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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE MUSTER; SUGGESTED BY TWO DAYS' REVIEW AT WASHINGTON by HERMAN MELVILLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE ABRAHAMIC RIVER - / PATRIARCH OF FLOODS
Last Line: BY RILLS FROM KANSAS LONE.
Subject(s): AMERICAN CIVIL WAR; ARMY - UNITED STATES; U.S. - HISTORY;

The Abrahamic river --
Patriarch of floods,
Calls the roll of all his streams
And watery multitudes:
Torrent cries to torrent,
The rapids hail the fall;
With shouts the inland freshets
Gather to the call.

The quotas of the Nation,
Like the water-shed of waves,
Muster into union --
Eastern warriors, Western braves.

Martial strains are mingling,
Though distant far the bands,
And the wheeling of the squadrons
Is like surf upon the sands.

The bladed guns are gleaming --
Drift in lengthened trim,
Files on files for hazy miles --
Nebulously dim.

O Milky Way of armies --
Star rising after star,
New banners of the Commonwealths,
And eagles of the War.

The Abrahamic river
To sea-wide fullness fed,
Pouring from the thaw-lands
By the God of floods is led:
His deep enforcing current
The streams of ocean own,
And Europe's marge is evened
By rills from Kansas lone.



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