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The Bibelot

VOLUME X

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From The Bibelot, A Reprint of Poetry and Prose for Book Lovers, chosen in part from scarce editions and sources not generally known, Volume X, Testimonial Edition, Edited and Originally Published by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine; Wm. Wise & Co.; New York; 1904; pp. 268-69.

VIII. MEMORIES OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN BY WALT WHITMAN.




268

CAMPS OF GREEN.




NOT alone those camps of white, old comrades of
    the wars,
When as order’d forward, after a long march,
Footsore and weary, soon as the light lessens we halt
           for the night,
Some of us so fatigued carrying the gun and knapsack,
           dropping asleep in our tracks,
Others pitching the little tents, and the fires lit up
           begin to sparkle,
Outposts of pickets posted surrounding alert through
           the dark,
And a word provided for countersign, careful for
           safety,
Till to the call of the drummers at daybreak loudly
           beating the drums,
We rise up refresh’d, the night and sleep pass’d over,
           and resume our journey,
Or proceed to battle.


Lo, the camps of the tents of green,
Which the days of peace keep filling, and the days of
           war keep filling,
With a mystic army, (is it too order’d forward? is it
           too only halting awhile,
Till night and sleep pass over?)
269 Now in those camps of green, in their tents dotting
           the world,
In the parents, children, husbands, wives, in them, in
           the old and young,
Sleeping under the sunlight, sleeping under the moon-
           light, content and silent there at last,
Behold the mighty bivouac-field and waiting-camp of
           all,
Of the corps and generals all, and the President over
           the corps and generals all,
    And of each of us O soldiers, and of each and all in
           the ranks we fought,
(There without hatred we all, all meet.)


For presently O soldiers, we too camp in our place in
           the bivouac-camps of green,
But we need not provide for outposts, nor word for
           the countersign,
Nor drummer to beat the morning drum.




[Finis]











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