FROM my last years, last thoughts I here bequeath,

Sailing henceforth to every land–to every sea;)We, willing learners of all, teachers of all, and lovers of all.We have watch’d the seasons dispensing themselves, and passing on,We have said, Why should not a man or woman do as much as theseasons, and effuse as much?We dwell a while in every city and town;We pass through…

silence,Haply to-day a mournful wail, haply a trumpet-note for heroes.The battle-bulletin,The Indian ambuscade, the craft, the fatal environment,The cavalry companies fighting to the last in sternest heroism,In the midst of their little circle, with their slaughter’d horsesfor breastworks,The fall of Custer and all his officers and men.Continues yet the old, old legend of our race,The…

I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames, clack of sticks cooking my meals,I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city, sounds of the day and night,Talkative young ones…

look;Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide,I dream, I dream, I dream.Of scenes of nature, fields and mountains;Of skies, so beauteous after a storm–and at night the moon sounearthly bright,Shining sweetly, shining down, where we dig the trenches and gatherthe heaps,I dream, I dream, I dream.Long, long have they pass’d–faces and trenches…

But now I think there is no unreturn’d love–the pay is certain, oneway or another;(I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return’d;Yet out of that, I have written these songs.)

The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listening close,Find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.The sharp-hoof’d moose of the north, the cat on the house-sill, the chickadee, the prairie-dog,The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,The brood of the turkey-hen and she with her half-spread wings,I…