When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
When I heard the learn'd astronomer, / When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day [May 4, 1865]
❦
Hush'd be the camps to-day,
And soldiers let us drape our war-worn weapons,
And each with musing soul retire to celebrate,
Our dear commander's death.
No more for him life's stormy conflicts,
Nor victory, nor defeat--no more time's dark events,
Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.
But sing poet in our name,
Sing of the love we bore him--because you, dweller in camps, know it truly.
As they invault the coffin there,
Sing--as they close the doors of earth upon him--one verse,
For the heavy hearts of soldiers.
More poems by Walt Whitman
Election Day, November, 1884
If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show, / 'Twould not be you, Niagara--nor you, ye limitless prairies--nor
For You, O Democracy
Come, I will make the continent indissoluble, / I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
The Ship Starting
Lo, the unbounded sea, / On its breast a ship starting, spreading all sails, carrying even