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Leaves of Grass (1891-92)
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A MARCH IN THE RANKS HARD-PREST, AND THE ROAD UNKNOWN.
A MARCH in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown, |
A route through a heavy wood with muffled steps in the darkness, |
Our army foil'd with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating, |
Till after midnight glimmer upon us the lights of a dim-lighted
building,
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We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-
lighted building,
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'Tis a large old church at the crossing roads, now an impromptu
hospital,
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Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and
poems ever made,
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Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and
lamps,
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And by one great pitchy torch stationary with wild red flame and
clouds of smoke,
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By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some
in the pews laid down,
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At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of
bleeding to death, (he is shot in the abdomen,)
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I stanch the blood temporarily, (the youngster's face is white as
a lily,)
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Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene fain to
absorb it all,
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Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity,
some of them dead,
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Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether,
the odor of blood,
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The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms, the yard outside
also fill'd,
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Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in
the death-spasm sweating,
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An occasional scream or cry, the doctor's shouted orders or calls, |
The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the
torches,
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These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odor, |
Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, fall in; |
But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile gives
he me,
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Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the
darkness,
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Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks, |
The unknown road still marching. |
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