Bathed in War's Perfume
BATHED in war’s perfume-delicate flag!
(Should the days needing armies, needing fleets, come again,)
O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like a beautiful woman!
O to hear the tramp, tramp, of a million answering men! O the ships they arm with joy!
O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of ships!
O to see you peering down on the sailors on the decks!
Flag like the eyes of women.





Related poetry:
- EXOTIC PERFUME WHEN with closed eyes in autumn’s eves of gold I breathe the burning odours of your breast, Before my eyes […]...
- Bathed and Washed “Bathed in fragrance, Do not brush your hat; Washed in perfume, Do not shake your coat: “Knowing the world Fears […]...
- Song for All Seas, All Ships 1 TO-DAY a rude brief recitative, Of ships sailing the Seas, each with its special flag or ship-signal; Of unnamed […]...
- Old Song Re-Sung I saw three ships a-sailing, A-sailing on the sea, The first her masts were silver, Her hull was ivory. The […]...
- WARS & RUMORS OF WARS “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; See that ye not be troubles; All these things must come […]...
- Thick-Sprinkled Bunting THICK-SPRINKLED bunting! Flag of stars! Long yet your road, fateful flag!-long yet your road, and lined with bloody death! For […]...
- Mannahatta I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city, Whereupon, lo! upsprang the aboriginal name! Now I see […]...
- Elegy IV: The Perfume Once, and but once found in thy company, All thy supposed escapes are laid on me; And as a thief […]...
- 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 […]...
- Statistics NAPOLEON shifted, Restless in the old sarcophagus And murmured to a watchguard: “Who goes there?” “Twenty-one million men, Soldiers, armies, […]...
- Delicate Cluster DELICATE cluster! flag of teeming life! Covering all my lands! all my sea-shores lining! Flag of death! (how I watch’d […]...
- One White Tree Tall ships and tall kings Three times three. What brought they from the foundered land Over the flowing sea? Seven […]...
- Wars IN the old wars drum of hoofs and the beat of shod feet. In the new wars hum of motors […]...
- To Lucasta, Going To The Wars Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind, That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breasts, and quiet mind, To war […]...
- Adrift! A little boat adrift! Adrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down! Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest […]...
- Ears In The Turrets Hear Ears in the turrets hear Hands grumble on the door, Eyes in the gables see The fingers at the locks. […]...
- My Wars are laid away in Books My Wars are laid away in Books I have one Battle more A Foe whom I have never seen But […]...
- A Garden, Written after the Civil Wars SEE how the flowers, as at parade, Under their colours stand display’d: Each regiment in order grows, That of the […]...
- Silence Now it is time to say what you have to say. The room is quiet. The whirring fan has been […]...
- The White Ships and the Red (For Alden March) With drooping sail and pennant That never a wind may reach, They float in sunless waters Beside […]...