Faces
1 SAUNTERING the pavement, or riding the country by-road-lo! such faces! Faces of friendship, precision, caution, suavity, ideality; The spiritual, prescient face-the always welcome, common, benevolent face, The face of the singing of music-the
To a Historian
YOU who celebrate bygones! Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races-the life that has exhibited itself; Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates, rulers and priests; I,
Hush'd be the Camps To-day
1 HUSH’D be the camps to-day; And, soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons; And each with musing soul retire, to celebrate, Our dear commander’s death. No more for him life’s stormy conflicts; Nor
As Toilsome I Wander'd
AS toilsome I wander’d Virginia’s woods, To the music of rustling leaves, kick’d by my feet, (for ’twas autumn,) I mark’d at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier, Mortally wounded
Who is now Reading This?
WHO is now reading this? May-be one is now reading this who knows some wrong-doing of my past life, Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly loved me, Or may-be one
One Sweeps By
ONE sweeps by, attended by an immense train, All emblematic of peace-not a soldier or menial among them. One sweeps by, old, with black eyes, and profuse white hair, He has the simple magnificence
To One Shortly to Die
1 FROM all the rest I single out you, having a message for you: You are to die-Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate, I am exact and merciless, but I
Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats
AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats! Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me! (For what is my life, or any man’s life, but a conflict with foes-the old, the incessant war?) You
Dresser, The
1 AN old man bending, I come, among new faces, Years looking backward, resuming, in answer to children, Come tell us, old man, as from young men and maidens that love me; Years hence
Inscription
SMALL is the theme of the following Chant, yet the greatest-namely, One’s-Self-that wondrous thing a simple, separate person. That, for the use of the New World, I sing. Man’s physiology complete, from top to
O Tan-faced Prairie Boy
O TAN-FACED prairie-boy! Before you came to camp, came many a welcome gift; Praises and presents came, and nourishing food-till at last, among the recruits, You came, taciturn, with nothing to give-we but look’d
To Thee, Old Cause!
TO thee, old Cause! Thou peerless, passionate, good cause! Thou stern, remorseless, sweet Idea! Deathless throughout the ages, races, lands! After a strange, sad war-great war for thee, (I think all war through time
To a Western Boy
O BOY of the West! To you many things to absorb, I teach, to help you become eleve of mine: Yet if blood like mine circle not in your veins; If you be not
Lessons
THERE are who teach only the sweet lessons of peace and safety; But I teach lessons of war and death to those I love, That they readily meet invasions, when they come.
Out of the Rolling Ocean, the Crowd
1 OUT of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently to me, Whispering, I love you, before long I die, I have travel’d a long way, merely to look on you, to