Drum-Taps: The Complete 1865 Edition

by Walt Whitman

  Your chants, O year all mottled with evil and good! year of forebodings! year of the youth I love!

  Year of comets and meteors transient and strange!—lo! even here, one equally transient and strange!

  As I flit through you hastily, soon to fall and be gone, what is this book,

  What am I myself but one of your meteors?

  The Torch

  On my northwest coast in the midst of the night, a fishermen’s group stands watching;

  Out on the lake, expanding before them, others are spearing salmon;

  The canoe, a dim and shadowy thing, moves across the black water,*

  Bearing a Torch a-blaze at the prow.

  Years of the unperform’d

  Years of the unperform’d! your horizon rises—I see it parting away for more august dramas;

  I see not America only—I see not only Liberty’s nation, but other nations preparing;

  I see tremendous entrances and exits—I see new combinations—I see the solidarity of races;

  I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world’s stage;

  (Have the old forces played their parts? are the acts suitable to them closed?)

  I see Freedom, completely arm’d, and victorious, and very haughty, with Law by her side, both issuing forth against the idea of caste;*

  —What historic denouements are these we so rapidly approach?

  I see men marching and countermarching by swift millions;

  I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocracies broken;

  I see the landmarks of European kings removed;

  I see this day the People beginning their landmarks, (all others give way;)

  Never were such sharp questions ask’d as this day;

  Never was average man, his soul, more energetic, more like a God;

  Lo, how he urges and urges, leaving the masses no rest;

  His daring foot is on land and sea everywhere—he colonizes the Pacific, the archipelagoes;

  With the steam-ship, the electric telegraph, the newspaper, the wholesale engines of war,

  With these, and the world-spreading factories, he interlinks all geography, all lands;

  —What whispers are these, O lands, running ahead of you, passing under the seas?*

  Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe?

  Is humanity forming, en-masse?—for lo! tyrants tremble, crowns grow dim;

  The earth, restive, confronts a new era, perhaps a general divine war;

  No one knows what will happen next—such portents fill the days and nights;

  Years prophetical! the space ahead as I walk, as I vainly try to pierce it, is full of phantoms;

  Unborn deeds, things soon to be, project their shapes around me;*

  This incredible rush and heat—this strange extactic fever of dreams, O years!

  Your dreams, O years, how they penetrate through me! (I know not whether I sleep or wake!)

  The perform’d America and Europe grow dim, retiring in shadow behind me,

  The unperform’d, more gigantic than ever, advance, advance upon me.

  Year that trembled and reel’d beneath me

  Year that trembled and reel’d beneath me!*

  Your summer wind was warm enough—yet the air I breathed froze me;

  A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken’d me;

  Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself;

  Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baffled?

  And sullen hymns of defeat?

  The Veteran’s vision

  While my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long,

  And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the mystic midnight passes,

  And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my infant,

  There in the room, as I wake from sleep, this vision presses upon me:

  The engagement opens there and then, in my busy brain unreal;

  The skirmishers begin—they crawl cautiously ahead—

  I hear the irregular snap! snap!

  I hear the sounds of the different missiles—the short t-h-t! t-h-t! of the rifle balls;*

  I see the shells exploding, leaving small white clouds—

  I hear the great shells shrieking as they pass;

  The grape, like the hum and whirr of wind through the trees, (quick, tumultuous, now the contest rages!)*

  All the scenes at the batteries themselves rise in detail before me again;

  The crashing and smoking—the pride of the men in their pieces;

  The chief gunner ranges and sights his piece, and selects a fuse of the right time;

  After firing, I see him lean aside, and look eagerly off to note the effect;

  —Elsewhere I hear the cry of a regiment charging—(the young colonel leads himself this time, with brandish’d sword;)

  I see the gaps cut by the enemy’s volleys, (quickly fill’d up—no delay;)

  I breathe the suffocating smoke—then the flat clouds hover low, concealing all;

  Now a strange lull comes for a few seconds, not a shot fired on either side;

  Then resumed, the chaos louder than ever, with eager calls, and orders of officers;

  While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts to my ears a shout of applause, (some special success;)

  And ever the sound of the cannon, far or near, (rousing, even in dreams, a devilish exultation, and all the old mad joy, in the depths of my soul;)

  And ever the hastening of infantry shifting positions—batteries, cavalry, moving hither and thither;

  (The falling, dying, I heed not—the wounded, dripping and red, I heed not—some to the rear are hobbling;)

  Grime, heat, rush—aid-de-camps galloping by, or on a full run;

  With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my vision I hear or see,)

  And bombs bursting in air, and at night the vari-color’d rockets.*

  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 on each other,

  When lo! more than all the gifts of the world, you gave me.

  Camps of green

  Not alone our camps of white, O soldiers,

  When, as order’d forward, after a long march,

  Footsore and weary, soon as the light lessens, we halt for the night;

  Some of us so fatigued, carrying the gun and knapsack, dropping asleep in our tracks;

  Others pitching the little tents, and the fires lit up begin to sparkle;

  Outposts of pickets posted, surrounding, alert through the dark,

  And a word provided for countersign, careful for safety;

  Till to the call of the drummers at daybreak loudly beating the drums,

  We rise up refresh’d, the night and sleep pass’d over, and resume our journey,

  Or proceed to battle.

  Lo! the camps of the tents of green,

  Which the days of peace keep filling, and the days of war keep filling,

  With a mystic army, (is it too order’d forward? is it too only halting awhile,

  Till night and sleep pass over?)

  Now in those camps of green—in their tents dotting the world;

  In the parents, children, husbands, wives, in them—in the old and young,

  Sleeping under the sunlight, sleeping under the moonlight, content and silent there at last,

  Behold the mighty bivouac-field, and waiting-camp of us and ours and all,

  Of our corps and generals all, and the President over the corps and generals all

  And each of us, O soldiers, and of each and all in the ranks we fight,

  (There without hatred we shall all meet.)

&
nbsp; For presently, O soldiers, we too camp in our place in the bivouac-camps of green;

  But we need not provide for outposts, nor word for the countersign,

  Nor drummer to beat the morning drum.

  As toilsome I wander’d Virginia’s woods

  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 he, and buried on the retreat, (easily all could I understand;)

  The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose—yet this sign left,

  On a tablet scrawl’d and nail’d on the tree by the grave,*

  Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.

  Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering;

  Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life;

  Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt, alone, or in the crowded street,

  Comes before me the unknown soldier’s grave—comes the inscription rude in Virginia’s woods,

  Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.

  Hymn of dead soldiers

  One breath, O my silent soul,

  A perfum’d thought—no more I ask, for the sake of all dead soldiers.

  Buglers off in my armies!

  At present I ask not you to sound;

  Not at the head of my cavalry, all on their spirited horses,

  With their sabres drawn and glist’ning, and carbines clanking by their thighs—(ah, my brave horsemen!*

  My handsome, tan-faced horsemen! what life, what joy and pride,

  With all the perils, were yours!)*

  Nor you drummers—neither at reveille, at dawn,

  Nor the long roll alarming the camp—nor even the muffled beat for a burial;

  Nothing from you, this time, O drummers, bearing my warlike drums.

  But aside from these, and the crowd’s hurrahs, and the land’s congratulations,

  Admitting around me comrades close, unseen by the rest, and voiceless,

  I chant this chant of my silent soul, in the name of all dead soldiers.

  Faces so pale, with wondrous eyes, very dear, gather closer yet;

  Draw close, but speak not.

  Phantoms, welcome, divine and tender!*

  Invisible to the rest, henceforth become my companions;

  Follow me ever! desert me not, while I live.

  Sweet are the blooming cheeks of the living! sweet are the musical voices sounding!

  But sweet, ah sweet, are the dead, with their silent eyes.

  Dearest comrades! all now is over;

  But love is not over—and what love, O comrades!

  Perfume from battle-fields rising—up from fœtor arising.*

  Perfume therefore my chant, O love! immortal Love!

  Give me to bathe the memories of all dead soldiers.

  Perfume all! make all wholesome!

  O love! O chant! solve all with the last chemistry.

  Give me exhaustless—make me a fountain,

  That I exhale love from me wherever I go,

  For the sake of all dead soldiers.

  The ship

  Lo! The unbounded sea!*

  On its breast a Ship, spreading all her sails—an ample

  Ship, carrying even her moonsails;*

  The pennant is flying aloft, as she speeds, she speeds so stately—below, emulous waves press forward,

  They surround the Ship, with shining curving motions, and foam.

  A Broadway pageant

  (Reception Japanese Embassy, June 16, 1860)

  Over sea, hither from Niphon,*

  Courteous, the Princes of Asia, swart-cheek’d princes,

  First-comers, guests, two-sworded princes,*

  Lesson-giving princes, leaning back in their open barouches, bare-headed, impassive,

  This day they ride through Manhattan.

  Libertad!*

  I do not know whether others behold what I behold,

  In the procession, along with the Princes of Asia, the errand-bearers,

  Bringing up the rear, hovering above, around, or in the ranks marching;

  But I will sing you a song of what I behold, Libertad.

  When million-footed Manhattan, unpent, descends to its pavements;

  When the thunder-cracking guns arouse me with the proud roar I love;*

  When the round-mouth’d guns, out of the smoke and smell I love, spit their salutes;

  When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me—when heaven-clouds canopy my city with a delicate thin haze;

  When, gorgeous, the countless straight stems, the forests at the wharves, thicken with colors;

  When every ship, richly drest, carries her flag at the peak;

  When pennants trail, and street-festoons hang from the windows;

  When Broadway is entirely given up to foot-passengers and foot-standers—when the mass is densest;

  When the facades of the houses are alive with people—when eyes gaze, riveted, tens of thousands at a time;

  When the guests from the islands advance—when the pageant moves forward, visible;

  When the summons is made—when the answer that waited thousands of years, answers;

  I too, arising, answering, descend to the pavements, merge with the crowd, and gaze with them.

  Superb-faced Manhattan!

  Comrade Americanos!—to us, then, at last, the Orient comes.*

  To us, my city,

  Where our tall-topt marble and iron beauties range on opposite sides—to walk in the space between,

  To-day our Antipodes comes.

  The Originatress comes,*

  The land of Paradise—land of the Caucasus—the nest of birth,*

  The nest of languages, the bequeather of poems, the race of eld,*

  Florid with blood, pensive, rapt with musings, hot with passion,

  Sultry with perfume, with ample and flowing garments,

  With sunburnt visage, with intense soul and glittering eyes.

  The race of Brahma comes!

  See, my cantabile! these, and more, are flashing to us from the procession;

  As it moves, changing, a kaleidoscope divine it moves, changing, before us.

  Not the errand-bearing princes, nor the tann’d Japanee only;

  Lithe and silent, the Hindoo appears—the whole Asiatic continent itself appears—the Past, the dead,

  The murky night-morning of wonder and fable, inscrutable,

  The envelop’d mysteries, the old and unknown hive-bees,

  The North—the sweltering South—Assyria—the Hebrews—the Ancient of ancients,

  Vast desolated cities—the gliding Present—all of these, and more, are in the pageant-procession.

  Geography, the world, is in it;

  The Great Sea, the brood of islands, Polynesia, the coast beyond;

  The coast you, henceforth, are facing—you Libertad! from your Western golden shores;

  The countries there, with their populations—the millions en-masse, are curiously here;

  The swarming market places—the temples, with idols ranged along the sides, or at the end—bonze, brahmin, and lama;

  The mandarin, farmer, merchant, mechanic, and fisherman;

  The singing-girl and the dancing-girl—the ecstatic person—the divine Buddha;

  The secluded Emperors—Confucius himself—the great poets and heroes—the warriors, the castes, all,

  Trooping up, crowding from all directions—from the Altay mountains,

  From Thibet—from the four winding and far-flowing rivers of China,

  From the Southern peninsulas, and the demi-continental islands—from Malaysia;

  These, and whatever belongs to them, palpable, show forth to me, and are seiz’d by me,

  And I am seiz’d by them, and friendlily held by them,

  Till, as here, them all I chant, Libertad! for themse
lves and for you.

  For I too, raising my voice, join the ranks of this pageant;

  I am the chanter—I chant aloud over the pageant;

  I chant the world on my Western Sea;

  I chant, copious, the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky;

  I chant the new empire, grander than any before—As in a vision it comes to me;

  I chant America, the Mistress—I chant a greater supremacy;

  I chant, projected, a thousand blooming cities yet, in time, on those groups of sea-islands;

  I chant my sail-ships and steam-ships threading the archipelagoes;

  I chant my stars and stripes fluttering in the wind;

  I chant commerce opening, the sleep of ages having done its work—races, reborn, refresh’d;

  Lives, works, resumed—The object I know not—but the old, the Asiatic, resumed, as it must be,

  Commencing from this day, surrounded by the world.

  And you, Libertad of the world!

  You shall sit in the middle, well-pois’d, thousands of years;

  As to-day, from one side, the Princes of Asia come to you;

  As to-morrow, from the other side, the Queen of England sends her eldest son to you.*

  The sign is reversing, the orb is enclosed,

  The ring is circled, the journey is done;

  The box-lid is but perceptibly open’d—nevertheless the perfume pours copiously out of the whole box.

  Young Libertad!

  With the venerable Asia, the all-mother,

  Be considerate with her, now and ever, hot Libertad—for you are all;

  Bend your proud neck to the long-off mother, now sending messages over the archipelagoes to you;

  Bend your proud neck low for once, young Libertad.

  Were the children straying westward so long? so wide the tramping?

  Were the precedent dim ages debouching westward from Paradise so long?

  Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, all the while unknown, for you, for reasons?

  They are justified—they are accomplish’d—they shall now be turn’d the other way also, to travel toward you thence;

  They shall now also march obediently eastward, for your sake, Libertad.

  Flag of stars, thick-sprinkled bunting

  Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting!

  Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road, and lined with bloody death!

  For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world!