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Leaves of Grass (1891-92)
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A 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 un-
known soldiers,
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Of the vacant names, as unindented air's and sea's—the un-
return'd,
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The brief truce after battle, with grim burial-squads, and the
deep-fill'd trenches
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Of gather'd dead from all America, North, South, East, West,
whence they came up,
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From wooded Maine, New-England's farms, from fertile Penn-
sylvania, Illinois, Ohio,
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From the measureless West, Virginia, the South, the Carolinas,
Texas,
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(Even here in my room-shadows and half-lights in the noiseless
flickering flames,
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Again I see the stalwart ranks on-filing, rising—I hear the
rhythmic tramp of the armies;)
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You million unwrit names all, all—you dark bequest from all the
war,
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A special verse for you—a flash of duty long neglected—your
mystic roll strangely gather'd here,
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Each name recall'd by me from out the darkness and death's
ashes,
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Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my heart recording, for
many a future year,
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Your mystic roll entire of unknown names, or North or
South,
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Embalm'd with love in this twilight song. |
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