The Walt Whitman Archive
Published Works
Books by Whitman
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 392] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT.
As one by one withdraw the lofty actors,
From that great play on history's stage eterne,
That lurid, partial act of war and peace—of old and new con-
tending,
tending,
Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long
suspense;
suspense;
All past—and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,
Victor's and vanquish'd—Lincoln's and Lee's—now thou with
them,
them,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 393] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Man of the mighty days—and equal to the days!
Thou from the prairies!—tangled and many-vein'd and hard has
been thy part,
been thy part,
To admiration has it been enacted!