Drum Taps

Author(s): Walt Whitman

Source: http://ia331311.us.archive.org/1/items/drumtaps08801gut/7drum10.txt

Summary

A collection of poems including: FIRST O SONGS FOR A PRELUDE, EIGHTEEN SIXTY-ONE, BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS!, FROM PAUMANOK STARTING I FLY LIKE A BIRD, SONG OF THE BANNER AT DAYBREAK, RISE O DAYS FROM YOUR FATHOMLESS DEEPS, VIRGINIA--THE WEST, CITY OF SHIPS, THE CENTENARIAN'S STORY, CAVALRY CROSSING A FORD, BIVOUAC ON A MOUNTAIN SIDE, AN ARMY CORPS ON THE MARCH, BY THE BIVOUAC'S FITFUL FLAME, COME UP FROM THE FIELDS FATHER, VIGIL STRANGE I KEPT ON THE FIELD ONE NIGHT, A MARCH IN THE RANKS HARD-PREST, AND THE ROAD UNKNOWN, A SIGHT IN CAMP IN THE DAYBREAK GRAY AND DIM, AS TOILSOME I WANDER'D VIRGINIA'S WOODS, NOT THE PILOT, YEAR THAT TREMBLED AND REEL'D BENEATH ME, THE WOUND-DRESSER, LONG, TOO LONG AMERICA, GIVE ME THE SPLENDID SILENT SUN, DIRGE FOR TWO VETERANS, OVER THE CARNAGE ROSE PROPHETIC A VOICE, I SAW OLD GENERAL AT BAY, THE ARTILLERYMAN'S VISION, ETHIOPIA SALUTING THE COLOURS, NOT YOUTH PERTAINS TO ME, RACE OF VETERANS, WORLD TAKE GOOD NOTICE, O TAN-FACED PRAIRIE-BOY, LOOK DOWN FAIR MOON, RECONCILIATION, HOW SOLEMN AS ONE BY ONE, AS I LAY WITH MY HEAD IN YOUR LAP CAMERADO, DELICATE CLUSTER, TO A CERTAIN CIVILIAN, LO, VICTRESS ON THE PEAKS, SPIRIT WHOSE WORK IS DONE, ADIEU TO A SOLDIER, TURN O LIBERTAD, TO THE LEAVEN'D SOIL THEY TROD

Excerpt

Arm'd year--year of the struggle, No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you terrible year, Not you as some pale poetling seated at a desk lisping cadenzas piano, But as a strong man erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing, carrying a rifle on your shoulder, With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands, with a knife in the belt at your side, As I heard you shouting loud, your sonorous voice ringing across the continent, Your masculine voice O year, as rising amid the great cities, Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you as one of the workmen, the dwellers in Manhattan,