Poem by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 16. A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown

A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown,
A route through a heavy wood with muffled steps in the darkness,
Our army foil’d with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating,
Till after midnight glimmer upon us the lights of a dim-lighted
      building,
We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted
      building,
’Tis a large old church at the crossing roads, now an impromptu
      hospital,
Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and
      poems ever made,
Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and
      lamps,
And by one great pitchy torch stationary with wild red flame and
      clouds of smoke,
By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some
      in the pews laid down,
At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of
      bleeding to death (he is shot in the abdomen),
I stanch the blood temporarily (the youngster’s face is white as a
      lily),
Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o’er the scene fain to absorb
      it all,
Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity,
      some of them dead,
Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the
      odour of blood,
The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms, the yard outside also
       fill’d,
Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in the
      death-spasm sweating,
An occasional scream or cry, the doctor’s shouted orders or calls,
The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the
      torches,
These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odour,
Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, fall in;
But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile gives
      he me,
Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks,
The unknown road still marching.

1. Leaves of Grass. 21. Drum-Taps. 35. How Solemn As One by One [Washington City, 1865]
2. Leaves of Grass. 30. Whispers of Heavenly Death. 5. Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours
3. Leaves of Grass. 35. Good-Bye My Fancy. 7. The Pallid Wreath
4. Leaves of Grass. 34. Sands at Seventy. 28. Old Salt Kossabone
5. Leaves of Grass. 32. From Noon to Starry Night. 9. Excelsior

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