When+Lilacs+Last


 * When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d **

WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d, || || O powerful, western, fallen star! || || In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings, ||  || In the swamp, in secluded recesses, || || Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities, || || Coffin that passes through lanes and streets, || || (Nor for you, for one, alone; || || O western orb, sailing the heaven! ||  || Sing on, there in the swamp! ||  || O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved? ||  || O what shall I hang on the chamber walls? ||  || Lo! body and soul! this land! ||  || Sing on! sing on, you gray-brown bird! ||  || Now while I sat in the day, and look’d forth, ||  || Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me, ||  ||
 * 1
 * And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, || ||
 * I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. || ||
 * O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring; || ||
 * Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west, || ||
 * And thought of him I love. || ||
 * 2
 * 2
 * 2
 * O shades of night! O moody, tearful night! || ||
 * O great star disappear’d! O the black murk that hides the star! || ||
 * O cruel hands that hold me powerless! O helpless soul of me! || ||
 * O harsh surrounding cloud, that will not free my soul! || ||
 * 3
 * 3
 * Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, || ||
 * With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love, || ||
 * With every leaf a miracle......and from this bush in the door-yard, || ||
 * With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, || ||
 * A sprig, with its flower, I break. || ||
 * 4
 * 4
 * A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song. || ||
 * Solitary, the thrush, || ||
 * The hermit, withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements, || ||
 * Sings by himself a song. || ||
 * Song of the bleeding throat! || ||
 * Death’s outlet song of life—(for well, dear brother, I know || ||
 * If thou wast not gifted to sing, thou would’st surely die.) || ||
 * 5
 * If thou wast not gifted to sing, thou would’st surely die.) || ||
 * 5
 * 5
 * Amid lanes, and through old woods, (where lately the violets peep’d from the ground, spotting the gray debris;) || ||
 * Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes—passing the endless grass; || ||
 * Passing the yellow-spear’d wheat, every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprising; || ||
 * Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards; || ||
 * Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, || ||
 * Night and day journeys a coffin. || ||
 * 6
 * 6
 * Through day and night, with the great cloud darkening the land, || ||
 * With the pomp of the inloop’d flags, with the cities draped in black, || ||
 * With the show of the States themselves, as of crape-veil’d women, standing, || ||
 * With processions long and winding, and the flambeaus of the night, || ||
 * With the countless torches lit—with the silent sea of faces, and the unbared heads, || ||
 * With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre faces, || ||
 * With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn; || ||
 * With all the mournful voices of the dirges, pour’d around the coffin, || ||
 * The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs—Where amid these you journey, || ||
 * With the tolling, tolling bells’ perpetual clang; || ||
 * Here! coffin that slowly passes, || ||
 * I give you my sprig of lilac. || ||
 * 7
 * 7
 * Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring: || ||
 * For fresh as the morning—thus would I carol a song for you, O sane and sacred death. || ||
 * All over bouquets of roses, || ||
 * O death! I cover you over with roses and early lilies; || ||
 * But mostly and now the lilac that blooms the first, || ||
 * Copious, I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes; || ||
 * With loaded arms I come, pouring for you, || ||
 * For you, and the coffins all of you, O death.) || ||
 * 8
 * 8
 * 8
 * Now I know what you must have meant, as a month since we walk’d, || ||
 * As we walk’d up and down in the dark blue so mystic, || ||
 * As we walk’d in silence the transparent shadowy night, || ||
 * As I saw you had something to tell, as you bent to me night after night, || ||
 * As you droop’d from the sky low down, as if to my side, (while the other stars all look’d on;) || ||
 * As we wander’d together the solemn night, (for something, I know not what, kept me from sleep;) || ||
 * As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west, ere you went, how full you were of woe; || ||
 * As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze, in the cold transparent night, || ||
 * As I watch’d where you pass’d and was lost in the netherward black of the night, || ||
 * As my soul, in its trouble, dissatisfied, sank, as where you, sad orb, || ||
 * Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone. || ||
 * 9
 * 9
 * O singer bashful and tender! I hear your notes—I hear your call; || ||
 * I hear—I come presently—I understand you; || ||
 * But a moment I linger—for the lustrous star has detain’d me; || ||
 * The star, my departing [|comrade], holds and detains me. || ||
 * 10
 * 10
 * And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone? || ||
 * And what shall my perfume be, for the grave of him I love? || ||
 * Sea-winds, blown from east and west, || ||
 * Blown from the eastern sea, and blown from the western sea, till there on the prairies meeting: || ||
 * These, and with these, and the breath of my chant, || ||
 * I perfume the grave of him I love. || ||
 * 11
 * 11
 * 11
 * And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls, || ||
 * To adorn the burial-house of him I love? || ||
 * Pictures of growing spring, and farms, and homes, || ||
 * With the Fourth-month eve at sundown, and the gray smoke lucid and bright, || ||
 * With floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, indolent, sinking sun, burning, expanding the air; || ||
 * With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, and the pale green leaves of the trees prolific; || ||
 * In the distance the flowing glaze, the breast of the river, with a wind-dapple here and there; || ||
 * With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows; || ||
 * And the city at hand, with dwellings so dense, and stacks of chimneys, || ||
 * And all the scenes of life, and the workshops, and the workmen homeward returning. || ||
 * 12
 * 12
 * 12
 * Mighty Manhattan, with spires, and the sparkling and hurrying tides, and the ships; || ||
 * The varied and ample land—the South and the North in the light—Ohio’s shores, and flashing Missouri, || ||
 * And ever the far-spreading prairies, cover’d with grass and corn. || ||
 * Lo! the most excellent sun, so calm and haughty; || ||
 * The violet and purple morn, with just-felt breezes; || ||
 * The gentle, soft-born, measureless light; || ||
 * The miracle, spreading, bathing all—the fulfill’d noon; || ||
 * The coming eve, delicious—the welcome night, and the stars, || ||
 * Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land. || ||
 * 13
 * 13
 * 13
 * Sing from the swamps, the recesses—pour your chant from the bushes; || ||
 * Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines. || ||
 * Sing on, dearest brother—warble your reedy song; || ||
 * Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe. || ||
 * O liquid, and free, and tender! || ||
 * O wild and loose to my soul! O wondrous singer! || ||
 * You only I hear......yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart;) || ||
 * Yet the lilac, with mastering odor, holds me. || ||
 * 14
 * Yet the lilac, with mastering odor, holds me. || ||
 * 14
 * 14
 * In the close of the day, with its light, and the fields of spring, and the farmer preparing his crops, || ||
 * In the large unconscious scenery of my land, with its lakes and forests, || ||
 * In the heavenly aerial beauty, (after the perturb’d winds, and the storms;) || ||
 * Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the voices of children and women, || ||
 * The many-moving sea-tides,—and I saw the ships how they sail’d, || ||
 * And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy with labor, || ||
 * And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with its meals and minutia of daily usages; || ||
 * And the streets, how their throbbings throbb’d, and the cities pent—lo! then and there, || ||
 * Falling upon them all, and among them all, enveloping me with the rest, || ||
 * Appear’d the cloud, appear’d the long black trail; || ||
 * And I knew Death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death. || ||
 * 15
 * 15
 * And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me, || ||
 * And I in the middle, as with companions, and as holding the hands of companions, || ||
 * I fled forth to the hiding receiving night, that talks not, || ||
 * Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the dimness, || ||
 * To the solemn shadowy cedars, and ghostly pines so still. || ||
 * And the singer so shy to the rest receiv’d me; || ||
 * The gray-brown bird I know, receiv’d us comrades three; || ||
 * And he sang what seem’d the [|carol] of death, and a verse for him I love. || ||
 * From deep secluded recesses, || ||
 * From the fragrant cedars, and the ghostly pines so still, || ||
 * Came the [|carol] of the bird. || ||
 * And the charm of the [|carol] rapt me, || ||
 * As I held, as if by their hands, my comrades in the night; || ||
 * And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird. || ||
 * //DEATH CAROL.//
 * As I held, as if by their hands, my comrades in the night; || ||
 * And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird. || ||
 * //DEATH CAROL.//
 * //DEATH CAROL.//

16 //Come, lovely and soothing Death,// || || To the tally of my soul, || || I saw askant the [|armies]; || || Passing the visions, passing the night; || || Yet each I keep, and all, retrievements out of the [|night]; || || http://www.bartleby.com/142/192.html
 * //Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,// || ||
 * //In the day, in the night, to all, to each,// || ||
 * //Sooner or later, delicate Death.// || ||
 * //Prais’d be the fathomless universe,// || ||
 * //For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious;// || ||
 * //And for love, sweet love—But praise! praise! [|praise]!// || ||
 * //For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.// || ||
 * //Dark Mother, always gliding near, with soft feet,// || ||
 * //Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?// || ||
 * //Then I chant it for thee—I glorify thee above all;// || ||
 * //I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.// || ||
 * //[|Approach], strong Deliveress!// || ||
 * //When it is so—when thou hast taken them, I joyously sing the dead,// || ||
 * //Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee,// || ||
 * //Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O Death.// || ||
 * //From me to thee glad serenades,// || ||
 * //Dances for thee I propose, saluting thee—adornments and feastings for thee;// || ||
 * //And the sights of the open landscape, and the high-spread sky, are fitting,// || ||
 * //And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.// || ||
 * //The night, in silence, under many a star;// || ||
 * //The ocean shore, and the husky whispering wave, whose voice I know;// || ||
 * //And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well-veil’d Death,// || ||
 * //And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.// || ||
 * //Over the tree-tops I float thee a song!// || ||
 * //Over the rising and sinking waves—over the myriad fields, and the prairies wide;// || ||
 * //Over the dense-pack’d cities all, and the teeming wharves and ways,// || ||
 * //I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O Death!// || ||
 * 17
 * //And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.// || ||
 * //Over the tree-tops I float thee a song!// || ||
 * //Over the rising and sinking waves—over the myriad fields, and the prairies wide;// || ||
 * //Over the dense-pack’d cities all, and the teeming wharves and ways,// || ||
 * //I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O Death!// || ||
 * 17
 * 17
 * 17
 * Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird, || ||
 * With pure, deliberate notes, spreading, filling the night. || ||
 * Loud in the pines and cedars dim, || ||
 * Clear in the freshness moist, and the swamp-perfume; || ||
 * And I with my comrades there in the night. || ||
 * While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed, || ||
 * As to long panoramas of visions. || ||
 * 18
 * As to long panoramas of visions. || ||
 * 18
 * 18
 * And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags; || ||
 * Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc’d with missiles, I saw them, || ||
 * And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody; || ||
 * And at last but a few [|shreds] left on the staffs, (and all in silence,) || ||
 * And the staffs all splinter’d and broken. || ||
 * I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, || ||
 * And the white skeletons of young men—I saw them; || ||
 * I saw the debris and debris of all the dead soldiers of the [|war]; || ||
 * But I saw they were not as was thought; || ||
 * They themselves were fully at rest—they suffer’d not; || ||
 * The living remain’d and suffer’d—the mother suffer’d, || ||
 * And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer’d, || ||
 * And the armies that remain’d suffer’d. || ||
 * 19
 * 19
 * 19
 * Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades’ hands; || ||
 * Passing the song of the hermit bird, and the tallying song of my soul, || ||
 * (Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying, ever-altering song, || ||
 * As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night, || ||
 * Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy, || ||
 * Covering the earth, and filling the spread of the heaven, || ||
 * As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,) || ||
 * Passing, I leave [|thee], lilac with heart-shaped leaves; || ||
 * I leave [|thee] there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring, || ||
 * I cease from my song for [|thee]; || ||
 * From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee, || ||
 * O comrade lustrous, with silver face in the night. || ||
 * 20
 * 20
 * The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown [|bird], || ||
 * And the tallying chant, the echo arous’d in my [|soul], || ||
 * With the lustrous and drooping star, with the countenance full of woe, || ||
 * With the lilac tall, and its blossoms of mastering odor; || ||
 * With the holders holding my hand, nearing the call of the [|bird], || ||
 * Comrades mine, and I in the midst, and their memory ever I keep—for the dead I loved so well; || ||
 * For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands...and this for his dear sake; || ||
 * Lilac and star and bird, twined with the chant of my soul, || ||
 * There in the fragrant pines, and the cedars dusk and dim. ||