Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A TWILIGHT SONG, by WALT WHITMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A TWILIGHT SONG, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: As I sit in twilight late alone by the flickering oak flame,
Last Line: Embalm'd with love in this twilight song.


As I sit in twilight late alone by the flickering oak-flame,
Musing on long-pass'd war-scenes -- of the countless buried
unknown soldiers,
Of the vacant names, as unindented air's and sea's -- the unreturn'd,
The brief truce after battle, with grim burial-squads, and
the deepfill'd trenches
Of gather'd dead from all America, North, South, East,
West, whence they came up,
From wooded Maine, New-England's farms, from fertile
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio,
From the measureless West, Virginia, the South, the Carolinas, Texas,
(Even here in my room-shadows and half-lights in the
noiseless flickering flames,
Again I see the stalwart ranks on-filing, rising -- I hear
the rhythmic tramp of the armies;)
You million unwrit names all, all -- you dark bequest from
all the war,
A special verse for you -- a flash of duty long neglected
-- your mystic roll strangely gather'd here,
Each name recall'd by me from out the darkness and death's ashes,
Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my heart recording, for
many a future year,
Your mystic roll entire of unknown names, or North or South,
Embalm'd with love in this twilight song.





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