Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE DYING VETERAN; A LONG ISLAND INCIDENT - EARLY PART PRESENT CENTURY, by WALT WHITMAN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Amid these days of order, ease, prosperity Last Line: "give me my old wild battle-life again!" Subject(s): Veterans | ||||||||
Amid these days of order, ease, prosperity, Amid the current songs of beauty, peace, decorum, I cast a reminiscence -- (likely 'twill offend you, I heard it in my boyhood;) -- More than a generation since, A queer old savage man, a fighter under Washington himself, (Large, brave, cleanly, hot-blooded, no talker, rather spiritualistic, Had fought in the ranks -- fought well -- had been all through the Revolutionary war,) Lay dying -- sons, daughters, church-deacons, lovingly tending him, Sharping their sense, their ears, towards his murmuring, half-caught words: "Let me return again to my war-days, To the sights and scenes -- to forming the line of battle, To the scouts ahead reconnoitering, To the cannons, the grim artillery, To the galloping aids, carrying orders, To the wounded, the fallen, the heat, the suspense, The perfume strong, the smoke, the deafening noise; Away with your life of peace! -- your joys of peace! Give me my old wild battle-life again!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON SENDING HOME MY CIVILIAN CLOTHES by JOHN CIARDI HOMETOWN AFTER A WAR by JOHN CIARDI SERENADE IN A DRUGSTORE by JOHN CIARDI HOMELESS COMPLEYNT by ALLEN GINSBERG THE DOOR CLICKS. HE RETURNS TO ME' by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER A BROADWAY PAGEANT by WALT WHITMAN |
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