rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof'd
     hospital,
To the long rows of cots up and down each side I return,
To each and all one after another I draw near, not one do I
     miss,
An attendant follows holding a tray, he carries a refuse pail,
Soon to be fill'd with clotted rags and blood, emptied, and
     fill'd again.

I onward go, I stop,
With hinged knees and steady hand to dress wounds,
I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable,
One turns to me his appealing eyes — poor boy! I never knew
     you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if
     that would save you.

On, on I go, (open doors of time! open hospital doors!)
The crush'd head I dress, (poor crazed hand tear not the
     bandage away,)
The neck of the cavalry-man with the bullet through and
     through I examine,
Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet
     life struggles hard,
(Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death!
     In mercy come quickly.)

From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the
     matter and blood,
Back on his pillow the soldier bends with curv'd neck and
     side falling head,
His eyes are closed, his face is pale, he dares not look on the
     bloody stump,
And has not yet look'd on it.

I dress a wound in the side, deep, deep,
But a day or two more, for see the frame all wasted and
     sinking,
And the yellow-blue countenance see.
I dress the perforated shoulder, the foot with the bullet-wound,
Cleanse the one with a gnawing and putrid gangrene, so
     sickening, so offensive,
While the attendant stands behind aside me holding the tray
     and pail.

I am faithful, I do not give out,
The fractur'd thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdomen,
These and more I dress with impassive hand, (yet deep in my
     breast a fire, a burning flame.)

Thus in silence in dreams' projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals,
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young,
Some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad,
(Many a soldier's loving arms about this neck have cross'd
     and rested,
Many a soldier's kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)

1865 1881

LONG, TOO LONG AMERICA

Long, too long America,
Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys
     and prosperity only,
But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing,
     grappling with direst fate and recoiling not,
And now to conceive and show to the world what your
     children en-masse really are,
(For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children
     en-masse really are?)

      
1865 1881
     

GIVE ME THE SPLENDID SILENT SUN

Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-
    dazzling,
Give me juicy autumnal fruit ripe and red from the orchard,
Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows,
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape,
Give me fresh corn and wheat, give me serene-moving
     animals teaching content,
Give me nights perfectly quiet as on high plateaus west of the
     Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars,
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers
     where I can walk undisturb'd,
Give me for marriage a sweet-breath'd woman of whom I
     should never tire,
Give me a perfect child, give me away aside from the