Leaves of Grass :[1891] :: :: University of Virginia Library

Leaves of Grass :[1891]

Including Sands at Seventy...1st Annex, Good-Bye my Fancy...2d Annex, A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads, and Portrait from Life

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892)

[section]

INSCRIPTIONS.

STARTING FROM PAUMANOK.

SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD.

CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY.

SONG OF THE ANSWERER.

OUR OLD FEUILLAGE.

A SONG OF JOYS.

SONG OF THE BROAD-AXE.

SONG OF THE EXPOSITION.

SONG OF THE REDWOOD-TREE.

A SONG FOR OCCUPATIONS.

A SONG OF THE ROLLING EARTH.

YOUTH, DAY, OLD AGE AND NIGHT.

MEMORIES OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

BY BLUE ONTARIO'S SHORE.

REVERSALS.

AUTUMN RIVULETS.

PROUD MUSIC OF THE STORM.

WHISPERS OF HEAVENLY DEATH.

THOU MOTHER WITH THY EQUAL BROOD.

A PAUMANOK PICTURE.

FROM NOON TO STARRY NIGHT.

SONGS OF PARTING.

ANNEX TO PRECEDING PAGES. Sands at Seventy.

MANNAHATTA.

PAUMANOK.

FROM MONTAUK POINT.

TO THOSE WHO'VE FAIL'D.

A CAROL CLOSING SIXTY-NINE.

THE BRAVEST SOLDIERS.

A FONT OF TYPE.

AS I SIT WRITING HERE.

MY CANARY BIRD.

QUERIES TO MY SEVENTIETH YEAR.

THE WALLABOUT MARTYRS.

AFTER THE DAZZLE OF DAY.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BORN FEB. 12, 1809.

OUT OF MAY'S SHOWS SELECTED.

HALCYON DAYS.

FANCIES AT NAVESINK.

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884.

WITH HUSKY-HAUGHTY LIPS, O SEA!

DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT.

RED JACKET (FROM ALOFT.)

WASHINGTON'S MONUMENT, FEBRUARY, 1885.

OF THAT BLITHE THROAT OF THINE.

BROADWAY.

TO GET THE FINAL LILT OF SONGS.

SMALL THE THEME OF MY CHANT.

TRUE CONQUERORS.

THE UNITED STATES TO OLD WORLD CRITICS.

THE CALMING THOUGHT OF ALL.

THANKS IN OLD AGE.

LIFE AND DEATH.

THE VOICE OF THE RAIN.

SOON SHALL THE WINTER'S FOIL BE HERE.

WHILE NOT THE PAST FORGETTING.

THE DYING VETERAN.

STRONGER LESSONS.

A PRAIRIE SUNSET.

TWENTY YEARS.

ORANGE BUDS BY MAIL FROM FLORIDA.

TWILIGHT.

YOU LINGERING SPARSE LEAVES OF ME.

NOT MEAGRE, LATENT BOUGHS ALONE.

THE DEAD EMPEROR.

AS THE GREEK'S SIGNAL FLAME.

THE DISMANTLED SHIP.

NOW PRECEDENT SONGS, FAREWELL.

AN EVENING LULL.

OLD AGE'S LAMBENT PEAKS.

AFTER THE SUPPER AND TALK.

2D ANNEX. Good-Bye my Fancy.

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

400

THE DYING VETERAN.

[_]

[A Long Island incident—early part of the present century.]

Amid these days of order, ease, prosperity,
Amid the current songs of beauty, peace, decorum,
I cast a reminiscence—(likely 'twill offend you,
I heard it in my boyhood;)—More than a generation since,
A queer old savage man, a fighter under Washington himself,
(Large, brave, cleanly, hot-blooded, no talker, rather spiritualistic,
Had fought in the ranks—fought well—had been all through the Revolutionary war,)
Lay dying—sons, daughters, church-deacons, lovingly tending him,
Sharping their sense, their ears, towards his murmuring, half-caught words:
“Let me return again to my war-days,
To the sights and scenes—to forming the line of battle,
To the scouts ahead reconnoitering,
To the cannons, the grim artillery,
To the galloping aids, carrying orders,
To the wounded, the fallen, the heat, the suspense,
The perfume strong, the smoke, the deafening noise;
Away with your life of peace!—your joys of peace!
Give me my old wild battle-life again!”