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.Walt Whitman – May, 1865
(Acknowledgement to Cosmic America.)
