points, but in each the luck

  was against us,

  Our foe advancing, steadily getting the best of it, push’d us back

  to the works on this hill,

  Till we turn’d menacing here, and then he left us.

  That was the going out of the brigade of the youngest men, two

  thousand strong,

  Few return‘d, nearly all remain in Brooklyn.

  That and here my General’s first battle,

  No women looking on nor sunshine to bask in, it did not

  conclude with applause,

  Nobody clapp’d hands here then.

  But in darkness in mist on the ground under a chill rain,

  Wearied that night we lay foil’d and sullen,

  While scornfully laugh’d many an arrogant lord off against us

  encamp‘d,

  Quite within hearing, feasting, clinking wineglasses together over

  their victory.

  So dull and damp and another day,

  But the night of that, mist lifting, rain ceasing,

  Silent as a ghost while they thought they were sure of him, my

  General retreated.

  I saw him at the river-side,

  Down by the ferry lit by torches, hastening the embarcation;

  My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were all pass’d

  over,

  And then, (it was just ere sunrise,) these eyes rested on him for

  the last time.

  Every one else seem’d fill’d with gloom,

  Many no doubt thought of capitulation.

  But when my General pass’d me,

  As he stood in his boat and look’d toward the coming sun,

  I saw something different from capitulation.

  Terminus

  Enough, the Centenarian’s story ends,

  The two, the past and present, have interchanged,

  I myself as connecter, as chansonnier of a great future, am now

  speaking.

  And is this the ground Washington trod?

  And these waters I listlessly daily cross, are these the waters he

  cross‘d,

  As resolute in defeat as other generals in their proudest triumphs?

  I must copy the story, and send it eastward and westward,

  I must preserve that look as it beam’d on you rivers of Brooklyn.

  See—as the annual round returns the phantoms return,

  It is the 27th of August and the British have landed,

  The battle begins and goes against us, behold through the smoke

  Washington’s face,

  The brigade of Virginia and Maryland have march’d forth to

  intercept the enemy,

  They are cut off, murderous artillery from the hills plays upon

  them,

  Rank after
rank falls, while over them silently droops the flag,

  Baptized that day in many a young man’s bloody wounds,

  In death, defeat, and sisters‘, mothers’ tears.

  Ah, hills and slopes of Brooklyn! I perceive you are more valuable

  than your owners supposed;

  In the midst of you stands an encampment very old,

  Stands forever the camp of that dead brigade.

  CAVALRY CROSSING A FORD

  A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,

  They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun—hark

  to the musical clank,

  Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to

  drink,

  Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture,

  the negligent rest on the saddles,

  Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the

  ford—while,

  Scarlet and blue and snowy white,

  The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind.

  BIVOUAC ON A MOUNTAIN SIDEbp

  I see before me now a traveling army halting,

  Below a fertile valley spread, with barns and the orchards of

  summer,

  Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain, abrupt, in places rising

  high,

  Broken, with rocks, with clinging cedars, with tall shapes dingily

  seen,

  The numerous camp-fires scatter’d near and far, some away up on

  the mountain,

  The shadowy forms of men and horses, looming, large-sized,

  flickering,

  And over all the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach, studded,

  breaking out, the eternal stars.

  AN ARMY CORPS ON THE MARCH

  With its cloud of skirmishers in advance,

  With now the sound of a single shot snapping like a whip, and

  now an irregular volley,

  The swarming ranks press on and on, the dense brigades

  press on,

  Glittering dimly, toiling under the sun—the dust-cover’d men,

  In columns rise and fall to the undulations of the ground,

  With artillery interspers‘d—the wheels rumble, the horses sweat,

  As the army corps advances.

  BY THE BIVOUAC’S FITFUL FLAME

  By the bivouac’s fitful flame,

  A procession winding around me, solemn and sweet and slow—

  but first I note,

  The tents of the sleeping army, the fields’ and woods’ dim

  outline,

  The darkness lit by spots of kindled fire, the silence,

  Like a phantom far or near an occasional figure moving,

  The shrubs and trees, (as I lift my eyes they seem to be stealthily

  watching me,)

  While wind in procession thoughts, O tender and wondrous

  thoughts,

  Of life and death, of home and the past and loved, and of those

  that are far away;

  A solemn and slow procession there as I sit on the ground,

  By the bivouac’s fitful flame.

  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.

  VIGIL STRANGE I KEPT ON THE FIELD ONE NIGHT

  Vigil strange I kept on the field one night;

  When you my son and my comrade dropt at my side that day,

  One look I but gave which your dear eyes return’d with a look I

  shall never forget,

  One touch of your hand to mine O boy, reach’d up as you lay on

  the ground,

  Then onward I sped in the battle, the even-contested battle,

  Till late in the night reliev’d to the place at last again I made my

  way,

  Found you in death so cold dear comrade, found your body son

  of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding,)

  Bared your face in the starlight, curious the scene, cool blew the

  moderate night-wind,

  Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me the battle-

  field spreading,

  Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet there in the fragrant silent night,

  But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh, long, long I gazed,

  Then on the earth partially reclining sat by your side leaning my

  chin in my hands,

  Passing sweet hours, immortal and mystic hours with you dearest

  comrade—not a tear, not a word,

  Vigil of silence, love and death, vigil for you my son and my

  soldier,

  As onward silently stars aloft, eastward new ones upward stole,

  Vigil final for you brave boy, (I could not save you, swift was your

  death,

  I faithfully loved you and cared for you living, I think we shall

  surely meet again,)

  Till at latest lingering of the night, indeed just as the dawn

  appear‘d,

  My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop’d well his form,

  Folded the blanket well, tucking it car
efully over head and

  carefully under feet,

  And there and then and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his

  grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited,

  Ending my vigil strange with that, vigil of night and battle-field dim,

  Vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth

  responding,)

  Vigil for comrade swiftly slain, vigil I never forget, how as day

  brighten’d,

  I rose from the chill ground and folded my soldier well in his

  blanket,

  And buried him where he fell.

  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 muffled 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 space 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,