Leaves of grass. | ||
18
38 I saw the vision of
armies;
And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags;
Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc'd with missiles, I saw them,
And carried hither and you through the smoke, and torn and bloody;
And at last but a few shreds of the flags left on the staffs, (and all in silence,)
And the staffs all splinter'd and broken.
39 I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men — I saw them;
I saw the debris and debris of all dead soldiers;
But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest — they suffer'd not;
The living remain'd and suffer'd — the mother suffer'd,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suf- fer'd,
And the armies that remain'd suffer'd.
And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags;
Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc'd with missiles, I saw them,
And carried hither and you through the smoke, and torn and bloody;
And at last but a few shreds of the flags left on the staffs, (and all in silence,)
And the staffs all splinter'd and broken.
39 I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men — I saw them;
I saw the debris and debris of all dead soldiers;
But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest — they suffer'd not;
The living remain'd and suffer'd — the mother suffer'd,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suf- fer'd,
And the armies that remain'd suffer'd.
Leaves of grass. | ||