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IF THE BOOK IS UNDER COPYRIGHT IN YOUR COUNTRY, DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS FILE. _Title:_ Selected Works of Stephen Vincent Benét, Volume One: Poetry _Date of first publication:_ 1942 _Author:_ Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) _Date first posted:_ June 12, 2019 _Date last updated:_ June 12, 2019 Faded Page eBook #20190621 This eBook was produced by: Mardi Desjardins, Howard Ross & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net SELECTED WORKS OF Stephen Vincent BENÉT VOLUME ONE POETRY New York Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. 1942 [Illustration] COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The works included in this volume are covered by separate copyrights, as stated below: VOLUME ONE John Brown’s Body, Copyright, 1927, 1928, by Stephen Vincent Benét YOUNG ADVENTURE Portrait of a Boy, Copyright, 1917, by Stephen Vincent Benét Portrait of a Baby, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét Portrait of Young Love, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét The General Public, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét Young Blood, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Breaking Point, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét Poor Devil!, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Golden Corpse, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét MY FAIR LADY To Rosemary (original title—Dedication), Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Chemical Analysis, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Nomenclature, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Difference, Copyright, 1921, by Stephen Vincent Benét A Sad Song, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét A Nonsense Song, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét To Rosemary, on the Methods by Which She Might Become an Angel, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Evening and Morning, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét In a Glass of Water Before Retiring, Copyright, 1923, by Stephen Vincent Benét Legend, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Dulce Ridentem, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét All Night Long, Copyright, 1923, by Stephen Vincent Benét Days Pass: Men Pass, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Illa, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Hands, Copyright, 1931, by Stephen Vincent Benét Memory, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét BALLADS AND TALES American Names, Copyright, 1927, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Ballad of William Sycamore, Copyright, 1922, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Hemp, Copyright, 1916, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Mountain Whippoorwill, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét King David, Copyright, 1923, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Retort Discourteous, Copyright, 1920, by Stephen Vincent Benét Three Days’ Ride, Copyright, 1920, by Stephen Vincent Benét Alexander the Sixth Dines with the Cardinal of Capua, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét Southern Ships and Settlers (Original title—Southern Ships), Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét Cotton Mather, Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét Captain Kidd, Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét French Pioneers, Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét Thomas Jefferson, Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét John James Audubon, Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét Daniel Boone, Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét Western Wagons, Copyright, 1933, by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét CREATURES OF EARTH The Innovator, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét Snowfall, Copyright, 1924, by Stephen Vincent Benét Bad Dream, Copyright, 1929, by Stephen Vincent Benét For All Blasphemers, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Architects, Copyright, 1925, by Stephen Vincent Benét Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét Operation, Copyright, 1920, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Trapeze Performer, Copyright, 1920, by Stephen Vincent Benét Judgment, Copyright, 1920, by Stephen Vincent Benét Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum, Copyright, 1918, by Stephen Vincent Benét For Those Who Are as Right as Any, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Girl Child, Copyright, 1935, by Stephen Vincent Benét Old Man Hoppergrass, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét The Lost Wife, Copyright, 1927, by Stephen Vincent Benét Sparrow, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Thanks, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Complaint of Body, the Ass, Against His Rider, the Soul, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét NIGHTMARES AND VISITANTS Notes to be Left in a Cornerstone, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Short Ode, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Litany for Dictatorships, Copyright, 1935, by Stephen Vincent Benét Ode to the Austrian Socialists, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Do You Remember, Springfield?, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Ode to Walt Whitman, Copyright, 1935, by Stephen Vincent Benét Metropolitan Nightmare, Copyright, 1933, by Stephen Vincent Benét Nightmare, with Angels, Copyright, 1935, by Stephen Vincent Benét Nightmare Number Three, Copyright, 1935, by Stephen Vincent Benét 1935, Copyright, 1935, by Stephen Vincent Benét For City Spring, Copyright, 1935, by Stephen Vincent Benét For City Lovers, Copyright, 1936, by Stephen Vincent Benét Nightmare for Future Reference, Copyright, 1938, by Stephen Vincent Benét Minor Litany, Copyright, 1940, by Stephen Vincent Benét Nightmare at Noon, Copyright, 1940, by Stephen Vincent Benét Listen to the People, Copyright, 1941, by Stephen Vincent Benét [Illustration] TO ROSEMARY [Illustration] STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT Of Mark Sabre, the hero of _If Winter Comes_, we are told that Byron’s poems was “the first book he had ever bought ‘specially’—not, that is, as one buys a bun, but as one buys a dog.” I have a similar feeling for Stephen Vincent Benét’s _Heavens and Earth_ (his third volume of poems, following _Young Adventure_, and _Five Men and Pompey_, published while he was still at school). For that was the first book I ever bought on the strength of a review—and I wish my own reviews were always as reliable as that one proved to be. It appeared in _The Yale Literary Magazine_; I was a schoolboy at Taft at the time, and read the _Lit_ much more religiously than I did when I got to Yale. What chiefly struck me in it was a comparison to William Morris, a current idol of mine, and a number of quotations, excellently chosen, which showed me that here was one of my predestined books. I bought it the first day of the following vacation (it was one of the curious features of secondary education as then practiced that while at school it was made as difficult as possible to read any books) and found all that I had been looking for and more besides. The resemblance to William Morris in certain poems was plain enough; in his first novel, _The Beginning of Wisdom_, which belongs to what he has elsewhere described as “the required project in those days, a school and college novel,” Benét says of the boy who is not quite himself that one of his first outpourings was “a long and bloodily bad ballad stewed from the bones of William Morris”; but it was resemblance to Morris where he is least dangerous as an influence, in the mood of mediaevalism combined with brutal realism of “Shameful Death” or “The Haystack in the Floods”—and, making allowance for some youthful romanticism, the mood, here, of “Three Days’ Ride.” But there was of course a great deal more than that. Even in that one poem, there was also, for instance, a technical device to take your breath away—literally, the way the _pnigos_ in Aristophanes took away the breath of the actor—if (as you should) you read it aloud. It is that innocent refrain, From Belton Castle to Solway side, Hard by the bridge, is three days’ ride, which, at each repetition, becomes more menacing, until in its final form, From Belton Castle to Solway side, Though great hearts break, is three days’ ride, the beating stresses give you a feeling in the chest which you will recognize from the last time you ran five miles. There were other matters of technique, too, to fascinate a schoolboy who had recently discovered the subject. There is the dirge in “The First Vision of Helen”—which he would not let me include here, with the oversevere judgment of a creator who has gone on to something else. God, I suppose, admires the dinosaurs less than we do. The poem is in various metres; one section begins: Close his eyes with the coins; bind his chin with the shroud. That line, you will notice, is made of the musical phrase _tum ti tum ti ti tum_ twice repeated; and that, with what the books call anacrusis and anaclasis, is the metrical unit of the entire lament. It was not until freshman year at Yale when I read _Prometheus Bound_ that I learned to call it a dochmiac; but I was able to recognize it as a single foot, and a complete and rare one. (Gilbert Murray and another have used it to render Greek choruses; as far as I know it occurs nowhere else in English.) A good deal later I was able to ask Steve Benét, “M. Jourdain, did you know that in that passage you were writing in dochmiacs?” He replied honestly that he did not know whether he had ever encountered the foot or not, but he believed he had just felt that anapaests were “too curly.” Whether he found or invented it, it is the perfect measure for the sway of the bearers (“Slow as the stream and strong, answering knee to knee”); and the accommodation of the line to the breath in these two poems is the promise of what he achieves in _John Brown’s Body_ when he attacks one of the primary problems of verse in our day, the finding of a form which may bear the same relation to our easygoing talk that, presumably, blank verse did to the more formal speech of an earlier generation. Half a dozen poets are attempting it; Benét was one of the first in the field, and I think is the most successful, with the long, loose, five- or six-beat line that carries the bulk of _John Brown’s Body_. It will be improved in the later poems; in _John Brown’s Body_ it is sometimes a little too loose, coming perilously near prose; yet it can carry casual conversations without incongruity, or at need can deepen without any sense of abrupt transition into blank verse for the nobility of Lincoln or Lee, or even slip into rhyme for the romantics of the Wingates. And it passes the great test for existence as a metre: single lines of it stay in your memory, existing by themselves. It is over now, but they will not let it be over. Professor Procrustes could explain that as an iambic or an anapaestic line, and name its variations; but to plain common sense it is neither. It is in a metre of its own; one of our time; one which Benét has given us. There was more, too, in that thin purple book with a gilt demi-Pegasus on the cover, to meet one halfway and lead one out of the Pre-Raphaelite dreamland. There was an impish humor, which appeared not only in the openly grotesque poems, but was likely to crop up anywhere—in the tempting quotation, for instance, which begins “Young Blood,” and which, when you catch him with the question, Steve will blandly tell you that he invented. It is this quality, by the way, which is most readily apparent when you know him. He is given a puckish air by his habit of twisting his legs round his chair, by his round glasses, and his squeaky voice—which I always hear, in “Nightmare with Angels,” giving his own peculiarly emphatic intonation to the conclusion “In fact, you will not be saved.” In talk he seems to “make fun” of everything, not in the sense of ridicule, but with the humor that comes from looking at anything with a really original mind. His talk ranges over everything he has read (and he has read everything) building pyramids in the air, and, like his own “Innovator,” turning them upside down to see how they look; while from time to time his wife Rosemary puts in a wise and charming word as she sits serenely sewing—looking like an unusually humorous version of the housewifely Athena, as Steve behind his spectacles looks like an unusually humorous version of Athena’s owl. That is the Benét of the dry comments in _John Brown’s Body_, upon McClellan— He looked the part—he could have acted the part Word perfectly. He looked like an empire-builder. But so few empire-builders have looked the part— or upon Wendell Phillips— He did his part, Being strong and active, in all ways shaped like a man, And the cause being one to which he professed devotion, He spoke. He spoke well, with conviction, and frequently. It is the Benét of the fantasies and fables, of the extraordinary “Nightmares,” which deepen from the fantastic-amusing to the fantastic-terrifying. It’s the author who can rewrite an old fairy tale for today in the much-reprinted “King of the Cats,” or can write a new legend so perfect that it seems to have been always a part of our folklore—for the Devil and Daniel Webster ought forever to haunt New Hampshire as solidly as Rip Van Winkle and his gnomes haunt the Hudson. And the Benét who turns pyramids upside down in talk is the one who writes with imagination. The popular magazines are filled with stories that have invention, and ingenuity, and even a sort of conjurer’s illusion; but the rarest thing in the world there or anywhere else is real imagination, which is real magic—such as you find in that astonishing piece of what-if, “The Curfew Tolls,” or that haunting evocation of the feeling of certain quiet city backwaters, “Glamour.” It is also one of the marks of imaginative insight that it can have an Einsteinian view of both sides of a solid at once; can see Napoleon as a good deal of a scoundrel and also as a great man; can destroy all the traditional witchery of the traditional Southern belle, and yet leave her, somehow, mistress of a more undeniable spell than before. And then, of course, in _Heavens and Earth_ there was a section, The Tall Town, which showed that there was poetry in New York; and in Benét’s previous volume, _Young Adventure_, to which _Heavens and Earth_ sent me back, there was “The Hemp,” a ballad laid in Virginia. He was to write finer celebrations of New York, in prose and in verse, in “All Around the Town,” and his city poems, in visions of its decay and resurrection; and he was to write greater ballads about America; but he had already declared that delight in his city and country which was to be a major theme in his work. Americanism is so much in fashion now that Benét’s Americanism, for all its brilliance of technical achievement, its breadth of sympathy, and its depth of feeling, is apt, now that the intellectual climate of the day has caught up with it, to seem less remarkable than it is. It is worth remembering that when other young men of his age were writing rondeaux and villanelles and tales of far away and long ago, Benét was already turning the ballad to American themes; and that at the end of the tinsel twenties, when it was the fashion to say that American life was rootless, drab, and everywhere the same, Benét was already writing _John Brown’s Body_, with its sensitive feeling for half a dozen countrysides and racial strains, and for the American wilderness and the old English songs that frame the exquisite idyll of Jack Ellyat and Melora Vilas. (That story always reminds me somewhat of another idyll in the midst of a martial epic, the episode of Angelica and Medoro in the _Orlando Furioso_, and sets me to wondering about what the unconscious mind may do. I once asked Steve whether the line in _John Brown’s Body_, He danced with me. He could dance rather well. He is dead. was intended to translate, as it so perfectly does, the epitaph on a Roman dancing boy: _Saltavit. Placuit. Mortuus est._ He replied that he had not intended it, but he knew the Latin line well—it was a favorite with Monty Woolley, who gave delight and a supply of anecdotes to generations of Yale actors—and, said Steve, “the unconscious does queer things.” I have often wondered if his unconscious brought him the name of Melora, altered from Ariosto. Melora—Medoro: it might be.) And from the crowd of novels which try to add realism to historical fiction by getting up all the details of a campaign and not letting you off a single one of them, it is a pleasure to turn back to _Spanish Bayonet_, a historical novel which attains reality by the simple and difficult device of making the hero a real person. There is no one to touch Benét in the variety and skill of his treatment of American themes; yet even his Americanism is only the outcome of something deeper. If he says, “Dear city of Cecrops,” it is because that is the nearest earthly approach to the dear city of God. He loves New York as the communal achievement of the spirit of man; he loves America because there every man can most freely become what God meant him to be. One can perceive his feeling, in reverse, in his two grotesque nightmares, the ones which express a horror of insects and of machines; for they are the two things that have no right to be so intelligent—and so inhuman. And because he loves man he loves man’s life. Life, one feels as one reads here, is too good to waste in holding a grudge like the Die-Hard, or in philandering, like the man to whom everybody was very nice, and too good to waste in being rich and proper, like the magnificent sheep who were Schooner Fairchild’s classmates; and eternity is too good, as Doc Mellhorn found, to waste playing a harp. When the free life of man is threatened by the cult of death, by those who deliberately make their souls eunuchs for the sake of the kingdoms of this earth, it is such a man who has both the surest guard against ultimate despair, and the most tragic sense of immediate peril. The spirit of man, he knows, is indestructible; the last of the legions goes, and Britain falls, but England rises; the savage by the waters of Babylon begins the hazardous mountaineering toward civilization; the refugee going into Egypt says, “We have been in exile before.” But between there lies gaping the gulf of the Dark Ages; and the man who feels the tragedy of the waste of one Napoleon Bonaparte will be the one who can feel and make us feel the horror of the waste of whole generationsful of lives. If (in spite of the angel in the nightmare) we are to be saved, it will be in great part by the writings that show us all what we have to live for, and the good life that we could make. BASIL DAVENPORT CONTENTS VOLUME ONE STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT ix JOHN BROWN’S BODY 3 YOUNG ADVENTURE Portrait of a Boy 339 Portrait of a Baby 340 Portrait of Young Love 341 The General Public 342 Young Blood 343 The Breaking Point 344 Poor Devil! 345 The Golden Corpse 346 MY FAIR LADY To Rosemary 353 Chemical Analysis 354 Nomenclature 354 Difference 355 A Sad Song 355 A Nonsense Song 356 To Rosemary, on the Methods by Which She Might Become an 357 Angel Evening and Morning 357 In a Glass of Water Before Retiring 358 Legend 359 Dulce Ridentem 361 All Night Long 362 Days Pass: Men Pass 362 Illa 363 Hands 363 Memory 364 BALLADS AND TALES American Names 367 The Ballad of William Sycamore 368 The Hemp 371 The Mountain Whippoorwill 376 King David 380 The Retort Discourteous 387 Three Days’ Ride 389 Alexander the Sixth Dines with the Cardinal of Capua 392 Southern Ships and Settlers 395 Cotton Mather 396 Captain Kidd 397 French Pioneers 397 Thomas Jefferson 398 John James Audubon 400 Daniel Boone 402 Western Wagons 402 CREATURES OF EARTH The Innovator 405 Snowfall 406 Bad Dream 407 For All Blasphemers 408 Architects 409 Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room 409 Operation 410 The Trapeze Performer 410 Judgment 411 Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum 411 For Those Who Are as Right as Any 412 Girl Child 413 Old Man Hoppergrass 414 The Lost Wife 415 Sparrow 416 Thanks 417 Complaint of Body, the Ass, Against His Rider, the Soul 418 NIGHTMARES AND VISITANTS Notes to Be Left in a Cornerstone 423 Short Ode 428 Litany for Dictatorships 429 Ode to the Austrian Socialists 432 Do You Remember, Springfield? 435 Ode to Walt Whitman 438 Metropolitan Nightmare 448 Nightmare, with Angels 450 Nightmare Number Three 452 1936 454 For City Spring 455 For City Lovers 456 Nightmare for Future Reference 457 Minor Litany 461 Nightmare at Noon 464 LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE 471 [Illustration] _JOHN BROWN’S BODY_ [Illustration] _John Brown’s Body_ * * * * * INVOCATION American muse, whose strong and diverse heart So many men have tried to understand But only made it smaller with their art, Because you are as various as your land, As mountainous-deep, as flowered with blue rivers, Thirsty with deserts, buried under snows, As native as the shape of Navajo quivers, And native, too, as the sea-voyaged rose. Swift runner, never captured or subdued, Seven-branched elk beside the mountain stream, That half a hundred hunters have pursued But never matched their bullets with the dream, Where the great huntsmen failed, I set my sorry And mortal snare for your immortal quarry. You are the buffalo-ghost, the broncho-ghost With dollar-silver in your saddle-horn, The cowboys riding in from Painted Post, The Indian arrow in the Indian corn, And you are the clipped velvet of the lawns Where Shropshire grows from Massachusetts sods, The grey Maine rocks—and the war-painted dawns That break above the Garden of the Gods. The prairie-schooners crawling toward the ore And the cheap car, parked by the station-door. Where the skyscrapers lift their foggy plumes Of stranded smoke out of a stony mouth You are that high stone and its arrogant fumes, And you are ruined gardens in the South And bleak New England farms, so winter-white Even their roofs look lonely, and the deep The middle grainland where the wind of night Is like all blind earth sighing in her sleep. A friend, an enemy, a sacred hag With two tied oceans in her medicine-bag. They tried to fit you with an English song And clip your speech into the English tale. But, even from the first, the words went wrong, The catbird pecked away the nightingale. The homesick men begot high-cheekboned things Whose wit was whittled with a different sound And Thames and all the rivers of the kings Ran into Mississippi and were drowned. They planted England with a stubborn trust. But the cleft dust was never English dust. Stepchild of every exile from content And all the disavouched, hard-bitten pack Shipped overseas to steal a continent With neither shirts nor honor to their back. Pimping grandee and rump-faced regicide, Apple-cheeked younkers from a windmill-square, Puritans stubborn as the nails of Pride, Rakes from Versailles and thieves from County Clare, The black-robed priests who broke their hearts in vain To make you God and France or God and Spain. These were your lovers in your buckskin-youth. And each one married with a dream so proud He never knew it could not be the truth And that he coupled with a girl of cloud. And now to see you is more difficult yet Except as an immensity of wheel Made up of wheels, oiled with inhuman sweat And glittering with the heat of ladled steel. All these you are, and each is partly you, And none is false, and none is wholly true. So how to see you as you really are, So how to suck the pure, distillate, stored Essence of essence from the hidden star And make it pierce like a riposting sword. For, as we hunt you down, you must escape And we pursue a shadow of our own That can be caught in a magician’s cape But has the flatness of a painted stone. Never the running stag, the gull at wing, The pure elixir, the American thing. And yet, at moments when the mind was hot With something fierier than joy or grief, When each known spot was an eternal spot And every leaf was an immortal leaf, I think that I have seen you, not as one, But clad in diverse semblances and powers, Always the same, as light falls from the sun, And always different, as the differing hours. Yet, through each altered garment that you wore The naked body, shaking the heart’s core. All day the snow fell on that Eastern town With its soft, pelting, little, endless sigh Of infinite flakes that brought the tall sky down Till I could put my hands in the white sky And taste cold scraps of heaven on my tongue And walk in such a changed and luminous light As gods inhabit when the gods are young. All day it fell. And when the gathered night Was a blue shadow cast by a pale glow I saw you then, snow-image, bird of the snow. And I have seen and heard you in the dry Close-huddled furnace of the city street When the parched moon was planted in the sky And the limp air hung dead against the heat. I saw you rise, red as that rusty plant, Dizzied with lights, half-mad with senseless sound, Enormous metal, shaking to the chant Of a triphammer striking iron ground. Enormous power, ugly to the fool, And beautiful as a well-handled tool. These, and the memory of that windy day On the bare hills, beyond the last barbed wire, When all the orange poppies bloomed one way As if a breath would blow them into fire, I keep forever, like the sea-lion’s tusk The broken sailor brings away to land, But when he touches it, he smells the musk, And the whole sea lies hollow in his hand. So, from a hundred visions, I make one, And out of darkness build my mocking sun. And should that task seem fruitless in the eyes Of those a different magic sets apart To see through the ice-crystal of the wise No nation but the nation that is Art, Their words are just. But when the birchbark-call Is shaken with the sound that hunters make The moose comes plunging through the forest-wall Although the rifle waits beside the lake. Art has no nations—but the mortal sky Lingers like gold in immortality. This flesh was seeded from no foreign grain But Pennsylvania and Kentucky wheat, And it has soaked in California rain And five years tempered in New England sleet To strive at last, against an alien proof And by the changes of an alien moon, To build again that blue, American roof Over a half-forgotten battle-tune And call unsurely, from a haunted ground, Armies of shadows and the shadow-sound. In your Long House there is an attic-place Full of dead epics and machines that rust, And there, occasionally, with casual face, You come awhile to stir the sleepy dust; Neither in pride nor mercy, but in vast Indifference at so many gifts unsought, The yellowed satins, smelling of the past, And all the loot the lucky pirates brought. I only bring a cup of silver air, Yet, in your casualness, receive it there. Receive the dream too haughty for the breast, Receive the words that should have walked as bold As the storm walks along the mountain-crest And are like beggars whining in the cold. The maimed presumption, the unskilful skill, The patchwork colors, fading from the first, And all the fire that fretted at the will With such a barren ecstasy of thirst. Receive them all—and should you choose to touch them With one slant ray of quick, American light, Even the dust will have no power to smutch them, Even the worst will glitter in the night. If not—the dry bones littered by the way May still point giants toward their golden prey. PRELUDE—THE SLAVER He closed the Bible carefully, putting it down As if his fingers loved it. Then he turned. “Mr. Mate.” “Yes, sir.” The captain’s eyes held a shadow. “I think, while this weather lasts,” he said, after a pause, “We’d better get them on deck as much as we can. They keep better that way. Besides,” he added, unsmiling, “She’s begun to stink already. You’ve noticed it?” The mate nodded, a boyish nod of half-apology, “And only a week out, too, sir.” “Yes,” said the skipper. His eyes looked into themselves. “Well. The trade,” he said, “The trade’s no damn perfume-shop.” He drummed with his fingers. “Seem to be quiet tonight,” he murmured, at last. “Oh yes sir, quiet enough.” The mate flushed. “Not What you’d call quiet at home but—quiet enough.” “Um,” said the skipper. “What about the big fellow?” “Tarbarrel, sir? The man who says he’s a king? He was praying to something—it made the others restless. Mr. Olsen stopped it.” “I don’t like that,” said the skipper. “It was only an idol, sir.” “Oh.” “A stone or something.” “Oh.” “But he’s a bad one, sir—a regular sullen one— He—eyes in the dark—like a cat’s—enough to give you—” The mate was young. He shivered. “The creeps,” he said. “We’ve had that kind,” said the skipper. His mouth was hard Then it relaxed. “Damn cheating Arabe!” he said, “I told them I’d take no more of their pennyweight kings, Worth pounds to look at, and then when you get them aboard Go crazy so they have to be knocked on the head Or else just eat up their hearts and die in a week Taking up room for nothing.” The mate hardly heard him, thinking of something else. “I’m afraid we’ll lose some more of the women,” he said. “Well, they’re a scratch lot,” said the skipper, “Any sickness?” “Just the usual, sir.” “But nothing like plague or—” “No sir.” “The Lord is merciful,” said the skipper. His voice was wholly sincere—an old ship’s bell Hung in the steeple of a meeting-house With all New England and the sea’s noise in it. “Well, you’d better take another look-see, Mr. Mate.” The mate felt his lips go dry. “Aye aye, sir,” he said, Wetting his lips with his tongue. As he left the cabin He heard the Bible being opened again. Lantern in hand, he went down to the hold. Each time he went he had a trick of trying To shut the pores of his body against the stench By force of will, by thinking of salt and flowers, But it was always useless. He kept thinking: When I get home, when I get a bath and clean food, When I’ve gone swimming out beyond the Point In that cold green, so cold it must be pure Beyond the purity of a dissolved star, When I get my shore-clothes on, and one of those shirts Out of the linen-closet that smells of lavender, Will my skin smell black even then, will my skin smell black? The lantern shook in his hand. This was black, here, This was black to see and feel and smell and taste, The blackness of black, with one weak lamp to light it As ineffectually as a firefly in Hell, And, being so, should be silent. But the hold Was never silent. There was always that breathing. Always that thick breathing, always those shivering cries. A few of the slaves Knew English—at least the English for water and Jesus. “I’m dying.” “Sick.” “My name Caesar.” Those who knew These things, said these things now when they saw the lantern Mechanically, as tamed beasts answer the whipcrack. Their voices beat at the light like heavy moths. But most made merely liquid or guttural sounds Meaningless to the mate, but horribly like The sounds of palateless men or animals trying To talk through a human throat. The mate was used To the confusion of limbs and bodies by now. At first it had made him think of the perturbed Blind coil of blacksnakes thawing on a rock In the bleak sun of Spring, or Judgment Day Just after the first sounding of the trump When all earth seethes and crumbles with the slow Vast, mouldy resurrection of the dead. But he had passed such fancies. He must see As much as he could. He couldn’t see very much. They were too tightly packed but—no plague yet, And all the chains were fast. Then he saw something. The woman was asleep but her baby was dead. He wondered whether to take it from her now. No, it would only rouse the others. Tomorrow. He turned away with a shiver. His glance fell On the man who said he had been a king, the man Called Tarbarrel, the image of black stone Whose eyes were savage gods. The huge suave muscles Rippled like stretching cats as he changed posture, Magnificence in chains that yet was ease. The smolder in those eyes. The steady hate. The mate made himself stare till the eyes dropped. Then he turned back to the companionway. His forehead was hot and sweaty. He wiped it off, But then the rough cloth of his sleeve smelt black. The captain shut the Bible as he came in. “Well, Mister Mate?” “All quiet, sir.” The captain Looked at him sharply. “Sit down,” he said in a bark. The mate’s knees gave as he sat. “It’s—hot down there,” He said, a little weakly, wanting to wipe His face again, but knowing he’d smell that blackness Again, if he did. “Takes you that way, sometimes,” Said the captain, not unkindly, “I remember Back in the twenties.” Something hot and strong Bit the mate’s throat. He coughed. “There,” said the captain, Putting the cup down. “You’ll feel better now. You’re young for this trade, Mister, and that’s a fact.” The mate coughed and didn’t answer, much too glad To see the captain change back to himself From something made of steam, to want to talk. But, after a while, he heard the captain talking, Half to himself. “It’s a fact, that,” he was saying, “They’ve even made a song of me—ever heard it?” The mate shook his head, quickly, “Oh yes you have. You know how it goes.” He cleared his throat and hummed: “_Captain Ball was a Yankee slaver,_ _Blow, blow, blow the man down!_ _He traded in niggers and loved his Saviour,_ _Give me some time to blow the man down._” The droning chanty filled the narrow cabin An instant with grey Massachusetts sea, Wave of the North, wave of the melted ice, The hard salt-sparkles on the harder rock. The stony islands. Then it died away. “Well,” said the captain, “if that’s how it strikes them— They mean it bad but I don’t take it bad. I get my sailing-orders from the Lord.” He touched the Bible. “And it’s down there, Mister, Down there in black and white—the sons of Ham— Bondservants—sweat of their brows.” His voice trailed off Into texts. “I tell you, Mister,” he said fiercely, “The pay’s good pay, but it’s the Lord’s work, too. We’re spreading the Lord’s seed—spreading his seed—” His hand made the outflung motion of a sower And the mate, staring, seemed to hear the slight Patter of fallen seeds on fertile ground, Black, shining seeds, robbed from a black king’s storehouse, Falling and falling on American earth With light, inexorable patter and fall, To strike, lie silent, quicken. Till the Spring Came with its weeping rains, and the ground bore A blade, a shadow-sapling, a tree of shadow, A black-leaved tree whose trunk and roots were shadow, A tree shaped like a yoke, growing and growing Until it blotted all the seamen’s stars. Horses of anger trampling, horses of anger, Trampling behind the sky in ominous cadence, Beat of the heavy hooves like metal on metal, Trampling something down. . . . Was it they, was it they? Or was it cold wind in the leaves of the shadow-tree That made such grievous music? Oh Lordy Je-sus Won’t you come and find me? They put me in jail, Lord, Way down in the jail. Won’t you send me a pro-phet Just one of your prophets Like Moses and Aaron To get me some bail? I’m feeling poorly Yes, mighty poorly, I ain’t got no strength, Lord, I’m all trampled down. So send me an angel Just any old angel To give me a robe, Lord, And give me a crown. Oh Lordy Je-sus It’s a long time comin’ It’s a long time co-o-min’ That Jubilee time. We’ll wait and we’ll pray, Lord, We’ll wait and we’ll pray, Lord, But it’s a long time, Lord, Yes, it’s a long time. The dark sobbing ebbed away. The captain was still talking. “Yes,” he said, “And yet we treat ’em well enough. There’s no one From Salem to the Guinea Coast can say They lose as few as I do.” He stopped. “Well, Mister?” The mate arose. “Good night sir and—” “Good night.” The mate went up on deck. The breeze was fresh. There were the stars, steady. He shook himself Like a dog coming out of water and felt better. Six weeks, with luck, and they’d be back in port And he could draw his pay and see his girl. Meanwhile, it wasn’t his watch, so he could sleep. The captain still below, reading that Bible. . . . Forget it—and the noises, still half-heard— He’d have to go below to sleep, this time, But after, if the weather held like this, He’d have them sling a hammock up on deck. You couldn’t smell the black so much on deck And so you didn’t dream it when you slept. BOOK ONE Jack Ellyat had been out all day alone, Except for his new gun and Ned, the setter, The old wise dog with Autumn in his eyes, Who stepped the fallen leaves so delicately They barely rustled. Ellyat trampled them down Crackling, like cast-off skins of fairy snakes. He’d meant to hunt, but he had let the gun Rest on his shoulder. It was enough to feel The cool air of the last of Indian summer Blowing continually across his cheek And watch the light distill its water of gold As the sun dropped. Here was October, here Was ruddy October, the old harvester, Wrapped like a beggared sachem in a coat Of tattered tanager and partridge feathers, Scattering jack-o-lanterns everywhere To give the field-mice pumpkin-colored moons. His red clay pipe had trailed across the land Staining the trees with colors of the sumach: East, West, South, North, the ceremonial fume Blue and enchanted as the soul of air Drifted its incense. Incense of the wild, Incense of earth fulfilled, ready to sleep The stupefied dark slumber of the bear All winter, underneath a frozen star. Jack Ellyat felt that turning of the year Stir in his blood like drowsy fiddle-music And knew he was glad to be Connecticut-born And young enough to find Connecticut winter Was a black pond to cut with silver skates And not a scalping-knife against the throat. He thought the thoughts of youth, idle and proud. Since I was begotten My father’s grown wise But he has forgotten The wind in the skies. I shall not grow wise. Since I have been growing My uncle’s got rich. He spends his time sowing A bottomless ditch. I will not grow rich. For money is sullen And wisdom is sly, But youth is the pollen That blows through the sky And does not ask why. O wisdom and money How can you requite The honey of honey That flies in that flight? The useless delight? So, with his back against a tree, he stared At the pure, golden feathers in the West Until the sunset flowed into his heart Like a slow wave of honey-dropping dew Murmuring from the other side of Sleep. There was a fairy hush Everywhere. Even the setter at his feet Lay there as if the twilight had bewitched His russet paws into two russet leaves, A dog of russet leaves who did not stir a hair. Then something broke the peace. Like wind it was, the flutter of rising wind, But then it grew until it was the rushing Of winged stallions, distant and terrible, Trampling beyond the sky. The hissing charge Of lightless armies of angelic horse Galloping down the stars. There were no words In that implacable and feathery thunder, And yet there must have been, or Ellyat’s mind Caught them like broken arrows out of the air. Thirteen sisters beside the sea, (Have a care, my son.) Builded a house called Liberty And locked the doors with a stately key. None should enter it but the free. (Have a care, my son.) The walls are solid as Plymouth Rock. (Rock can crumble, my son.) The door of seasoned New England stock. Before it a Yankee fighting-cock Pecks redcoat kings away from the lock. (Fighters can die, my son.) The hearth is a corner where sages sit. (Sages pass, my son.) Washington’s heart lies under it. And the long roof-beams are chiseled and split From hickory tough as Jackson’s wit. (Bones in the dust, my son.) The trees in the garden are fair and fine. (Trees blow down, my son.) Connecticut elm and Georgia pine. The warehouse groans with cotton and swine. The cellar is full of scuppernong-wine. (Wine turns sour, my son.) Surely a house so strong and bold, (The wind is rising, my son,) Will last till Time is a pinch of mould! There is a ghost, when the night is old. There is a ghost who walks in the cold. (The trees are shaking, my son.) The sisters sleep on Liberty’s breast, (The thunder thunders, my son,) Like thirteen swans in a single nest. But the ghost is naked and will not rest Until the sun rise out of the West. (The lightning lightens, my son.) All night long like a moving stain, (The trees are breaking, my son,) The black ghost wanders his house of pain. There is blood where his hand has lain. It is wrong he should wear a chain. (The sky is falling, my son.) The warning beat at his mind like a bird and passed. Ellyat roused. He thought: they are going South. He stared at the sky, confused. It was empty and bleak. But still he felt the shock of the hooves on his heart. —The riderless horses never bridled or tamed— He heard them screaming like eagles loosed from a cloud As they drove South to trample the indolent sun, And darkness sat in his mind like a shadow enthroned. He could not read the riddle their flight had set But he felt wretched, and glad for the dog’s cold nose That now came nuzzling his hand. Who has set you free? Who has driven you out in the sky with an iron whip Like blind, old thunders stubbornly marching abreast To carry a portent high on shoulders of stone The length and breadth of the Union? The North and South are at peace and the East and West, The tomahawk is buried in prairie-sod. The great frontier rolls westward with the sun, And the new States are crowding at the door, The buckskin-States, the buffalo-horned, the wild Mustangs with coats the color of crude gold. Their bodies, naked as the hunter’s moon, Smell of new grass and the sweet milk of the corn. Defiant virgins, fiercely unpossessed As the bird-stars that walk the night untrodden. They drag their skies and sunsets after them Like calico ponies on a rawhide rope, And who would ride them must have iron thighs And a lean heart, bright as a bowie-knife. Were they not foaled with treasure in their eyes Between the rattlesnake and the painted rock? Are they not matches for vaquero gods? Are they not occupation for the strength Of a whole ruffian world of pioneers? And must they wait like spayed mares in the rain, While Carolina and Connecticut Fight an old quarrel out before a ghost? So Ellyat talked to his young indignation, Walking back home with the October moon. But, even as he mused, he tried to picture The South, that languorous land where Uncle Toms Groaned Biblically underneath the lash, And grinning Topsies mopped and mowed behind Each honeysuckle vine. They called them niggers And cut their ears off when they ran away, But then they loved their mammies—there was that— Although they sometimes sold them down the river— And when the niggers were not getting licked Or quoting Scripture, they sang funny songs, By the Swanee river, on the old plantation. The girls were always beautiful. The men Wore varnished boots, raced horses and played cards And drank mint-juleps till the time came round For fighting duels with their second cousins Or tar-and-feathering some God-damn Yankee. . . . The South . . . the honeysuckle . . . the hot sun . . . The taste of ripe persimmons and sugar-cane . . . The cloyed and waxy sweetness of magnolias . . . White cotton, blowing like a fallen cloud, And foxhounds belling the Virginia hills . . . And then the fugitive slave he’d seen in Boston, The black man with the eyes of a tortured horse. . . . He whistled Ned. What do you think of it, Ned? We’re abolitionists, I suppose, and Father Talks about Wendell Phillips and John Brown But, even so, that doesn’t have to mean We’ll break the Union up for abolition, And they can’t want to break it up for slavery— It won’t come to real fighting, will it, Ned? But Ned was busy with a rabbit-track. There was the town—the yellow window of home. Meanwhile, in Concord, Emerson and Thoreau Talked of an ideal state, so purely framed It never could exist. Meanwhile, in Boston Minister Higginson and Dr. Howe Waited for news about a certain project That had to do with pikes and Harper’s Ferry. Meanwhile, in Georgia, Clay Wingate dreamed. * * * * * Settled more than a hundred year By the river and county of St. Savier, The Wingates held their ancestry As high as Taliaferro or Huger, Maryland Carroll, Virginia Lee. They had ill-spelt letters of Albemarle’s And their first grant ran from the second Charles, Clerkly inscribed upon parchmentries “To our well-beloved John Wingate, these,” Though envy hinted the royal mood Held more of humor than gratitude And the well-beloved had less applied To honest John than his tall young bride, At least their eldest to John’s surprise, Was very like Monmouth about the eyes, Till his father wondered if every loyalty Was always so richly repaid by royalty, But, having long found that the principal question In a happy life is a good digestion And the worst stomachic of all is jealousy He gave up the riddle, and settled zealously To farming his acres, begetting daughters, And making a study of cordial waters Till he died at ninety of pure senility And was greatly mourned by the local gentility. John the Second was different cloth. He had wings—but the wings of the moth. Courtly, unlucky, clever and wise, There was a Stuart in his eyes, A gambler that played against loaded dice. He could harrow the water and plough the sand, But he could not do the thing at hand. A fencing-foil too supple for use, A racing colt that must run at loose. And the Wingate acres had slipped away If it had not been for Elspeth Mackay. She was his wife, and her heart was bold As a broad, bright guinea of Border gold. Her wit was a tartan of colored weather. Her walk was gallant as Highland heather. And whatever she had, she held together. It was she who established on Georgia soil Wingate honor and Wingate toil When John and his father’s neighbors stood At swords’ points over a county feud And only ill-fortune and he were friends. —They prophesied her a dozen ends, Seeking new ground for a broken man Where only the deer and the rabbit ran And the Indian arrow harried both, But she held her word and she kept her troth, Cleared the forest and tamed the wild And gave the breast to the new-born child While the painted Death went whooping by —To die at last as she wished to die In the fief built out of her blood and bone With her heart for the Hall’s foundation-stone. Deep in her sons, and the Wingate blood, She stamped her sigil of fortitude. _Thrift and love for the house and the chief_ _And a scone on the hob for the son of grief._ _But a knife in the ribs for the pleasant thief._ And deep in her sons, when she was gone, Her words took root, and her ghost lived on. The slow voice haunting the ocean-shell To counsel the sons of her sons as well. And it was well for the Wingate line To have that stiffening set in its spine. For once in each breeding of Wingate kin There came a child with an olive skin And the mouth of Charles, the merry and sad, And the bright, spoilt charm that Monmouth had. Luckily seldom the oldest born To sow the nettle in Wingate corn And let the cotton blight on its stalk While he wasted his time in witty talk, Or worse, in love with no minister handy, Or feeding a spaniel on nuts and brandy And taking a melancholy pride In never choosing the winning side. Clay Wingate was the last to feel The prick of that spur of tarnished steel, Gilt, but crossed with the dubious bar Of arms won under the bastard’s star, Rowel his mind, at that time or this, With thoughts and visions that were not his. A sorrow of laughter, a mournful glamor And the ghostly stroke of an airy hammer Shaking his heart with pity and pride That had nothing to do with the things he eyed. He was happy and young, he was strong and stout, His body was hard to weary out. When he thought of life, he thought of a shout. But—there was a sword in a blackened sheath, There was a shape with a mourning wreath: And a place in his mind was a wrestling-ring Where the crownless form of an outlawed king Fought with a shadow too like his own, And, late or early, was overthrown. It is not lucky to dream such stuff— Dreaming men are haunted men. Though Wingate’s face looked lucky enough To any eye that had seen him then, Riding back through the Georgia Fall To the white-pillared porch of Wingate Hall. Fall of the possum, fall of the ’coon, And the lop-eared hound-dog baying the moon. Fall that is neither bitter nor swift But a brown girl bearing an idle gift, A brown seed-kernel that splits apart And shows the Summer yet in its heart, A smokiness so vague in the air You feel it rather than see it there, A brief, white rime on the red clay road And slow mules creaking a lazy load Through endless acres of afternoon, A pine-cone fire and a banjo-tune, And a julep mixed with a silver spoon. Your noons are hot, your nights deep-starred, There is honeysuckle still in the yard, Fall of the quail and the firefly-glows And the pot-pourri of the rambler-rose, Fall that brings no promise of snows . . . Wingate checked on his horse’s rein With a hand as light as a butterfly And drank content in body and brain As he gazed for a moment at the sky. This was his Georgia, this his share Of pine and river and sleepy air, Of summer thunder and winter rain That spills bright tears on the window-pane With the slight, fierce passion of young men’s grief, Of the mockingbird and the mulberry-leaf. For, wherever the winds of Georgia run, It smells of peaches long in the sun, And the white wolf-winter, hungry and frore, Can prowl the North by a frozen door But here we have fed him on bacon-fat And he sleeps by the stove like a lazy cat. Here Christmas stops at everyone’s house With a jug of molasses and green, young boughs, And the little New Year, the weakling one, Can lie outdoors in the noonday sun, Blowing the fluff from a turkey-wing At skies already haunted with Spring— Oh, Georgia . . . Georgia . . . the careless yield! The watermelons ripe in the field! The mist in the bottoms that tastes of fever And the yellow river rolling forever . . .! So Wingate saw it, vision or truth, Through the colored window of his own youth, Building an image out of his mind To live or die for, as Fate inclined. He drank his fill of the air, and then, Was just about to ride on again When—what was that noise beyond the sky, That harry of unseen cavalry Riding the wind? His own horse stirred, Neighing. He listened. There was a word. He could not hear it—and yet he heard. It was an arrow from ambush flung, It was a bell with a leaden tongue Striking an hour. He was young No longer. He and his horse were old, And both were bound with an iron band. He slipped from the saddle and tried to stand. He struck one hand with the other hand. But both were cold. * * * * * The horses, burning-hooved, drove on toward the sea, But, where they had passed, the air was troubled and sick Like earth that the shoulder of earthquake heavily stirs. There was a whisper moving that air all night, A whisper that cried and whimpered about the house Where John Brown prayed to his God, by his narrow bed. * * * * * JOHN BROWN’S PRAYER Omnipotent and steadfast God, Who, in Thy mercy, hath Upheaved in me Jehovah’s rod And his chastising wrath, For fifty-nine unsparing years Thy Grace hath worked apart To mould a man of iron tears With a bullet for a heart. Yet, since this body may be weak With all it has to bear, Once more, before Thy thunders speak, Almighty, hear my prayer. I saw Thee when Thou did display The black man and his lord To bid me free the one, and slay The other with the sword. I heard Thee when Thou bade me spurn Destruction from my hand And, though all Kansas bleed and burn, It was at Thy command. I hear the rolling of the wheels, The chariots of war! I hear the breaking of the seals And the opening of the door! The glorious beasts with many eyes Exult before the Crowned. The buried saints arise, arise Like incense from the ground! Before them march the martyr-kings, In bloody sunsets drest, _O, Kansas, bleeding Kansas,_ _You will not let me rest!_ _I hear your sighing corn again,_ _I smell your prairie-sky,_ _And I remember five dead men_ _By Pottawattomie._ Lord God it was a work of Thine, And how might I refrain? _But Kansas, bleeding Kansas,_ _I hear her in her pain._ _Her corn is rustling in the ground,_ _An arrow in my flesh._ _And all night long I staunch a wound_ _That ever bleeds afresh._ Get up, get up, my hardy sons, From this time forth we are No longer men, but pikes and guns In God’s advancing war. And if we live, we free the slave, And if we die, we die. But God has digged His saints a grave Beyond the western sky. Oh, fairer than the bugle-call Its walls of jasper shine! And Joshua’s sword is on the wall With space beside for mine. And should the Philistine defend His strength against our blows, The God who doth not spare His friend, Will not forget His foes. * * * * * They reached the Maryland bridge of Harper’s Ferry That Sunday night. There were twenty-two in all, Nineteen were under thirty, three not twenty-one, Kagi, the self-taught scholar, quiet and cool, Stevens, the cashiered soldier, Puritan-fathered, A singing giant, gunpowder-tempered and rash. Dauphin Thompson, the pippin-cheeked country-boy, More like a girl than a warrior; Oliver Brown, Married last year when he was barely nineteen; Dangerfield Newby, colored and born a slave, Freeman now, but married to one not free Who, with their seven children, waited him South, The youngest baby just beginning to crawl; Watson Brown, the steady lieutenant, who wrote Back to his wife, “Oh, Bell, I want to see you And the little fellow very much but must wait. There was a slave near here whose wife was sold South. They found him hanging in Kennedy’s orchard next morning. I cannot come home as long as such things are done here. I sometimes think that we shall not meet again.” These were some of the band. For better or worse They were all strong men. The bearded faces look strange In the old daguerreotypes: they should be the faces Of prosperous, small-town people, good sons and fathers, Good horse-shoe pitchers, good at plowing a field, Good at swapping stories and good at praying, American wheat, firm-rooted, good in the ear. There is only one whose air seems out of the common, Oliver Brown. That face has a masculine beauty Somewhat like the face of Keats. They were all strong men. They tied up the watchmen and took the rifleworks. Then John Brown sent a raiding party away To fetch in Colonel Washington from his farm. The Colonel was George Washington’s great-grand-nephew, Slave-owner, gentleman-farmer, but, more than these, Possessor of a certain fabulous sword Given to Washington by Frederick the Great. They captured him and his sword and brought them along Processionally. The act has a touch of drama, Half costume-romance, half unmerited farce. On the way, they told the Washington slaves they were free, Or free to fight for their freedom. The slaves heard the news With the dazed, scared eyes of cattle before a storm. A few came back with the band and were given pikes, And, when John Brown was watching, pretended to mount A slipshod guard over the prisoners. But, when he had walked away, they put down their pikes And huddled together, talking in mourning voices. It didn’t seem right to play at guarding the Colonel But they were afraid of the bearded patriarch With the Old Testament eyes. A little later It was Patrick Higgins’ turn. He was the night-watchman Of the Maryland bridge, a tough little Irishman With a canny, humorous face, and a twist in his speech. He came humming his way to his job. “Halt!” ordered a voice. He stopped a minute, perplexed. As he told men later, “Now I didn’t know what ‘Halt!’ mint, any more Than a hog knows about a holiday.” There was a scuffle. He got away with a bullet-crease in his scalp And warned the incoming train. It was half-past-one. A moment later, a man named Shepherd Heyward, Free negro, baggage-master of the small station, Well-known in the town, hardworking, thrifty and fated, Came looking for Higgins. “Halt!” called the voice again, But he kept on, not hearing or understanding, Whichever it may have been. A rifle cracked. He fell by the station-platform, gripping his belly, And lay for twelve hours of torment, asking for water Until he was able to die. There is no stone, No image of bronze or marble green with the rain To Shepherd Heyward, free negro of Harper’s Ferry, And even the books, the careful, ponderous histories, That turn live men into dummies with smiles of wax Thoughtfully posed against a photographer’s background In the act of signing a treaty or drawing a sword, Tell little of what he was. And yet his face Grey with pain and puzzled at sudden death Stares out at us through the bookworm-dust of the years With an uncomprehending wonder, a blind surprise. “I was getting along,” it says, “I was doing well. I had six thousand dollars saved in the bank. It was a good town, a nice town, I liked the folks And they liked me. I had a good job there, too. On Sundays I used to dress myself up slick enough To pass the plate in church, but I wasn’t proud Not even when trashy niggers called me Mister, Though I could hear the old grannies over their snuff Mumbling along, ‘Look, chile, there goes Shepherd Heyward. Ain’t him fine in he Sunday clo’es—ain’t him sassy and fine? You grow up decent and don’t play ball in the street, And maybe you’ll get like him, with a gold watch and chain.’ And then, suddenly—and what was it all about? Why should anyone want to kill me? Why was it done?” So the grey lips. And so the hurt in the eyes. A hurt like a child’s, at punishment unexplained That makes the whole child-universe fall to pieces. At the time of death, most men turn back toward the child. Brown did not know at first that the first man dead By the sword he thought of so often as Gideon’s sword Was one of the race he had drawn that sword to free. It had been dark on the bridge. A man had come And had not halted when ordered. Then the shot And the scrape of the hurt man dragging himself away. That was all. The next man ordered to halt would halt. His mind was too full of the burning judgments of God To wonder who it had been. He was cool and at peace. He dreamt of a lamb, lying down by a rushing stream. So the night wore away, indecisive and strange. The raiders stuck by the arsenal, waiting perhaps For a great bell of jubilation to toll in the sky, And the slaves to rush from the hills with pikes in their hands, A host redeemed, black rescue-armies of God. It did not happen. Meanwhile, there was casual firing. A townsman named Boerley was killed. Meanwhile, the train Passed over the bridge to carry its wild news Of abolition-devils sprung from the ground A hundred and fifty, three hundred, a thousand strong To pillage Harper’s Ferry, with fire and sword. Meanwhile the whole countryside was springing to arms. The alarm-bell in Charlestown clanged “Nat Turner has come. Nat Turner has come again, all smoky from Hell, Setting the slave to murder and massacre!” The Jefferson Guards fell in. There were boys and men. They had no uniforms but they had weapons. Old squirrel-rifles, taken down from the wall, Shot guns loaded with spikes and scraps of iron. A boy dragged a blunderbuss as big as himself. They started for the Ferry. In a dozen A score of other sleepy, neighboring towns The same bell clanged, the same militia assembled. The Ferry itself was roused and stirring with dawn. And the firing began again. A queer, harsh sound In the ordinary streets of that clean, small town, A desultory, vapid, meaningless sound. God knows why John Brown lingered! Kagi, the scholar, Who, with two others, held the rifle-works, All morning sent him messages urging retreat. They had the inexorable weight of common sense Behind them, but John Brown neither replied Nor heeded, brooding in the patriarch-calm Of a lean, solitary pine that hangs On the cliff’s edge, and sees the world below A tiny pattern of toy fields and trees, And only feels its roots gripping the rock And the almighty wind that shakes its boughs, Blowing from eagle-heaven to eagle-heaven. Of course they were cut off. The whole attempt Was fated from the first. Just about noon The Jefferson Guards took the Potomac Bridge And drove away the men Brown posted there. There were three doors of possible escape Open to Brown. With this the first slammed shut. The second followed it a little later With the recapture of the other bridge That cut Brown off from Kagi and the arsenal And penned the larger body of the raiders In the armory. Again the firing rolled, And now the first of the raiders fell and died, Dangerfield Newby, the freed Scotch-mulatto Whose wife and seven children, slaves in Virginia, Waited for him to bring them incredible freedom. They were sold South instead, after the raid. His body lay where the townspeople could reach it. They cut off his ears for trophies. If there are souls, As many think that there are or wish that there might be, Crystalline things that rise on light wings exulting Out of the spoilt and broken cocoon of the body, Knowing no sorrow or pain but only deliverance, And yet with the flame of speech, the patterns of memory, One wonders what the soul of Dangerfield Newby Said, in what terms, to the soul of Shepherd Heyward, Both born slave, both freed, both dead the same day. What do the souls that bleed from the corpse of battle Say to the tattered night? Perhaps it is better We have no power to visage what they might say. The firing now was constant, like the heavy And drumming rains of summer. Twice Brown sent Asking a truce. The second time there went Stevens and Watson Brown with a white flag. But things had gone beyond the symbol of flags. Stevens, shot from a window, fell in the gutter Horribly wounded. Watson Brown crawled back To the engine house that was the final fort Of Brown’s last stand, torn through and through with slugs. A Mr. Brua, one of Brown’s prisoners, Strolled out from the unguarded prison-room Into the bullets, lifted Stevens up, Carried him over to the old hotel They called the Wager House, got a doctor for him, And then strolled back to take his prisoner’s place With Colonel Washington and the scared rest. I know no more than this of Mr. Brua But he seems curiously American, And I imagine him a tall, stooped man A little yellow with the Southern sun, With slow, brown eyes and a slow way of talking, Shifting the quid of tobacco in his cheek Mechanically, as he lifted up The dirty, bloody body of the man Who stood for everything he most detested And slowly carrying him through casual wasps Of death to the flyspecked but sunny room In the old hotel, wiping the blood and grime Mechanically from his Sunday coat, Settling his black string-tie with big, tanned hands, And, then, incredibly, going back to jail. He did not think much about what he’d done But sat himself as comfortably as might be On the cold bricks of that dejected guard-room And slowly started cutting another quid With a worn knife that had a brown bone-handle. He lived all through the war and died long after, This Mr. Brua I see. His last advice To numerous nephews was “Keep out of trouble, But if you’re in it, chew and don’t be hasty, Just do whatever’s likeliest at hand.” I like your way of talking, Mr. Brua, And if there still are people interested In cutting literary clothes for heroes They might do worse than mention your string-tie. There were other killings that day. On the one side, this, Leeman, a boy of eighteen and the youngest raider, Trying to flee from the death-trap of the engine-house And caught and killed on an islet in the Potomac. The body lay on a tiny shelf of rock For hours, a sack of clothes still stung by bullets. On the other side—Fontaine Beckham, mayor of the town, Went to look at Heyward’s body with Patrick Higgins. The slow tears crept to his eyes. He was getting old. He had thought a lot of Heyward. He had no gun But he had been mayor of the town for a dozen years, A peaceful, orderly place full of decent people, And now they were killing people, here in his town, He had to do something to stop it, somehow or other. He wandered out on the railroad, half-distraught And peeped from behind a water-tank at the raiders. “Squire, don’t go any farther,” said Higgins, “It ain’t safe.” He hardly heard him, he had to look out again. Who were these devils with horns who were shooting his people? They didn’t look like devils. One was a boy Smooth-cheeked, with a bright half-dreamy face, a little Like Sally’s eldest. Suddenly, the air struck him A stiff, breath-taking blow. “Oh,” he said, astonished. Took a step and fell on his face, shot through the heart. Higgins watched him for twenty minutes, wanting to lift him But not quite daring. Then he turned away And went back to the town. The bars had been open all day, Never to better business. When the news of Beckham’s death spread from bar to bar, It was like putting loco-weed in the whiskey, The mob came together at once, the American mob, They mightn’t be able to take Brown’s last little fort But there were two prisoners penned in the Wager House. One was hurt already, Stevens, no fun killing him. But the other was William Thompson, whole and unwounded, Caught when Brown tried to send his first flag of truce. They stormed the hotel and dragged him out to the bridge, Where two men shot him, unarmed, then threw the body Over the trestle. It splashed in the shallow water, But the slayers kept on firing at the dead face. The carcass was there for days, a riven target, Barbarously misused. Meanwhile the armory yard Was taken by a new band of Beckham’s avengers, The most of Brown’s prisoners freed and his last escape cut off. What need to tell of the killing of Kagi the scholar, The wounding of Oliver Brown and the other deaths? Only this remains to be told. When the drunken day Reeled into night, there were left in the engine-house Five men, alive and unwounded, of all the raiders. Watson and Oliver Brown Both of them hurt to the death, were stretched on the floor Beside the corpse of Taylor, the young Canadian. There was no light, there. It was bitterly cold. A cold chain of lightless hours that slowly fell In leaden beads between two fingers of stone. Outside, the fools and the drunkards yelled in the streets, And, now and then, there were shots. The prisoners talked And tried to sleep. John Brown did not try to sleep, The live coals of his eyes severed the darkness; Now and then he heard his young son Oliver calling In the thirsty agony of his wounds, “Oh, kill me! Kill me and put me out of this suffering!” John Brown’s jaw tightened. “If you must die,” he said, “Die like a man.” Toward morning the crying ceased. John Brown called out to the boy but he did not answer. “I guess he’s dead,” said John Brown. If his soul wept They were the incredible tears of the squeezed stone. He had not slept for two days, but he would not sleep. The night was a chained, black leopard that he stared down, Erect, on his feet. One wonders what sights he saw In the cloudy mirror of his most cloudy heart, Perhaps God clothed in a glory, perhaps himself The little boy who had stolen three brass pins And been well whipped for it. When he was six years old An Indian boy had given him a great wonder, A yellow marble, the first he had ever seen. He treasured it for months but lost it at last, Boylike. The hurt of the loss took years to heal. He never quite forgot. He could see it now, Smooth, hard and lovely, a yellow, glistening ball, But it kept rolling away through cracks of darkness Whenever he tried to catch it and hold it fast. If he could only touch it, he would be safe, But it trickled away and away, just out of reach, There by the wall . . . Outside the blackened East Began to tarnish with a faint, grey stain That caught on the fixed bayonets of the marines. Lee of Virginia, Light Horse Harry’s son, Observed it broaden, thinking of many things, But chiefly wanting to get his business done, A curious, wry, distasteful piece of work For regular soldiers. Therefore to be finished As swiftly and summarily as possible Before this yelling mob of drunk civilians And green militia once got out of hand. His mouth set. Once already he had offered The honor of the attack to the militia, Such honor as it was. Their Colonel had Declined with a bright nervousness of haste. “Your men are paid for doing this kind of work. Mine have their wives and children.” Lee smiled briefly, Remembering that. The smile had a sharp edge. Well, it was time. The whooping crowd fell silent And scattered, as a single man walked out Toward the engine-house, a letter in his hand. Lee watched him musingly. A good man, Stuart. Now he was by the door and calling out. The door opened a crack. Brown’s eyes were there Over the cold muzzle of a cocked carbine. The parleying began, went on and on, While the crowd shivered and Lee watched it all With the strict commonsense of a Greek sword And with the same sure readiness. Unperceived, The dawn ran down the valleys of the wind, Coral-footed dove, tracking the sky with coral . . . Then, sudden as powder flashing in a pan, The parleying was done. The door slammed shut. The little figure of Stuart jumped aside Waving its cap. And the marines came on. Brown watched them come. One hand was on his carbine. The other felt the pulse of his dying son. “Sell your lives dear,” he said. The rifle-shots Rattled within the bricked-in engine-room Like firecrackers set off in a stone jug, And there was a harsh stink of sweat and powder. There was a moment when the door held firm. Then it was cracked with sun. Brown fired and missed. A shadow with a sword leaped through the sun. “That’s Ossawattomie,” said the tired voice Of Colonel Washington. The shadow lunged And Brown fell to his knees. The sword bent double, A light sword, better for parades than fighting, The shadow had to take it in both hands And fairly rain his blows with it on Brown Before he sank. Now two marines were down, The rest rushed in over their comrades’ bodies, Pinning one man of Brown’s against the wall With bayonets, another to the floor. Lee, on his rise of ground, shut up his watch. It had been just a quarter of an hour Since Stuart gave the signal for the storm, And now it was over. All but the long dying. * * * * * Cudjo, the negro, watched from the pantry The smooth glissades of the dancing gentry, His splay-feet tapping in time to the tune While his broad face beamed like a drunken moon At candles weeping in crystal sconces, Waxed floors glowing like polished bronzes, Sparkles glinting on Royal Worcester And all the stir and color and luster Where Miss Louisa and Miss Amanda, Proud dolls scissored from silver paper, With hoopskirts wide as the front veranda And the gypsy eyes of a caged frivolity, Pointed their toes in a satin caper To the nonchalant glory of the Quality. And there were the gentlemen, one and all, Friends and neighbors of Wingate Hall— Old Judge Brooke from Little Vermilion With the rusty voice of a cracked horse-pistol And manners as stiff as a French cotillion. Huger Shepley and Wainscott Bristol, Hawky arrogant sons of anger Who rode like devils and fought like cocks And watched, with an ineffable languor Their spoilt youth tarnish a dicing-box. The Cazenove boys and the Cotter brothers, Pepperalls from Pepperall Ride. Cummings and Crowls and a dozen others, Every one with a name and a pride. Sallow young dandies in shirts with ruffles, Each could dance like a blowing feather, And each had the voice that Georgia muffles In the lazy honey of her May weather. Cudjo watched and measured and knew them, Seeing behind and around and through them With the shrewd, dispassionate, smiling eye Of the old-time servant in days gone by. He couldn’t read and he couldn’t write, But he knew Quality, black or white, And even his master could not find The secret place in the back of his mind Where witch-bones talked to a scarlet rag And a child’s voice spoke from a conjur-bag. For he belonged to the hidden nation, The mute, enormous confederation Of the planted earth and the burden borne And the horse that is ridden and given corn. The wind from the brier-patch brought him news That never went walking in white men’s shoes And the grapevine whispered its message faster Than a horse could gallop across a grave, Till, long ere the letter could tell the master, The doomsday rabbits had told the slave. He was faithful as bread or salt, A flawless servant without a fault, Major-domo of Wingate Hall, Proud of his white folks, proud of it all. They might scold him, they might let him scold them, And he might know things that he never told them, But there was a bond, and the bond would hold, On either side until both were cold. So he didn’t judge, though he knew, he knew, How the yellow babies down by the Slough, Had a fourth of their blood from old Judge Brooke, And where Sue Crowl got her Wingate look, And the whole, mad business of Shepley’s Wager, And why Miss Harriet married the Major. And he could trace with unerring ease A hundred devious pedigrees Of man and horse, from the Squire’s Rapscallion Back to the stock of the Arab stallion, And the Bristol line through its baffling dozens Of doubly-removed half-second-cousins, And found a creed and a whole theology On the accidents of human geology. He looked for Clay in the dancing whirl, There he was, coming down the line, Hand in hand with a dark, slim girl Whose dress was the color of light in wine Sally Dupré from Appleton Where the blackshawled ladies rock in the sun And young things labor and old things rule, A proud girl, taught in a humbling school That the only daughters of misalliance Must harden their hearts against defiance Of all the uncles and all the aunts Who succour such offspring of mischance And wash them clean from each sinful intention With the kindliest sort of incomprehension. She had the Appleton mouth, it seemed, And the Appleton way of riding, But when she sorrowed and if she dreamed, Something came out from hiding. She could sew all day on an Appleton hem And look like a saint in plaster, But when the fiddles began to play And her feet beat fast but her heart beat faster An alien grace inhabited them And she looked like her father, the dancing-master, The scapegrace elegant, “French” Dupré, Come to the South on a luckless day, With bright paste buckles sewn on his pumps. A habit of holding the ace of trumps, And a manner of kissing a lady’s hand Which the county failed to understand. He stole Sue Appleton’s heart away With eyes that were neither black nor grey, And broke the heart of the Brookes’ best mare To marry her safely with time to spare While the horsewhip uncles toiled behind— He knew his need and she knew her mind. And the love they had was as bright and brief As the dance of the gilded maple-leaf, Till she died in Charleston of childbed fever Before her looks or his heart could leave her. It took the flavor out of his drinking And left him thoughts he didn’t like thinking, So he wrapped his child in the dead girl’s shawl And sent her politely to Uncle Paul With a black-edged note full of grief and scruples And half the money he owed his pupils, Saw that Sue had the finest hearse That I. O. U.’s could possibly drape her And elegized her in vile French verse While his hot tears spotted the borrowed paper. He still had manners, he tried to recover, But something went when he buried his lover. No women with eyes could ever scold him But he would make places too hot to hold him, He shrugged his shoulders and kept descending— Life was a farce, but it needed ending. The tag-line found him too tired to dread it And he died as he lived, with an air, on credit, In his host’s best shirt and a Richmond garret, Talking to shadows and drinking claret. He passed when Sally was barely four And the Appleton kindred breathed once more And, with some fervor, began to try To bury the bone of his memory And strictly expunge from his daughter’s semblance All possible traces of a resemblance. Which system succeeded, to outward view, As well as most of such systems do And resulted in mixing a martyr’s potions For “French” Dupré in his daughter’s notions. And slander is sinful and gossip wrong, But country memories are long, The Appleton clan is a worthy clan But we remember the dancing-man. The girl is pretty, the girl seems wise, The girl was born with her father’s eyes. She will play with our daughters and know our sons, We cannot offend the Appletons. Bristols and Wingates, Shepleys and Crowls, We wouldn’t hurt her to save our souls. But after all—and nevertheless— For one has to think—and one must confess— And one should admit—but one never knows— So it has gone, and so it goes, Through the sun and the wind and the rainy weather Whenever ladies are gathered together, Till, little by little and stitch by stitch, The girl is put in her proper niche With all the virtues that we can draw For someone else’s daughter-in-law, A girl to be kind to, a girl we’re lucky in, A girl to marry some nice Kentuckian, Some Alabaman, some Carolinian— In fact, if you ask me for my opinion, There are lots of boys in the Northern sections And some of them have quite good connections— She looks charming this evening, doesn’t she? If she danced just a little less _dashingly_! Cudjo watched her as she went by, “She’s got a light foot,” thought Cudjo, “Hi! A light, swif’ foot and a talkin’ eye! But you’ll need more’n dat, Miss Sally Dupré Before you proposals with young Marse Clay. And as soon as de fiddles finish slewin’ Dey’s sixteen things I ought to be doin’. The Major’s sure to be wantin’ his dram, We’ll have to be cuttin’ a second ham, And dat trashy high-yaller, Parker’s Guinea, Was sayin’ some Yankee name Old John Brown Has raised de Debil back in Virginny And freed de niggers all over town, He’s friends with de ha’nts and steel won’t touch him But the paterollers is sure to cotch him. How come he want to kick up such a dizziness! Nigger-business ain’t white-folks’ business.” * * * * * There was no real moon in all the soft, clouded night, The rats of night had eaten the silver cheese, Though here and there a forgotten crumb of old brightness Gleamed and was blotted. But there was no real moon, No bowl of nacre, dripping an old delusive Stain on the changed, strange grass, making faces strange; There was only a taste of warm rain not yet fallen, A wine-colored dress, turned black because of no moon, —It would have been spangled in moon—and a broadcloth coat, And two voices talking together, quite softly, quite calmly. The dance. Such a lovely dance. But you dance so lightly. Amanda dances so well. But you dance so lightly. Louisa looks so pretty in pink, don’t you think? Are you fond of Scott? Yes, I’m very fond of Scott. Elegant extracts from gilt-edged volumes called Keepsakes And Godey’s Lady’s Book words. If I were a girl, A girl in a Godey’s Lady’s Book steel-engraving, I would have no body or legs, no aches or delusions. I would know what to do. I would marry a man called Mister. We would live in a steel-engraving, in various costumes Designed in the more respectable Paris modes, With two little boys in little plush hats like muffins, And two little girls with pantalettes to their chins. I must do that, I think. But now my light feet know That they will be tired and burning with all my dancing Before I cool them in the exquisite coolness Of water or the cool virginal sheets of virgins, And a face comes swimming toward me out of black broadcloth And my heart knocks. Who are you, why are you here? Why should you trouble my eyes? No, Mr. Wingate, I cannot agree with you on the beauties of Byron. But why should something melt in the stuff of my hand, And my voice sound thin in my ears? This face is a face Like any other face. Did my mother once Hear thin blood sing in her ears at a voice called Mister? And wish for—and not wish for—and when the strange thing Was consummate, then, and she lay in a coil of darkness, Did she feel so much changed? What is it to be A woman? No, I must live in a steel-engraving. His voice said. But there was other than his voice. Something that heard warm rain on unopened flowers And spoke or tried to speak across swimming blackness To the slight profile and the wine-colored dress. Her hair was black. Her eyes might be black or grey. He could not remember, it irked him not to remember. But she was just Sally Dupré from Appleton Only she was not. Only she was a shadow And a white face—a terrible, white shut face That looked through windows of inflexible glass Disdainfully upon the beauties of Byron And every puppy that ever howled for the moon To brush warm raindrops across the unopened flower And so quiet the heart with—what? But you speak to her aunts. You are Wingate of Wingate Hall. You are not caught Like a bee drunk with the smell of honey, the smell of sleep, In a slight flower of glass whose every petal Shows eyes one cannot remember as black or grey. You converse easily on elegant subjects Suitable for young ladies. You do not feel The inexorable stairs of the flesh ascended By an armed enemy with a naked torch. This has been felt before, this has been quenched With fitting casualness in flesh that has A secret stain of the sun. It is not a subject Suitable for the converse of young ladies. “_My God, My God, why will she not answer the aching?_ _My God, My God, to lie at her side through the darkness!_” And yet—is it real—do I really— The wine-colored dress Rose, Broadcloth rose and took her back to the dance. * * * * * The nickeled lamp threw a wide yellow disk On the red tablecloth with the tasseled fringes. Jack Ellyat put his book down with a slight Impatient gesture. There was mother, knitting The same grey end of scarf while Father read The same unaltered paper through the same Old-fashioned spectacles with the worn bows. Jane with one apple-cheek and one enshadowed, Soundlessly conjugated Latin verbs, “Amo, amas, amat,” through sober lips, “Amamus, amatis, amant,” and still no sound. He glanced at the clock. On top of it was Phaëton Driving bronze, snarling horses down the sharp, Quicksilver, void, careening gulfs of air. Until they smashed upon a black-marble sea. The round spiked trophy of the brazen sun Weighed down his chariot with its heavy load Of ponderous fire. To be like Phaëton And drive the trophy-sun! But he and his horses Were frozen in their attitude of snarling, Frozen forever to the tick of a clock. Not all the broomstick witches of New England Could break that congealed motion and cast down The huge sun thundering on the black marble Of the mantelpiece, streaked with white veins of foam. If once such things could happen, all could happen, The snug, safe world crack up like broken candy And the young rivers, roaring, rush to the sea; White bulls that caught the morning on their horns And shook the secure earth until they found Some better recompense for life than life, The untamed ghost, the undiminished star. But it would not happen. Nothing would ever happen. He had been here, like this, ten thousand times, He would be here, like this, ten thousand more, Until at last the little ticks of the clock Had cooled what had been hot, and changed the thin, Blue, forking veins across the back of his hand Into the big, soft veins on Father’s hand. And the world would be snug. And he would sit Reading the same newspaper, after dinner, Through spectacles whose bows were getting worn While a wife knitted on an endless scarf And a child slowly formed with quiet lips “Amo, amas, amat,” and still no sound. And it would be over. Over without having been. His father turned a creaking page of paper And cleared his throat. “The _Tribune_ calls,” he said, “Brown’s raid the work of a madman. Well, they’re right, But—” Mrs. Ellyat put her knitting down. “Are they going to hang him, Will?” “It looks that way.” “But, Father, when—” “They have the right, my son, He broke the law.” “But, Will! You don’t believe—” A little spark lit Mr. Ellyat’s eyes. “I didn’t say I thought that he was wrong. I said they had the right to hang the man, But they’ll hang slavery with him.” A quick pulse Beat in Jack Ellyat’s wrist. Behind his eyes A bearded puppet creaked upon a rope And the sky darkened because he was there. Now it was Mother talking in a strange Iron-bound voice he’d never heard before. “I prayed for him in church last Sunday, Will. I pray for him at home here every night. I don’t know—I don’t care—what laws he broke. I know that he was right. I pray to God To show the world somehow that he was right And break these Southern people into knowing! And I know this—in every house and church, All through the North—women are praying for him, Praying for him. And God will hear those prayers.” “He will, my dear,” said Mr. Ellyat gently, “But what will be His answer?” He took her hand, Smoothing it for a moment. Then she sighed And turned back to the interminable scarf. Jack Ellyat’s pulse beat faster. Women praying, Praying at night, in every house in the North, Praying for old John Brown until their knees Ached with stiff cold. Innumerable prayers Inexorably rising, till the dark Vault of the midnight was so thronged and packed The wild geese could not arrow through the storm Of terrible, ascendant, women’s prayers. . . . The clock struck nine, and Phaëton still stood Frozenly urging on his frozen horses, But, for a moment, to Jack Ellyat’s eyes, The congealed hoofs had seemed to paw the air And the bronze car roll forward. * * * * * On Saturday, in Southern market towns, When I was a boy with twenty cents to spend, The carts began to drift in with the morning, And, by the afternoon, the slipshod Square And all broad Center Street were lined with them; Moth-eaten mules that whickered at each other Between the mended shafts of rattletrap wagons, Mud-spattered buggies, mouldy phaetons, And, here and there, an ox-cart from the hills Whose solemn team had shoulders of rough, white rock, Innocent noses, black and wet as snailshells, And that inordinate patience in their eyes. There always was a Courthouse in the Square, A cupolaed Courthouse, drowsing Time away Behind the grey-white pillars of its porch Like an old sleepy judge in a spotted gown; And, down the Square, always a languid jail Of worn, uneven brick with moss in the cracks Or stone weathered the grey of weathered pine. The plump jail-master wore a linen duster In summer, and you used to see him sit Tilted against the wall in a pine-chair, Spitting reflectively in the warm dust While endless afternoons slowly dissolved Into the longer shadow, the dust-blue twilight. Higgledy-piggledy days—days that are gone— The trotters are dead, all the yellow-painted sulkies Broken for firewood—the old Courthouse grins Through new false-teeth of Alabama limestone— The haircloth lap-robe weeps on a Ford radiator— But I have seen the old Courthouse. I have seen The flyspecked windows and the faded flag Over the judge’s chair, touched the scuffed walls, Spat in the monumental brass spittoons And smelt the smell that never could be aired, Although one opened windows for a year, The unforgettable, intangible Mixture of cheap cigars, worm-eaten books, Sweat, poverty, negro hair-oil, grief and law. I have seen the long room packed with quiet men, Fit to turn mob, if need were, in a flash— Cocked-pistol men, so lazily attentive Their easy languor knocked against your ribs As, hour by hour, the lawyers droned along, And minute on creeping minute, your cold necknape Waited the bursting of the firecracker, The flare of fury. And yet, that composed fury Burnt itself out, unflaring—was held down By a dry, droning voice, a faded flag. The kettle never boiled, the pistol stayed At cock but the snake-head hammer never fell. . . . The little boys climbed down beyond the windows. . . . So, in the cupolaed Courthouse there in Charlestown, When the jail-guards had carried in the cot Where Brown lay like a hawk with a broken back, I hear the rustle of the moving crowd, The buzz outside, taste the dull, heavy air, Smell the stale smell and see the country carts Hitched in the streets. For a long, dragging week Of market-Saturdays the trial went on. The droning voices rise and fall and rise. Stevens lies quiet on his mattress, breathing The harsh and difficult breath of a dying man, Although not dying then. Beyond the Square The trees are dry, but all the dry leaves not fallen— Yellow leaves falling through a grey-blue dusk, The first winds of November whirl and scatter them. . . . Read as you will in any of the books, The details of the thing, the questions and answers, How sometimes Brown would walk, sometimes was carried, At first would hardly plead, half-refused counsel, Accepted later, made up witness-lists, Grew fitfully absorbed in his defense, Only to flare in temper at his first lawyers And drive them from the case. Questions and answers, Wheels creaking in a void. Sometimes he lay Quiet upon his cot, the hawk-eyes staring. Sometimes his fingers moved mechanically As if at their old task of sorting wool, Fingertips that could tell him in the dark Whether the wool they touched was from Ohio Or from Vermont. They had the shepherd’s gift. It was his one sure talent. Questions creaking Uselessly back and forth. No one can say That the trial was not fair. The trial was fair, Painfully fair by every rule of law, And that it was made not the slightest difference. The law’s our yardstick, and it measures well Or well enough when there are yards to measure. Measure a wave with it, measure a fire, Cut sorrow up in inches, weigh content. You can weigh John Brown’s body well enough, But how and in what balance weigh John Brown? He had the shepherd’s gift, but that was all. He had no other single gift for life. Some men are pasture Death turns back to pasture, Some are fire-opals on that iron wrist, Some the deep roots of wisdoms not yet born. John Brown was none of these, He was a stone, A stone eroded to a cutting edge By obstinacy, failure and cold prayers. Discredited farmer, dubiously involved In lawsuit after lawsuit, Shubel Morgan Fantastic bandit of the Kansas border, Red-handed murderer at Pottawattomie, Cloudy apostle, whooped along to death By those who do no violence themselves But only buy the guns to have it done, Sincere of course, as all fanatics are, And with a certain minor-prophet air, That fooled the world to thinking him half-great When all he did consistently was fail. So far one advocate. But there is this. Sometimes there comes a crack in Time itself. Sometimes the earth is torn by something blind. Sometimes an image that has stood so long It seems implanted as the polar star Is moved against an unfathomed force That suddenly will not have it any more. Call it the _mores_, call it God or Fate, Call it Mansoul or economic law, That force exists and moves. And when it moves It will employ a hard and actual stone To batter into bits an actual wall And change the actual scheme of things. John Brown Was such a stone—unreasoning as the stone, Destructive as the stone, and, if you like, Heroic and devoted as such a stone. He had no gift for life, no gift to bring Life but his body and a cutting edge, But he knew how to die. And yardstick law Gave him six weeks to burn that hoarded knowledge In one swift fire whose sparks fell like live coals On every State in the Union. Listen now, Listen, the bearded lips are speaking now, There are no more guerilla-raids to plan, There are no more hard questions to be solved Of right and wrong, no need to beg for peace, Here is the peace unbegged, here is the end, Here is the insolence of the sun cast off, Here is the voice already fixed with night. JOHN BROWN’S SPEECH I have, may it please the Court, a few words to say. In the first place I deny everything but what I have all along admitted: of a design on my part to free slaves. . . . Had I interfered in the matter which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved . . . had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, or the so-called great . . . a nd suffered and sacrificed, what I have in this interference, it would have been all right. Every man in this Court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. I see a book kissed which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament, which teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do unto me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me further to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, I did no wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments, I say, let it be done. Let me say one word further. I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention and what was not. I never had any design against the liberty of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason or incite slaves to rebel or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so but always discouraged any idea of that kind. Let me say also, in regard to the statements made by some of those connected with me, I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have induced them to join with me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. Not one but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came to me, and that was for the purpose I have stated. Now I have done. * * * * * The voice ceased. There was a deep, brief pause. The judge pronounced the formal words of death. One man, a stranger, tried to clap his hands. The foolish sound was stopped. There was nothing but silence then. No cries in the court, No roar, no slightest murmur from the thronged street, As Brown went back to jail between his guards. The heavy door shut behind them. There was a noise of chairs scraped back in the court-room, And that huge sigh of a crowd turning back into men. * * * * * A month between the sentence and the hanging. A month of endless visitors, endless letters. A Mrs. Russell came to clean his coat. A sculptor sketched him. In the anxious North, The anxious Dr. Howe most anxiously Denied all godly connection with the raid, And Gerrit Smith conveniently went mad For long enough to sponge his mind of all Memory of such an unsuccessful deed. Only the tough, swart-minded Higginson Kept a grim decency, would not deny. Pity the portly men, pity the pious, Pity the fool who lights the powder-mine, They need your counterfeit penny, they will live long. In Charlestown meanwhile, there were whispers of rescue. Brown told them, “I am worth now infinitely more to die than to live.” And lived his month so, busily. A month of trifles building up a legend And letters in a pinched, firm handwriting Courageous, scriptural, misspelt and terse, Sowing a fable everywhere they fell While the town filled with troops. The Governor came, Enemies, friends, militia-cavaliers, Old Border Foes. The month ebbed into days, The wife and husband met for the last time, The last letter was written: “To be inscribed on the old family Monument at North Elba, Oliver Brown born 1839 was killed at Harpers Ferry, Va. Nov. 17th 1859 Watson Brown born 1835 was wounded at Harpers Ferry Nov. 17th and died Nov. 19th 1859 (My Wife can) supply _blank_ dates to above John Brown born May 9th 1800 was executed at Charlestown Va. December 2nd 1859.” At last the clear warm day, so slow to come. The North that had already now begun To mold his body into crucified Christ’s, Hung fables about those hours—saw him move Symbolically, kiss a negro child, Do this and that, say things he never said, To swell the sparse, hard outlines of the event With sentimental omen. It was not so. He stood on the jail-porch in carpet-slippers, Clad in a loose ill-fitting suit of black, Tired farmer waiting for his team to come. He left one last written message: “I, John Brown, am now quite _certain_ that the crimes of this _guilty land: will_ never be purged _away_: but with Blood. I had _as I now think: vainly_ flattered myself that without _very much_ bloodshed; it might be done.” They did not hang him in the jail or the Square. The two white horses dragged the rattling cart Out of the town. Brown sat upon his coffin. Beyond the soldiers lay the open fields Earth-colored, sleepy with unfallen frost. The farmer’s eye took in the bountiful land. “This _is_ a beautiful country,” said John Brown. The gallows-stairs were climbed, the death-cap fitted. Behind the gallows, Before a line of red-and-grey cadets, A certain odd Professor T. J. Jackson Watched disapprovingly the ragged militia Deploy for twelve long minutes ere they reached Their destined places. The Presbyterian sabre of his soul Was moved by a fey breath. He saw John Brown, A tiny blackened scrap of paper-soul Fluttering above the Pit that Calvin barred With bolts of iron on the unelect; He heard the just, implacable Voice speak out “Depart ye wicked to eternal fire.” And sternly prayed that God might yet be moved To save the predestined cinder from the flame. Brown did not hear the prayer. The rough black cloth Of the death-cap hid his eyes now. He had seen The Blue Ridge Mountains couched in their blue haze. Perhaps he saw them still, behind his eyes— Perhaps just cloth, perhaps nothing any more. “_I shall look unto the hills from whence cometh my help._” The hatchet cut the cord. The greased trap fell. _Colonel Preston_: “So perish all such enemies of Virginia, All such enemies of the Union, All such foes of the human race.” * * * * * John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave. He will not come again with foolish pikes And a pack of desperate boys to shadow the sun. He has gone back North. The slaves have forgotten his eyes. John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave. John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave. Already the corpse is changed, under the stone, The strong flesh rotten, the bones dropping away. Cotton will grow next year, in spite of the skull. Slaves will be slaves next year, in spite of the bones. Nothing is changed, John Brown, nothing is changed. “_There is a song in my bones. There is a song_ _In my white bones._” I hear no song. I hear Only the blunt seeds growing secretly In the dark entrails of the preparate earth, The rustle of the cricket under the leaf, The creaking of the cold wheel of the stars. “_Bind my white bones together—hollow them_ _To skeleton pipes of music. When the wind_ _Blows from the budded Spring, the song will blow._” I hear no song. I only hear the roar Of the Spring freshets, and the gushing voice Of mountain-brooks that overflow their banks, Swollen with melting ice and crumbled earth. “_That is my song._ _It is made of water and wind. It marches on._” No, John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering, A-mouldering. “_My bones have been washed clean_ _And God blows through them with a hollow sound,_ _And God has shut his wildfire in my dead heart._” I hear it now, Faint, faint as the first droning flies of March, Faint as the multitudinous, tiny sigh Of grasses underneath a windy scythe. “_It will grow stronger._” It has grown stronger. It is marching on. It is a throbbing pulse, a pouring surf, It is the rainy gong of the Spring sky Echoing, John Brown’s body, John Brown’s body. But still it is not fierce. I find it still More sorrowful than fierce. “_You have not heard it yet. You have not heard_ _The ghosts that walk in it, the shaking sound._” Strong medicine, Bitter medicine of the dead, I drink you now. I hear the unloosed thing, The anger of the ripe wheat—the ripened earth Sullenly quaking like a beaten drum From Kansas to Vermont. I hear the stamp Of the ghost-feet. I hear the ascending sea. “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!” What is this agony of the marching dust? What are these years ground into hatchet blades? “_Ask the tide why it rises with the moon,_ _My bones and I have risen like that tide_ _And an immortal anguish plucks us up_ _And will not hide us till our song is done._” The phantom drum diminishes—the year Rolls back. It is only winter still, not spring, The snow still flings its white on the new grave, Nothing is changed, John Brown, nothing is changed John . . . Brown . . . BOOK TWO A smoke-stained Stars-and-Stripes droops from a broken toothpick and ninety tired men march out of fallen Sumter to their ships, drums rattling and colors flying. Their faces are worn and angry, their bellies empty and cold, but the stubborn salute of a gun, fifty times repeated, keeps their backs straight as they march out, and answers something stubborn and mute in their flesh. Beauregard, _beau sabreur_, hussar-sword with the gilded hilt, the gilded metal of the guard twisted into lovelocks and roses, vain as Murat, dashing as Murat, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard is a pose of conquering courtesy under a palmetto-banner. The lugubrious little march goes grimly by his courtesy, he watches it unsmiling, a light half-real, half that of invisible footlights on his French, dark, handsome face. * * * * * _The stone falls in the pool, the ripples spread._ The colt in the Long Meadow kicked up his heels. “That was a fly,” he thought, “It’s early for flies.” But being alive, in April, was too fine For flies or anything else to bother a colt. He kicked up his heels again, this time in pure joy, And started to run a race with the wind and his shadow. After the stable stuffiness, the sun. After the straw-littered boards, the squelch of the turf. His little hoofs felt lighter than dancing-shoes, He scared himself with a blue-jay, his heart was a leaf. He was pure joy in action, he was the unvexed Delight of all moving lightness and swift-footed pace, The pride of the flesh, the young Spring neighing and rearing. Sally Dupré called to him from the fence. He came like a charge in a spatter of clean-cut clods, Ears back, eyes wide and wild with folly and youth. He drew up snorting. She laughed and brushed at her skirt Where the mud had splashed it. “There, Star—there, silly boy! Why won’t you ever learn sense?” But her eyes were hot, Her hands were shaking as she offered the sugar —Long-fingered, appleblossom-shadow hands— Star blew at the sugar once, then mumbled it up. She patted the pink nose. “There, silly Star! That’s for Fort Sumter, Star!” How hot her eyes were! “Star, do you know you’re a Confederate horse? Do you know I’m going to call you Beauregard?” Star whinnied, and asked for more sugar. She put her hand On his neck for a moment that matched the new green leaves And sticky buds of April. You would have said They were grace in quietness, seen so, woman and horse. . . . _The widened ripple breaks against a stone_ _The heavy noon walks over Chancellorsville_ _On brazen shoes, but where the squadron rode_ _Into the ambush, the blue flies are coming_ _To blow on the dead meat._ Carter, the telegraph-operator, sighed And propped his eyes awake again. He was tired. Dog-tired, stone-tired, body and mind burnt up With too much poker last night and too little sleep. He hated the Sunday trick. It was Riley’s turn To take it, but Riley’s wife was having a child. He cursed the child and the wife and Sunday and Riley. Nothing ever happened at Stroudsburg Siding And yet he had to be here and keep awake With the flat, stale taste of too little sleep in his mouth And wait for nothing to happen. His bulky body Lusted for sleep with every muscle and nerve. He’d rather have sleep than a woman or whiskey or money. He’d give up the next three women that might occur For ten minutes’ sleep, he’d never play poker again, He’d—battered face beginning to droop on his hands— Sleep—women—whiskey—eyelids too heavy to lift— “Yes, Ma, I said, ‘Now I lay me.’”— The sounder chattered And his head snapped back with a sharp, neck-breaking jerk. By God, he’d nearly—_chat—chitter—chatter—chat—chat_— For a moment he took it in without understanding And then the vein in his forehead began to swell And his eyes bulged wide awake. “By Jesus!” he said, And stared at the sounder as if it had turned to a snake. “By Jesus!” he said, “By Jesus, they’ve done it!” he said. _The cruelty of cold trumpets wounds the air._ _The ponderous princes draw their gauntlets on._ _The captains fit their coal-black armor on._ Judah P. Benjamin, the dapper Jew, Seal-sleek, black-eyed, lawyer and epicure, Able, well-hated, face alive with life, Looked round the council-chamber with the slight Perpetual smile he held before himself Continually like a silk-ribbed fan. Behind the fan, his quick, shrewd, fluid mind Weighed Gentiles in an old balance. There they were. Toombs, the tall, laughing, restless Georgian, As fine to look at as a yearling bull, As hard to manage. Stephens, sickly and pale, Sweet-voiced, weak-bodied, ailingly austere, The mind’s thin steel wearing the body out, The racked intelligence, the crippled charm. Mallory—Reagan—Walker—at the head Davis. The mind behind the silk-ribbed fan Was a dark prince, clothed in an Eastern stuff, Whose brown hands cupped about a crystal egg That filmed with colored cloud. The eyes stared, searching. “I am the Jew. What am I doing here? The Jew is in my blood and in my hands, The lonely, bitter and quicksilver drop, The stain of myrrh that dyes no Gentile mind With tinctures out of the East and the sad blare Of the curled ramshorn on Atonement Day. A river runs between these men and me, A river of blood and time and liquid gold, —Oh white rivers of Canaan, running the night!— And we are colleagues. And we speak to each other Across the roar of that river, but no more. I hide myself behind a smiling fan. They hide themselves behind a Gentile mask And, if they fall, they will be lifted up, Being the people, but if I once fall I fall forever, like the rejected stone. That is the Jew of it, my Gentile friends, To see too far ahead and yet go on And I can smile at it behind my fan With a drowned mirth that you would find uncouth. For here we are, the makeshift Cabinet Of a new nation, gravely setting down Rules, precedents and cautions, never once Admitting aloud the cold, plain Franklin sense That if we do not hang together now We shall undoubtedly hang separately. It is the Jew, to see too far ahead— I wonder what they’re doing in the North, And how their Cabinet shapes, and how they take Their railsplitter, and if they waste their time As we waste ours and Mr. Davis’s. Jefferson Davis, pride of Mississippi, First President of the Confederate States, What are you thinking now? Your eyes look tired. Your face looks more and more like John Calhoun. And that is just, because you are his son In everything but blood, the austere child Of his ideas, the flower of states-rights. I will not gird against you, Jefferson Davis. I sent you a challenge once, but that’s forgotten, And though your blood runs differently from mine, The Jew salutes you from behind his fan, Because you are the South he fell in love with When that young black-haired girl with the Gentile-eyes, Proud, and a Catholic, and with honey-lips, First dinted her French heels upon his heart. . . . We have changed since, but the remembered Spring Can change no more, even in the Autumn smokes. We cannot help that havoc of the heart But my changed mind remembers half the spring And shall till winter falls. No, Jefferson Davis, You are not she—you are not the warm night On the bayou, or the New Orleans lamps, The white-wine bubbles in the crystal cup, The almond blossoms, sleepy with the sun: But, nevertheless, you are the South in word, Deed, thought and temper, the cut cameo Brittle but durable, refined but fine, The hands well-shaped, not subtle, but not weak, The mind set in tradition but not unjust, The generous slaveholder, the gentleman Who neither forces his gentility Nor lets it be held lightly— and yet, and yet I think you look too much like John Calhoun, I think your temper is too brittly-poised, I think your hands too scholar-sensitive, And though they say you mingle in your voice The trumpet and the harp, I think it lacks That gift of warming men which coarser voices Draw from the common dirt you tread upon But do not take in your hands. I think you are All things except success, all honesty Except the ultimate honesty of the earth, All talents but the genius of the sun. And yet I would not have you otherwise, Although I see too clearly what you are. Except—except—oh honeydropping Spring, Oh black-haired woman with the Gentile eyes! Tell me, you Gentiles, when your Gentile wives Pray in the church for you and for the South, How do they pray?—not in that lulling voice Where some drowned bell of France makes undertones To the warm river washing the levee. You do not have so good a prayer as mine. You cannot have so good a prayer as mine.” * * * * * Lincoln, six feet one in his stocking feet, The lank man, knotty and tough as a hickory rail, Whose hands were always too big for white-kid gloves, Whose wit was a coonskin sack of dry, tall tales, Whose weathered face was homely as a plowed field— Abraham Lincoln, who padded up and down The sacred White House in nightshirt and carpet-slippers, And yet could strike young hero-worshipping Hay As dignified past any neat, balanced, fine Plutarchan sentences carved in a Latin bronze; The low clown out of the prairies, the ape-buffoon, The small-town lawyer, the crude small-time politician, State-character but comparative failure at forty In spite of ambition enough for twenty Caesars, Honesty rare as a man without self-pity, Kindness as large and plain as a prairie wind, And a self-confidence like an iron bar: This Lincoln, President now by the grace of luck, Disunion, politics, Douglas and a few speeches Which make the monumental booming of Webster Sound empty as the belly of a burst drum, Lincoln shambled in to the Cabinet meeting And sat, ungainly and awkward. Seated so He did not seem so tall nor quite so strange Though he was strange enough. His new broadcloth suit Felt tight and formal across his big shoulders still And his new shiny top-hat was not yet battered To the bulging shape of the old familiar hat He’d worn at Springfield, stuffed with its hoard of papers. He was pretty tired. All week the office-seekers Had plagued him as the flies in fly-time plague A gaunt-headed, patient horse. The children weren’t well And Mollie was worried about them so sharp with her tongue. But he knew Mollie and tried to let it go by. Men tracked dirt in the house and women liked carpets. Each had a piece of the right, that was all most people could stand. Look at his Cabinet here. There were Seward and Chase, Both of them good men, couldn’t afford to lose them, But Chase hates Seward like poison and Seward hates Chase And both of ’em think they ought to be President Instead of me. When Seward wrote me that letter The other day, he practically told me so. I suppose a man who was touchy about his pride Would send them both to the dickens when he found out, But I can’t do that as long as they do their work. The Union’s too big a horse to keep changing the saddle Each time it pinches you. As long as you’re sure The saddle fits, you’re bound to put up with the pinches And not keep fussing the horse. When I was a boy I remember figuring out when I went to town That if I had just one pumpkin to bump in a sack It was hard to carry, but once you could get two pumpkins, One in each end of the sack, it balanced things up. Seward and Chase’ll do for my pair of pumpkins. And as for me—if anyone else comes by Who shows me that he can manage this job of mine Better than I can—well, he can have the job. It’s harder sweating than driving six cross mules, But I haven’t run into that other fellow yet And till or supposing I meet him, the job’s my job And nobody else’s. Seward and Chase don’t know that. They’ll learn it, in time. Wonder how Jefferson Davis Feels, down there in Montgomery, about Sumter. He must be thinking pretty hard and fast, For he’s an able man, no doubt of that. We were born less than forty miles apart, Less than a year apart—he got the start Of me in age, and raising too, I guess, In fact, from all you hear about the man, If you set out to pick one of us two For President, by birth and folks and schooling, General raising, training up in office, I guess you’d pick him, nine times out of ten And yet, somehow, I’ve got to last him out. These thoughts passed through the mind in a moment’s flash. Then that mind turned to business. It was the calling Of seventy-five thousand volunteers. * * * * * Shake out the long line of verse like a lanyard of woven steel And let us praise while we can what things no praise can deface, The corn that hurried so fast to be ground in an iron wheel The obdurate, bloody dream that slept before it grew base. Not the silk flag and the shouts, the catchword patrioteers, The screaming noise of the press, the preachers who howled for blood, But a certain and stubborn pith in the hearts of the cannoneers Who hardly knew their guns before they died in the mud. They came like a run of salmon where the ice-fed Kennebec flings Its death at the arrow-silver of the packed and mounting host, They came like the young deer trooping to the ford by Eutaw Springs, Their new horns fuzzy with velvet, their coats still rough with the frost. North and South they assembled, one cry and the other cry, And both are ghosts to us now, old drums hung up on a wall, But they were the first hot wave of youth too-ready to die, And they went to war with an air, as if they went to a ball. Dress-uniform boys who rubbed their buttons brighter than gold, And gave them to girls for flowers and raspberry-lemonade, Unused to the sick fatigue, the route-march made in the cold, The stink of the fever camps, the tarnish rotting the blade. We in our time have seen that impulse going to war And how that impulse is dealt with. We have seen the circle complete. The ripe wheat wasted like trash between the fool and the whore. We cannot praise again that anger of the ripe wheat. This we have seen as well, distorted and half-forgotten In what came before and after, where the blind went leading the blind, The first swift rising of youth before the symbols were rotten, The price too much to pay, the payment haughty in kind. So with these men and then. They were much like the men you know, Under the beards and the strangeness of clothes with a different fit. They wrote mush-notes to their girls and wondered how it would go, Half-scared, half-fierce at the thought, but none yet ready to quit. Georgia, New York, Virginia, Rhode Island, Florida, Maine, Piney-woods squirrel-hunter and clerk with the brand-new gun, Thus they were marshalled and drilled, while Spring turned Summer again, Until they could stumble toward death at gartersnake-crooked Bull Run. * * * * * Wingate sat in his room at night Between the moon and the candle-light, Reading his Byron with knitted brows, While his mind drank in the peace of his house, It was long past twelve, and the night was deep With moonlight and silence and wind and sleep, And the small, dim noises, thousand-fold, That all old houses and forests hold. The boards that creak for nothing at all, The leaf that rustles, the bough that sighs, The nibble of mice in the wainscot-wall, And the slow clock ticking the time that dies All distilled in a single sound Like a giant breathing underground, A sound more sleepy than sleep itself. Wingate put his book on the shelf And went to the window. It was good To walk in the ghost through a silver wood And set one’s mettle against the far Bayonet-point of the fixed North Star. He stood there a moment, wondering. _North Star, wasp with the silver sting_ _Blue-nosed star on the Yankee banners,_ _We are coming against you to teach you manners!_ _With crumbs of thunder and wreaths of myrtle_ _And cannon that dance to a Dixie chorus,_ _With a song that bites like a snapping-turtle_ _And the tiger-lily of Summer before us,_ _To pull you down like a torn bandanna,_ _And drown you deeper than the Savannah!_ And still, while his arrogance made its cry, He shivered a little, wondering why. There was his uniform, grey as ash, The boots that shone like a well-rubbed table, The tassels of silk on the colored sash And sleek Black Whistle down in the stable. The housewife, stitched from a beauty’s fan, The pocket-Bible with Mother’s writing, The sabre never yet fleshed in man, And all the crisp new toys of fighting. He gloated at them with a boyish pride, But still he wondered, Monmouth-eyed. The Black Horse Troop was a cavalier And gallant name for a lady’s ear. He liked the sound and the ringing brag And the girls who stitched on the county flag, The smell of horses and saddle-leather And the feel of the squadron riding together, From the loose-reined canter of colts at large, To the crammed, tense second before the charge: He liked it all with the young, keen zest Of a hound unleashed and a hawk unjessed. _And yet—what happened to men in war?_ _Why were they all going out to war?_ He brooded a moment. It wasn’t slavery, That stale red-herring of Yankee knavery Nor even states-rights, at least not solely, But something so dim that it must be holy. A voice, a fragrance, a taste of wine, A face half-seen in old candleshine, A yellow river, a blowing dust, Something beyond you that you must trust, Something so shrouded it must be great, The dead men building the living State From ’simmon-seed on a sandy bottom, The woman South in her rivers laving That body whiter than new-blown cotton And savage and sweet as wild-orange-blossom, The dark hair streams on the barbarous bosom, If there ever has been a land worth saving— _In Dixie land, I’ll take my stand,_ _And live and die for Dixie! . . ._ And yet—and yet—in some cold Northern room, Does anyone else stare out the obdurate moon With doubtful passion, seeing his toys of fighting Scribbled all over with such silver writing From such a heart of peace, they seem the stale Cast properties of a dead and childish tale? And does he see, too soon, Over the horse, over the horse and rider, The grey, soft swathing shadowness of the spider, Spinning his quiet loom? No—no other man is cursed With such doubleness of eye, They can hunger, they can thirst, But they know for what and why. I can drink the midnight out, And rise empty, having dined. For my courage and my doubt Are a double strand of mind, And too subtly intertwined. They are my flesh, they are my bone, My shame and my foundation-stone. I was born alone, to live alone. Sally Dupré, Sally Dupré, Eyes that are neither black nor grey, Why do you haunt me, night and day? Sea-changing eyes, with the deep, drowned glimmer Of bar-gold crumbling from sunken ships, Where the sea-dwarfs creep through the streaked, green shimmer To press the gold to their glass-cold lips. They sculpture the gold for a precious ring, In the caverns under the under-skies, They would marry the sea to a sailor-king! You have taken my heart from me, sea-born eyes. You have taken it, yes, but I do not know. There are too many roads where I must go. There are too many beds where I have slept For a night unweeping, to quit unwept, And it needs a king to marry the sea. Why have you taken my heart from me? I am not justice nor loyalty. I am the shape of the weathercock, That all winds come to and all winds mock. You are the image of sea-carved stone, The silent thing that can suffer alone, The little women are easier, The easy women make lighter love, I will not take your face to the war, I will not carry your cast-off glove. Sally Dupré, Sally Dupré, Heart and body like sea-blown spray, I cannot forget you, night or day. So Wingate pondered in Wingate Hall, And hated and loved in a single breath, As he tried to unriddle the doubtful scrawl Of war and courage and love and death, And then was suddenly nothing but sleep— And tomorrow they marched—to a two-months chasing Of Yankees running away like sheep And peace in time for the Macon racing. He got in his bed. Where the moonlight poured, It lay like frost on a sleeping sword. * * * * * It was stuffy at night in the cabins, stuffy but warm. And smells are a matter of habit. So, if the air Was thick as black butter with the commingled smells Of greens and fried fat and field-sweat and heavy sleep, The walls were well-chinked, the low roof kept out the rain. Not like the tumble-down cabins at Zachary’s place Where the field-hands lived all year on hominy-grits And a piece of spoiled pork at Christmas. But Zachary Was a mean man out of the Bottoms, no quality to him. Wingate was quality. Wingate cared for its own. A Wingate cabin was better than most such cabins, You might have called it a sty, had they set you there; A Middle Age serf might have envied the well-chinked walls. While as for its tenants then, being folk unversed In any law but the law of the Wingate name, They were glad to have it, glad for fire on the hearth, A roof from the dark-veined wind. Their bellies were warm And full of food. They were heavy in love with each other. They liked their cabin and lying next to each other, Long nights of winter when the slow-burning pine-knots Danced ghosts and witches over the low, near ceiling, Short nights of summer, after the work of the fields, When the hot body aches with the ripened sweetness And the children and the new tunes are begotten together. “What you so wakeful for, black boy?” “Thinkin’, woman.” “You got no call to be thinkin’, little black boy, Thinkin’s a trouble, a h’ant lookin’ over de shoulder, Set yo’ head on my breas’ and forget about thinkin’.” “I got my head on yo’ breas’, and it’s sof’ dere, woman, Sof’ and sweet as a mournin’ out of de Scriptures, Sof’ as two Solomon doves. But I can’t help thinkin’.” “Ain’t I good enough for you no more, black boy? Don’ you love me no more dat you mus’ keep thinkin’?” “You’s better’n good to me and I loves you, woman, Till I feels like Meshuck down in de fiery furnace, Till I feels like God’s own chile. But I keeps on thinkin’, Wonderin’ what I’d feel like if I was free.” “Hush, black boy, hush for de Lord’s sake!” “But listen, woman——” “Hush yo’self, black boy, lean yo’self on my breas’, Talk like that and paterollers’ll git you, Swinge you all to bits with a blacksnake whip, Squinch-owl carry yo’ talk to de paterollers, It ain’t safe to talk like that.” “I got to, woman, I got a feelin’ in my heart.” “Den you sot on dat feelin’! Never heard you talk so in all my born days! Ain’t we got a good cabin here?” “Sho’, we got a good cabin.” “Ain’t we got good vittles, ain’t old Mistis kind to us?” “Sho’ we got good vittles, and ole Mistis she’s kind. I’se mighty fond of ole Mistis.” “Den what you talkin’, You brash fool-nigger?” “I just got a feelin’, woman. Ole Marse Billy, he’s goin’ away tomorrow, Marse Clay, he’s goin’ with him to fight de Yankees, All of ’em goin’, yes suh.” “And what if dey is?” “Well, sposin’ de Yankees beats?” “Ain’t you got _no_ sense, nigger? Like to see any ole Yankees lick ole Marse Billy And young Marse Clay!” “Hi, woman, ain’t dat de trufe!” “Well, den——” “But I sees ’em all, jus’ goin’ and goin’, Goin’ to war like Joshua, goin’ like David, And it makes me want to be free. Ain’t you never thought At all about bein’ free?” “Sho’, co’se I thought of it. I always reckoned when ole Marse Billy died, Old Mistis mebbe gwine to set some of us free, Mebbe she will.” “But we-uns gwine to be old den, We won’t be young and have the use of our hands, We won’t see our young ’uns growin’ up free around us, We won’t have the strength to hoe our own co’n ourselves, I want to be free, like me, while I got my strength.” “You might be a lot worse off and not be free, What’d you do if ole man Zachary owned us?” “Kill him, I reckon.” “Hush, black boy, for God’s sake hush!” “I can’t help it, woman. Dey ain’t so many like him But what dey is is too pizen-mean to live. Can’t you hear dat feelin’ I got, woman? I ain’t scared Of talk and de paterollers, and I ain’t mean. I’se mighty fond of ole Mistis and ole Marse Billy, I’se mighty fond of ’em all at de Big House, I wouldn’t be nobody else’s nigger for nothin’. But I hears ’em goin’ away, all goin’ away, With horses and guns and things, all stompin’ and wavin’, And I hears de chariot-wheels and de Jordan River, Rollin’ and rollin’ and rollin’ thu’ my sleep, And I wants to be free. I wants to see my chillun Growin’ up free, and all bust out of Egypt! I wants to be free like an eagle in de air, Like an eagle in de air.” * * * * * Iron-filings scattered over a dusty Map of crook-cornered States in yellow and blue. Little, grouped male and female iron-filings, Scattered over a patchwork-quilt whose patches Are the red-earth stuff of Georgia, the pine-bough green of Vermont. Here you are clustered as thick as a clump of bees In swarming time. The clumps make cities and towns. Here you are strewn at random, like single seeds Lost out of the wind’s pocket. But now, but now, The thunderstone has fallen on your map And all the iron-filings shiver and move Under the grippings of that blinded force, The cold pull of the ash-and-cinder star. The map is vexed with the long battle-worms Of filings, clustered and moving. If it is An enemy of the sun who has so stolen Power from a burnt star to do this work, Let the bleak essence of the utter cold Beyond the last gleam of the most outpost light Freeze in his veins forever. But if it is A fault in the very metal of the heart, We and our children must acquit that fault With the old bloody wastage, or give up Playing the father to it. O vexed and strange, Salt-bitter, apple-sweet, strong-handed life! Your million lovers cast themselves like sea Against your mountainy breast, with a clashing noise And a proud clamor—and like sea recoil, Sucked down beneath the forefoot of the new Advancing surf. They feed the battle-worms, Not only War’s, but in the second’s pause Between the assaulting and the broken wave, The voices of the lovers can be heard, The sea-gull cry. * * * * * Jake Diefer, the barrel-chested Pennsylvanian, Hand like a ham and arms that could wrestle a bull, A roast of a man, all solid meat and good fat, A slow-thought-chewing Clydesdale horse of a man, Roused out of his wife’s arms. The dawn outside Was ruddy as his big cheeks. He yawned and stretched Gigantically, hawking and clearing his throat. His wife, hair tousled around her like tousled corn, Stared at him with sleep-blind eyes. “Jake, it ain’t come morning, Already yet?” He nodded and started to dress. She burrowed deeper into the bed for a minute And then threw off the covers. They didn’t say much Then, or at breakfast. Eating was something serious. But he looked around the big kitchen once or twice In a puzzled way, as if trying hard to remember it. She too, when she was busy with the first batch Of pancakes, burnt one or two, because she was staring At the “SALT” on the salt-box, for no particular reason. The boy ate with them and didn’t say a word, Being too sleepy. Afterwards, when the team Was hitched up and waiting, with the boy on the seat, Holding the reins till Jake was ready to take them, Jake didn’t take them at once. The sun was up now, The spilt-milk-mist of first morning lay on the farm, Jake looked at it all with those same mildly-puzzled eyes, The red barn, the fat rich fields just done with the winter, Just beginning the work of another year. The boy would have to do the rest of the planting. He blew on his hands and stared at his wife dumbly. He cleared his throat. “Well, good-by, Minnie,” he said, “Don’t you hire any feller for harvest without you write me, And if any more of those lightning-rodders come around, We don’t want no more dum lightning-rods.” He tried To think if there was anything else, but there wasn’t. She suddenly threw her big, red arms around his neck, He kissed her with clumsy force. Then he got on the wagon And clucked to the horses as she started to cry. * * * * * Up in the mountains where the hogs are thin And razorbacked, wild Indians of hogs, The laurel’s green in April—and if the nights Are cold as the cold cloud of watersmoke Above a mountain-spring, the midday sun Has heat enough in it to make you sweat. They are a curious and most native stock, The lanky men, the lost, forgotten seeds Spilled from the first great wave-march toward the West And set to sprout by chance in the deep cracks Of that hill-billy world of laurel-hells. They keep the beechwood-fiddle and the salt Old-fashioned ballad-English of our first Rowdy, corn-liquor-drinking, ignorant youth; Also the rifle and the frying-pan, The old feud-temper and the old feud-way Of thinking strangers better shot on sight But treating strangers that one leaves unshot With border-hospitality. The girls Have the brief-blooming, rhododendron-youth Of pioneer women, and the black-toothed age. And if you yearn to meet your pioneers, You’ll find them there, the same men, inbred sons Of inbred sires perhaps, but still the same; A pioneer-island in a world that has No use for pioneers—the unsplit rock Of Fundamentalism, calomel, Clan-virtues, clannish vices, fiddle-tunes And a hard God. They are our last frontier. They shot the railway-train when it first came, And when the Fords first came, they shot the Fords. It could not save them. They are dying now Or being educated, which is the same. One need not weep romantic tears for them, But when the last moonshiner buys his radio, And the last, lost, wild-rabbit of a girl Is civilized with a mail-order dress, Something will pass that was American And all the movies will not bring it back. They are misfit and strange in our new day, In Sixty-One they were not quite so strange, Before the Fords, before the day of the Fords . . . Luke Breckinridge, his rifle on his shoulder, Slipped through green forest alleys toward the town, A gawky boy with smoldering eyes, whose feet Whispered the crooked paths like moccasins. He wasn’t looking for trouble, going down, But he was on guard, as always. When he stopped To scoop some water in the palm of his hand From a sweet trickle between moss-grown rocks, You might have thought him careless for a minute, But when the snapped stick cracked six feet behind him He was all sudden rifle and hard eyes. The pause endured a long death-quiet instant, Then he knew who it was. “Hi, Jim,” he said, Lowering his rifle. The green laurel-screen Hardly had moved, but Jim was there beside him. The cousins looked at each other. Their rifles seemed To look as well, with much the same taut silentness. “Goin’ to town, Luke?” “Uh-huh, goin’ to town, You goin’?” “Looks as if I was goin’.” “Looks As if you was after squirrels.” “I might be. You goin’ after squirrels?” “I might be, too.” “Not so many squirrels near town.” “No, reckon there’s not.” Jim hesitated. His gaunt hands caressed The smooth guard of his rifle. His eyes were sharp. “Might go along a piece together,” he said. Luke didn’t move. Their eyes clashed for a moment, Then Luke spoke, casually. “I hear the Kelceys Air goin’ to fight in this here war,” he said. Jim nodded slowly, “Yuh, I heerd that too.” He watched Luke’s trigger-hand. “I might be goin’ Myself sometime,” he said reflectively Sliding his own hand down. Luke saw the movement. “We-uns don’t like the Kelceys much,” he said With his eyes down to pinpoints. Then Jim smiled. “We-uns neither,” he said. His hand slid back. They went along together after that But neither of them spoke for half-a-mile, Then finally, Jim said, half-diffidently, “You know who we air goin’ to fight outside? I heard it was the British. Air that so?” “Hell, no,” said Luke, with scorn. He puckered his brows. “Dunno’s I rightly know just who they air.” He admitted finally, “But ’tain’t the British. It’s some trash-lot of furriners, that’s shore. They call ’em Yankees near as I kin make it, But they ain’t Injuns neither.” “Well,” said Jim Soothingly, “Reckon it don’t rightly matter Long as the Kelceys take the other side.” * * * * * It was noon when the company marched to the railroad-station. The town was ready for them. The streets were packed. There were flags and streamers and pictures of Lincoln and Hamlin. The bad little boys climbed up on the trees and yelled, The good little boys had clean paper-collars on, And swung big-eyed on white-painted wicket-gates, Wanting to yell, and feeling like Fourth of July. Somebody fastened a tin can full of firecrackers To a yellow dog’s tail and sent him howling and racketing The length of the street. “There goes Jeff Davis!” said somebody, And everybody laughed, and the little boys Punched each other and squealed between fits of laughing “There goes Jeff Davis—lookit ole yellow Jeff Davis!” And then the laugh died and rose again in a strange Half-shrill, half-strangled unexpected shout As they heard the Hillsboro’ Silver Cornet Band Swinging “John Brown’s Body” ahead of the soldiers. _I have heard that soul of crowd go out in the queer_ _Groan between laughter and tears that baffles the wise._ _I have heard that whanging band._ “_We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour-apple tree._” Double-roll on the snare-drums, double squeal of the fife, “_We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour-apple tree!_” Clash of the cymbals zinging, throaty blare of cornets, “_We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour-apple tree!_” “_On to Richmond! On to Richmond! On to Richmond!_” “_Yeah!_ There they come! _Yeah! Yeah!_” And they came, the bearskin drum-major leading the band, Twirling his silver-balled baton with turkey-cock pomp, The cornet-blowers, the ranks. The drum-major was fine, But the little boys thought the captain was even finer, He looked just like a captain out of a book With his sword and his shoulder-straps and his discipline-face. He wasn’t just Henry Fairfield, he was a captain, —Henry Fairfield worried about his sword, Hoping to God that he wouldn’t drop his sword, And wondering hotly whether his discipline-face Really looked disciplined or only peevish— “_Yeah!_ There they come! There’s Jack! There’s Charlie! Yeah! Yeah!” The color-guard with the stiff, new flapping flag, And the ranks and the ranks and the ranks, the amateur Blue, wavering ranks, in their ill-fitting tight coats, Shoulders galled already by their new guns, —They were three-months’ men, they had drilled in civilian clothes Till a week ago—“There’s Charlie! There’s Hank, yeah, yeah!” “On to Richmond, boys! Three cheers for Abe Lincoln! Three cheers for the boys! Three groans for old Jeff Davis And the dirty Rebs!” “_We’ll hang Jeff Davis on a sour-apple tree!_” Jack Ellyat, marching, saw between blue shoulders A blur of faces. They all were faces he knew, Old Mrs. Cobb with her wart and her Paisley shawl, Little George Freeman, the slim Tucker girls, All of them cheering and shouting—and all of them strange Suddenly, different, faces he’d never seen. Faces somehow turned into one crowd-face. His legs went marching along all right but they felt Like somebody else’s legs, his mind was sucked dry. It was real, they were going away, the town was cheering them. Henry Fairfield was marching ahead with his sword. Just as he’d thought about it a thousand times, These months—but it wasn’t the way that he’d thought about it. “On to Richmond! On to Richmond! On to Richmond!” There were Mother and Father and Jane and the house. Jane was waving a flag. He laughed and called to them. But his voice was stiff in his throat, not like his real voice. This, everything, it was too quick, too crowded, not Phaëton Charging his snarling horses at a black sea, But a numb, hurried minute with legs that marched Mechanically, feeling nothing at all. The white crowd-face—the sweat on the red seamed neck Of the man ahead—“On to Richmond!”—blue shoulders bobbing— Flags—cheering—somebody kissed him—Ellen Baker— She was crying—wet mouth of tears—didn’t want her to kiss him— Why did she want to—the station—_halt_—Mother and Jane. The engineer wore a flag in his coat-lapel. The engine had “On to Richmond!” chalked all over it. Nothing to say now—Mother looks tired to death— I wish I weren’t going—no, I’m glad that I am— The damn band’s playing “John Brown’s Body” again, I wish they’d stop it!—I wish to God we could start— There—_close up, men!_—oh my God, they’ve let Ned out! I told them for God’s sake to lock him up in the cellar, But they’ve let him out—maybe he got out by himself— He’s got too much sense—“No, down, Ned! Down, good dog! _Down_, I tell you!—” “_Good-by, boys! Good-by! We’ll hang Jeff Davis!_” The engine squealed, the packed train started to move. Ned wanted to come, but they wouldn’t let him come. They had to kick him away, he couldn’t see why. * * * * * In another column, footsore Curly Hatton Groaned at the thought of marching any more. His legs weren’t built for marching and they knew it, Butterball-legs under a butterball-body. The plump good-tempered face with its round eyes Blue and astonished as a china-doll’s, Stared at the road ahead and hated it Because there was so much of it ahead And all of it so dry. He didn’t mind The rest so much. He didn’t even mind Being the one sure necessary joke Of the whole regiment. He’d always been A necessary joke—fat people were. Fat babies always were supposed to laugh. Fat little boys had fingers poked at them. And, even with the road, and being fat, You had a good time in this funny war, Considering everything, and one thing most. His mind slipped back two months. He saw himself In the cool room at Weatherby’s Retreat Where all the girls were sewing the new star In the new flag for the first volunteers. He hadn’t thought of fighting much before, He was too easy-going. If Virginia Wanted secession, that was her affair. It seemed too bad to break the Union up After some seventy years of housekeeping. But he could understand the way you’d feel If you were thin and angry at the Yanks. He knew a lot of Yankees that he liked, But then he liked most people, on the whole Although most girls and women made him shy. He loved the look of them and the way they walked, He loved their voices and their little sweet mouths, But something always seemed to hold him back, When he was near them. He was too fat, too friendly, Too comfortable for dreams, too easy-shy. The porcelain dolls stood on the mantelpiece, Waiting such slim and arrant cavaliers As porcelain dolls must have to make them proud, They had no mercy for fat Cupidons, Not even Lucy, all the years before, And Lucy was the porcelain belle of the world! And so when she said. And he couldn’t believe At first. But she was silver and fire and steel That day of the new stars and the new flag, Fire and bright steel for the invading horde And silver for the men who drove them off, And so she sewed him in her flag and heart: Though even now, he couldn’t believe she had In spite of all the letters and the socks And kissing him before he went away. But it was so—the necessary joke Made into a man at last, a man in love And loved by the most porcelain belle of the world. And he was ready to march to the world’s end And fight ten million Yanks to keep it so. “Oh God, after we’re married—the cool night Over the garden—and Lucy sitting there In her blue dress while the big stars come out.” His face was funny with love and footsore pride, The man beside him saw it, gave a laugh, “Curly’s thinking it’s time for a julep, boys! Hot work for fat men, Curly!” * * * * * The crows fly over the Henry House, through the red sky of evening, cawing, Judith Henry, bedridden, watches them through the clouded glass of old sight. (July is hot in Virginia—a parched, sun-leathered farmer sawing Dry sticks with a cicada-saw that creaks all the lukewarm night.) But Judith Henry’s hands are cool in spite of all midsummer’s burning, Cool, muted and frail with age like the smoothness of old yellow linen, the cool touch of old, dulled rings. Her years go past her in bed like falling waters and the waters of a millwheel turning, And she is not ill content to lie there, dozing and calm, remembering youth, to the gushing of those watersprings. She has known Time like the cock of red dawn and Time like a tired clock slowing; She has seen so many faces and bodies, young and then old, so much life, so many patterns of death and birth. She knows that she must leave them soon. She is not afraid to flow with that river’s flowing. But the wrinkled earth still hangs at her sufficed breast like a weary child, she is unwilling to go while she still has milk for the earth. She will go in her sleep, most likely, she has the sunk death-sleep of the old already, (War-bugles by the Potomac, you cannot reach her ears with your brass lyric, piercing the crowded dark.) It does not matter, the farm will go on, the farm and the children bury her in her best dress, the plow cut its furrow, steady, (War-horses of the Shenandoah, why should you hurry so fast to tramp the last ashy fire from so feeble and retired a spark?) There is nothing here but a creek and a house called the Henry House, a farm and a bedridden woman and people with country faces. There is nothing for you here. And La Haye Sainte was a quiet farm and the mile by it a quiet mile. And Lexington was a place to work in like any one of a dozen dull, little places. And they raised good crops at Blenheim till the soldiers came and spoiled the crops for a while. The red evening fades into twilight, the crows have gone to their trees, the slow, hot stars are emerging. It is cooler now on the hill—and in the camps it is cooler, where the untried soldiers find their bivouac hard. Where, from North and South, the blind wrestlers of armies converge on the forgotten house like the double pincers of an iron claw converging. And Johnston hurries his tired brigades from the Valley, to bring them up in time before McDowell can fall on Beauregard. * * * * * The congressmen came out to see Bull Run, The congressmen who like free shows and spectacles. They brought their wives and carriages along, They brought their speeches and their picnic-lunch, Their black constituent-hats and their devotion: Some even brought a little whiskey, too, (A little whiskey is a comforting thing For congressmen in the sun, in the heat of the sun.) The bearded congressmen with orator’s mouths, The fine, clean-shaved, Websterian congressmen, Come out to see the gladiator’s show Like Iliad gods, wrapped in the sacred cloud Of Florida-water, wisdom and bay-rum, Of free cigars, democracy and votes, That lends such portliness to congressmen. (The gates fly wide, the bronze troop marches out Into the stripped and deadly circus-ring, “_Ave, Caesar!_” the cry goes up, and shakes The purple awning over Caesar’s seat.) “_Ave, Caesar! Ave_, O congressmen, We who are about to die, Salute you, congressmen!” Eleven States, New York, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, Michigan and the gathered West, Salute you, congressmen! The red-fezzed Fire-Zouaves, flamingo-bright, Salute you, congressmen! The raw boys still in their civilian clothes, Salute you, congressmen! The second Wisconsin in its homespun grey, Salutes you, congressmen! The Garibaldi Guards in cocksfeather hats, Salute you, congressmen! The Second Ohio with their Bedouin-caps, Salutes you, congressmen! Sherman’s brigade, grey-headed Heintzelman, Ricketts’ and Griffin’s doomed and valiant guns, The tough, hard-bitten regulars of Sykes Who covered the retreat with the Marines, Burnside and Porter, Willcox and McDowell, All the vast, unprepared, militia-mass Of boys in red and yellow Zouave pants, Who carried peach-preserves inside their kits And dreamt of being generals overnight; The straggling companies where every man Was a sovereign and a voter—the slack regiments Where every company marched a different step; The clumsy and unwieldy-new brigades Not yet distempered into battle-worms; The whole, huge, innocent army, ready to fight But only half-taught in the tricks of fighting, Ready to die like picture-postcard boys While fighting still had banners and a sword And just as ready to run in blind mob-panic, Salutes you with a vast and thunderous cry, _Ave, Caesar, ave_, O congressmen, _Ave_, O Iliad gods who forced the fight! You bring your carriages and your picnic-lunch To cheer us in our need. You come with speeches, Your togas smell of heroism and bay-rum. You are the people and the voice of the people And, when the fight is done, your carriages Will bear you safely, through the streaming rout Of broken troops, throwing their guns away. You come to see the gladiator’s show, But from a high place, as befits the wise: You will not see the long windrows of men Strewn like dead pears before the Henry House Or the stone-wall of Jackson breathe its parched Devouring breath upon the failing charge, _Ave, Caesar, ave_, O congressmen, Cigar-smoke wraps you in a godlike cloud, And if you are not to depart from us As easily and divinely as you came, It hardly matters. Fighting Joe Hooker once Said with that tart, unbridled tongue of his That made so many needless enemies, “Who ever saw a dead cavalryman?” The phrase Stings with a needle sharpness, just or not, But even he was never heard to say, “Who ever saw a dead congressman?” And yet, he was a man with a sharp tongue. * * * * * The day broke, hot and calm. In the little farm-houses That are scattered here and there in that rolling country Of oak and rail-fence, crooked creeks and second-growth pine, The early-risers stand looking out of the door At the long dawn-shadows for a minute or two —Shadows are always cool—but the blue-glass sky Is fusing with heat even now, heat that prickles the hairs On the back of your hand. They sigh and turn back to the house. “Looks like a scorcher today, boys!” They think already Of the cool jug of vinegar-water down by the hedge. Judith Henry wakened with the first light, She had the short sleep of age, and the long patience. She waited for breakfast in vague, half-drowsy wonderment At various things. Yesterday some men had gone by And stopped for a drink of water. She’d heard they were soldiers. She couldn’t be sure. It had seemed to worry the folks But it took more than soldiers and such to worry her now. Young people always worried a lot too much. No soldiers that had any sense would fight around here. She’d had a good night. Today would be a good day. * * * * * A mile and a half away, before the Stone Bridge, A Union gun opened fire. * * * * * Six miles away, McDowell had planned his battle And planned it well, as far as such things can be planned— A feint at one point, a flanking march at another To circle Beauregard’s left and crumple it up. There were Johnston’s eight thousand men to be reckoned with But Patterson should be holding them, miles away, And even if they slipped loose from Patterson’s fingers The thing might still be done. If you take a flat map And move wooden blocks upon it strategically, The thing looks well, the blocks behave as they should. The science of war is moving live men like blocks. And getting the blocks into place at a fixed moment. But it takes time to mold your men into blocks And flat maps turn into country where creeks and gullies Hamper your wooden squares. They stick in the brush, They are tired and rest, they straggle after ripe blackberries, And you cannot lift them up in your hand and move them. —A string of blocks curling smoothly around the left Of another string of blocks and crunching it up— It is all so clear in the maps, so clear in the mind, But the orders are slow, the men in the blocks are slow To move, when they start they take too long on the way— The General loses his stars and the block-men die In unstrategic defiance of martial law Because still used to just being men, not block-parts. McDowell was neither a fool nor a fighting fool; He knew his dice, he knew both armies unready, But congressmen and nation wanted a battle And he felt their hands on his shoulders, forcing his play. He knew well enough when he played that he played for his head As Beauregard and Johnston were playing for theirs, So he played with the skill he had—and does not lie Under a cupolaed gloom on Riverside Drive. Put Grant in his place that day and with those same dice, Grant might have done little better. Wherefore, now, Irvin McDowell, half-forgotten general, Who tried the game and found no luck in the game And never got the chance to try it again But did not backbite the gamblers who found more luck in it Then or later in double-edged reminiscences; If any laurel can grow in the sad-colored fields Between Bull Run and Cub Run and Cat Hairpin Bend You should have a share of it for your hardworking ghost Because you played as you could with your cold, forced dice And neither wasted your men like the fighting fools Nor posed as an injured Napoleon twenty years later. Meanwhile, McDowell watched his long flanking column File by, on the Warrentown pike, in the first dawn-freshness. “Gentlemen, that’s a big force,” he said to his staff. * * * * * A full rifled battery begins to talk spitefully to Evans’ Carolinians. The grey skirmish-line, thrown forward on the other side of Bull Run, ducks its head involuntarily as a locomotive noise goes by in the air above it, and waits for a flicker of blue in the scrub-oaks ahead. * * * * * Beauregard, eager _sabreur_, whose heart was a French Print of a sabretasche-War with “La Gloire” written under it, Lovable, fiery, bizarre, picturesque as his name, Galloped toward Mitchell’s Ford with bald, quiet Joe Johnston, The little precise Scotch-dominie of a general, Stubborn as flint, in advance not always so lucky, In retreat more dangerous than a running wolf— Slant shadow, sniffing the traps and the poisoned meat, And going on to pause and slash at the first Unwary dogs before the hunters came up. Grant said of him once, “I was always anxious with Joe Johnston in front of me, I was never half so anxious in front of Lee.” He kissed his friends in the Nelson-way we’ve forgotten, He could make men cheer him after six-weeks retreating. Another man said of him, after the war was done, Still with that puzzled comparison we find When Lee, the reticent sword, comes into the question, “Yes, Lee was a great general, a good man; But I never wanted to put my arms round his neck As I used to want to with Johnston.” The two sayings Make a good epitaph for so Scotch a ghost, Or would if they were all. They are not quite all, He had to write his reminiscences, too, And tell what he would have done if it had not been For Davis and chance and a dozen turns of the wheel. That was the thistle in him—the other strain— But he was older then. I’d like to have seen him That day as he galloped along beside Beauregard, _Sabreur_ and dominie planning the battle-lines. They’d ordered Jackson up to the threatened left But Beauregard was sure that the main assault Would come on the right. He’d planned it so—a good plan— But once the blocks start moving, they keep on moving. * * * * * The hands of the scuffed brown clock in the kitchen of the Henry House point to nine-forty-five. Judith Henry does not hear the clock, she hears in the sky a vast dim roar like piles of heavy lumber crashingly falling. They are carrying her in her bed to a ravine below the Sudley Road, maybe she will be safe there, maybe the battle will go by and leave her alive. The crows have been scared from their nests by the strange crashing, they circle in the sky like a flight of blackened leaves, wheeling and calling. * * * * * Back at Centerville, there are three-months’ men, A Pennsylvania regiment, a New York Battery. They hear the spent wave of the roar of the opening guns, But they are three-months’ men, their time is up today. They would have fought yesterday or a week ago, But then they were still enlisted—today they are not— Their time is up, and there can’t be much use or sense In fighting longer than you’ve promised to fight. They pack up their things and decide they’d better go home, And quietly march away from that gathering roar. * * * * * Luke Breckinridge, crouched by the Warrentown pike, Saw stuffed dolls in blue coats and baggy trousers Go down like squirrels under the rifle-cracks. His eyes glowed as a bullet ripped his sleeve And he felt well. Armies weren’t such a much, Too damn many orders, too damn much saluting, Too many damn officers you weren’t allowed To shoot when they talked mean to you because They were your officers, which didn’t make sense. But this was something he could understand, Except for those dirty stinkers of big guns, It wasn’t right to shoot you with big guns But it was a good scrap except for that— Carried a little high, then . . . change it . . . good . . . Though men were hard to miss when you were used To squirrels. His eyes were narrow. He hardly heard The officer’s voice. The woods in front of him Were full of Kelceys he was going to kill, Blue-coated Kelcey dolls in baggy trousers. It was a beautiful and sufficing sight. * * * * * The first blue wave of Burnside is beaten back from the pike to stumble a little way and rally against Porter’s fresh brigade. Bee and Bartow move down from the Henry House plateau—grey and butternut lines trampling the bullet-cut oak-leaves, splashing across Young’s Branch. Tall, black-bearded Bee rides by on his strong horse, his long black hair fluttering. Imboden’s red-shirted gunners unlimber by the Henry House to answer the Parrotts and howitzers of Ricketts and Griffin. The air is a sheet of iron, continually and dully shaken. * * * * * Shippy, the little man with the sharp rat-eyes, Saw someone run in front of them waving a sword; Then they were going along toward a whining sound That ran like cold spring-water along his spine. _God, he was in for it now!_ His sharp rat-eyes Flickered around and about him hopelessly. If a fellow could only drop out, if a fellow could only Pretend he was hurt a little and then drop out Behind a big, safe oak-tree—no use—no use— He was in for it, now. He couldn’t get away. “_Come on, boys—come on, men—clean them out with the bayonet!_” He saw a rail-fence ahead, a quiet rail-fence, But men were back of it—grey lumps—a million bees Stinging the air—Oh Jesus, the corporal’s got it— He couldn’t shoot, even—he was too scared to shoot— His legs took him on—he couldn’t stop his legs Or the weak urine suddenly trickling down them. * * * * * Curly Hatton, toiling along the slow Crest of the Henry Hill, over slippery ground, Glanced at the still-blue sky that lay so deep Above the little pines, so pooled, so calm. He thought, with the slow drowsiness of fatigue, Of Lucy feeding the white, greedy swans On the blue pool by Weatherby’s Retreat. They stretched their necks, and clattered with their wings. There was a fragrance sleeping in her hair. “_Close up, folks—don’t straggle—we’re going into action!_” His butterball-legs moved faster—Lucy—Lucy— * * * * * Bee and Bartow’s brigades are broken in their turn—it is fight and run away—fight and run away, all day—the day will go to whichever of the untried wrestlers can bear the pain of the grips an instant longer than the other. Beauregard and Johnston hurry toward the firing—McDowell has already gone— The chessplayers have gone back to little pieces on the shaken board—little pieces that cannot see the board as a whole. The block-plan is lost—there is no plan any more—only the bloodstained, fighting blocks, the bloodstained and blackened men. * * * * * Jack Ellyat heard the guns with a knock at his heart When he first heard them. They were going to be in it, soon. He wondered how it would feel. They would win, of course, But how would it feel? He’d never killed anything much. Ducks and rabbits, but ducks and rabbits weren’t men. He’d never even seen a man killed, a man die, Except Uncle Amos, and Uncle Amos was old. He saw a red sop spreading across the close Feathers of a duck’s breast—it had been all right, But now it made him feel sick for a while, somehow. Then they were down on the ground, and they were firing, And that was all right—just fire as you fired at drill. Was anyone firing at them? He couldn’t tell. There was a stone bridge. Were there rebels beyond the bridge? The shot he was firing now might go and kill rebels But it didn’t feel like it. A man down the line Fell and rolled flat, with a minor coughing sound And then was quiet. Ellyat felt the cough In the pit of his stomach a minute. But, after that, it was just like a man falling down. It was all so calm except for their guns and the distant Shake in the air of cannon. No more men were hit, And, after a while, they all got up and marched on. If Rebels had been by the bridge, the rebels were gone, And they were going on somewhere, you couldn’t say where, Just marching along the way that they always did. The only funny thing was, leaving the man Who had made that cough, back there in the trampled grass With the red stain sopping through the blue of his coat Like the stain on a duck’s breast. He hardly knew the man But it felt funny to leave him just lying there. * * * * * The wreckage of Bee, Bartow and Evans’ commands streams back into a shallow ravine below a little wood—broken blocks hammered into splinters by war—two thousand confused men reeling past their staggering flags and the hoarse curses and rallying cries of their officers, like sheep in a narrow run. Bee tries to halt them furiously—he stands up in his stirrups, tree-tall, while the blue flood of the North trickles over the stream and pours on and on. He waves his sword—the toyish glitter sparkles—he points to a grey dyke at the top of the ravine—a grey dyke of musket-holding Virginians, silent and ready. “_Look, men, there’s Jackson’s brigade! It stands there like a stone wall. Rally behind the Virginians!_” They rally behind them—Johnston and Beauregard are there—the Scotch dominie plucks a flag and carries it forward to rally the Fourth Alabama—the French hussar-sword rallies them with bursting rockets of oratory—his horse is shot under him, but he mounts again. And the grey stone wall holds like a stiff dyke while the tired men get their breath behind it—and the odd, lemon-sucking, ex-professor of tactics who saw John Brown hung in his carpet-slippers and prayed a Presbyterian prayer for his damned soul, has a new name that will last as long as the face they cut for him on Stone Mountain, and has the same clang of rock against the chisel-blade. * * * * * Judith Henry, Judith Henry, they have moved you back at last, in doubt and confusion, to the little house where you know every knothole by heart. It is not safe, but now there is no place safe, you are between the artillery and the artillery, and the incessant noise comes to your dim ears like the sea-roar within a shell where you are lying. The walls of the house are riddled, the brown clock in the kitchen gouged by a bullet, a jar leaks red preserves on the cupboard shelf where the shell-splinter came and tore the cupboard apart. The casual guns do not look for you, Judith Henry, they find you in passing merely and touch you only a little, but the touch is enough to give your helpless body five sudden wounds and leave you helplessly dying. * * * * * Wingate gentled Black Whistle’s pawing With hand and wisdom and horseman’s play And listened anew to the bulldogs gnawing Their bone of iron, a mile away. There was a wood that a bonfire crowned With thick dark smoke without flame for neighbor, And the dull, monotonous, heavy sound Of a hill or a woman in too-long labor, But that was all for the Black Horse Troop And had been all since the day’s beginning, That stray boy beating his metal hoop And the tight-lipped wonder if they were winning. Wainscott Bristol, behind his eyes, Was getting in bed with a sweet-toothed wench, Huger Shepley felt for his dice And Stuart Cazenove swore in French “_Mille diables_ and Yankee blood! How long are we going to stick in the mud?” While a Cotter hummed with a mocking sigh, “‘If you want a good time, jine the cavalry!’” “Stuart’s in it, Wade Hampton’s in it.” “The Yanks’ll quit in another minute!” “General Beau’s just lost us!” “Steady!” “And he won’t find us until he’s ready!” “It must be two—we’ve been here since six.” “It’s Virginia up to her old-time tricks! They never did trust a Georgia man, But Georgia’ll fight while Virginia can!” The restless talk was a simmering brew That made the horses restless too; They stamped and snuffled and pricked their ears— There were cheers, off somewhere—but which side’s cheers? Had the Yankees whipped? Were the Yankees breaking? The whole troop grumbled and wondered, aching For fighting or fleeing or fornicating Or anything else except this bored waiting. An aide rode up on a sweating mare And they glowered at him with hostile stare. He had been in it and they had not. He had smelt the powder and heard the shot, And they hated his soul and his martial noise With the envious hate of little boys. Then “Yaaih! Yaaih!” —and Wingate felt The whole troop lift like a lifted dart And loosened the sabre at his belt, And felt his chest too small for his heart. * * * * * Curly Hatton was nothing any more But a dry throat and a pair of burnt black hands That held a hot gun he was always firing Though he no longer remembered why he fired. They ran up a cluttered hill and took hacked ground And held it for a while and fired for a while, And then the blue men came and they ran away, To go back, after a while, when the blue men ran. There was a riddled house and a crow in a tree, There was uneven ground. It was hard to run. The gun was heavy and hot. There once had been A person named Lucy and a flag and a star And a cane chair beside wistarias Where a nigger brought you a drink. These had ceased to exist. There was only very hot sun and being thirsty. Yells—crashings—screams from black lips—a dead, tattered crow In a tattered tree. There had once been a person named Lucy Who had had an importance. There was none of her now. Up the hill again. Damn tired of running up hill. And then he found he couldn’t run any more, He had to fall down and be sick. Even that was hard, Because somebody near kept making a squealing noise— The dolefully nasty noise of a badly-hurt dog. It got on his nerves and he tried to say something to it, But it was he who made it, so he couldn’t stop it. * * * * * Jack Ellyat, going toward the battle again, Saw the other side of the hill where Curly was lying, Saw, for a little while, the two battered houses, The stuffed dead stretched in numb, disorderly postures, And heard for a while again that whining sound That made you want to duck, and feel queer if you did. To him it was noise and smoke and the powder-taste And, once and again, through the smoke, for a moment seen, Small, monstrous pictures, gone through the brain like light, And yet forever bitten into the brain; A marsh, a monstrous arras of live and dead Still shaking under the thrust of the weaver’s hand, The crowd of a deadly fair. Then, orders again. And they were going away from the smoke once more. The books say “Keyes’ brigade made a late and weak Demonstration in front of the Robinson house And then withdrew to the left, by flank, down Young’s Branch, Taking no further part in the day.” To Jack Ellyat It was a deadly fair in a burning field Where strange crowds rushed to and fro and strange drunkards lay Sprawled in a stupor deeper than wine or sleep, A whining noise you shrank from and wanted to duck at, And one dead cough left behind them in the tall grass With the slow blood sopping its clothes like the blood on a shot duck’s breast. * * * * * Imboden is wounded, Jackson is shot through the hand, the guns of Ricketts and Griffin, on the Henry House plateau, are taken and retaken; the gunners shot down at their guns while they hold their fire, thinking the advancing Thirty-Third Virginia is one of their own regiments, in the dimness of the battle-cloud. It is nearly three o’clock—the South gathers for a final charge—on the left, Elzey’s brigade, new-come from the Shenandoah, defiles through the oaks near the Sudley Road to reinforce the grey wrestler—the blue wrestler staggers and goes back, on unsteady heels. The charge sweeps the plateau—Bartow is killed, black-haired Bee mortally wounded, but the charge goes on. For a moment, the Union line is a solid crescent again—a crescent with porcupine-pricks of steel—and then a crescent of sand—and then spilt sand, streaming away. There is no panic at first. There is merely a moment when men have borne enough and begin to go home. The panic comes later, when they start to jostle each other. Jefferson Davis, riding from Manassas, reaches the back-wash of the battle. A calm grey-bearded stranger tells him calmly that the battle is lost and the South defeated. But he keeps on, his weak eyes stung with the dust, a picture, perhaps, of a Plutarch death on a shield in his schooled mind—and is in time to see the last blue troops disappear beyond Bull Run, and hear the last sour grumble of their guns. * * * * * Judith Henry, Judith Henry, your body has born its ghost at last, there are no more pictures of peace or terror left in the broken machine of the brain that was such a cunning picture-maker: Terrified ghost, so rudely dishoused by such casual violence, be at rest; there are others dishoused in this falling night, the falling night is a sack of darkness, indifferent as Saturn to wars or generals, indifferent to shame or victory. War is a while but peace is a while and soon enough the earth-colored hands of the earth-workers will scoop the last buried shells and the last clotted bullet-slag from the racked embittered acre, And the rustling visitors drive out fair Sundays to look at the monument near the rebuilt house, buy picture postcards and wonder dimly what you were like when you lived and what you thought when you knew you were going to die. * * * * * Wingate felt a frog in his throat As he patted Black Whistle’s reeking coat And reined him in for a minute’s breath. He was hot as the devil and tired to death, And both were glad for the sun in the West And a panting second of utter rest, While Wingate’s mind went patching together Like a cobbler piecing out scraps of leather The broken glimmers of what they’d done Since the sun in the West was a rising sun, The long, bored hours of shiftless waiting And that single instant of pure, fierce hating When the charge came down like a cataract On a long blue beach of broken sand And Thought was nothing but all was Act And the sabre seemed to master the hand. Wainscott Bristol, a raging terrier Killing the Yankee that shot Phil Ferrier With a cut that spattered the bloody brains Over his saddle and bridle-reins, One Cotter cursing, the other praying, And both of them slashing like scythes of slaying, Stuart Cazenove singing “Lord Randall” And Howard Brooke as white as a candle, While Father fought like a fiend in satin, And killed as he quoted tag-ends of Latin, The prisoners with their sick, dazed wonder And the mouths of children caught in a blunder And over it all, the guns, the thunder, The pace, the being willing to die, The stinging color of victory. He remembered it all like a harsh, tense dream. It had a color. It had a gleam. But he had outridden and lost the rest And he was alone with the bloody West And a trampled road, and a black hill-crest. The road and the bushes all about Were cluttered with relics of Yankee rout, Haversacks spilling their shirts and socks, A burst canteen and a cartridge-box. Rifles and cups trampled underfoot, A woman’s locket, a slashed black boot Stained and oozing along the slash And a ripe pear crushed to a yellow mash. Who had carried the locket and munched the pear, And why was a dead cat lying there, Stark and grinning, a furry sack, With a red flannel tongue and a broken back? You didn’t fight wars with a tabby-cat. . . . He found he was telling the Yankees that, They couldn’t hear him of course, but still . . . He shut his eyes for a minute until He felt less dizzy. There, that was better, And the evening wind was chilly and keen— —He’d have to write Mother some sort of letter— —He’d promised Amanda a Yank canteen, But he didn’t feel like getting it here, Where that dead cat snickered from ear to ear— Back in the pinewoods, clear and far, A bugle sang like a falling star. He shivered, turned Black Whistle around And galloped hastily toward the sound. * * * * * Curly Hatton opened his eyes again. A minute ago he had been marching, marching, Forever up and down enormous hills While his throat scratched with thirst and something howled— But then there was a clear minute—and he was lying In a long, crowded, strangely-churchly gloom Where lanterns bobbed like marshlights in a swamp And there was a perpetual rustling noise Of dry leaves stirred by a complaining wind. No, they were only voices of wounded men. “Water. Water. Water. Water. Water.” He heard the rain on the roof and sucked his lips. “Water. Water. Water. Water. Water.” _Oh, heavy sluices of dark, sweet, Summer rain,_ _Pour down on me and wash me free again,_ _Cleanse me of battles, make my flesh smell sweet,_ _I am so sick of thirst, so tired of pain,_ _So stale with wounds and the heat!_ Somebody went by, a doctor with red sleeves; He stared at the red sleeves and tried to speak But when he spoke, he whispered. This was a church. He could see a dim altar now and a shadow-pulpit. He was wounded. They had put the wounded men in a church. Lucy’s face came to him a minute and then dissolved, A drowned face, ebbing away with a smile on its mouth. He had meant to marry that face in another church. But he was dying instead. It was strange to die. * * * * * All night from the hour of three, the dead man’s hour, the rain falls in heavy gusts, in black irresistible streams as if the whole sky were falling in one wet huddle. All night, living and dead sleep under it, without moving, on the field; the surgeons work in the church; the wounded moan; the dissevered fragments of companies and regiments look for each other, trying to come together. In the morning, when the burial-parties go out, the rain is still falling, damping the powder of the three rounds fired over the grave; before the grave is well-dug, the bottom of the grave is a puddle. All day long the Southern armies bury their dead to the sodden drums of the rain; all day the bugle calls a hoarse-throated “Taps”; the bugler lets the water run from his bugle-mouth and wipes it clean again and curses the rainy weather. * * * * * All night the Union army fled in retreat Like horses scared by a shadow—a stumbling flood Of panicky men who had been brave for a while And might be brave again on another day But now were merely children chased by the night And each man tainting his neighbor with the same Blind fear. When men or horses begin to run Like that, they keep on running till they tire out Unless a strong hand masters a bridle-rein. Here there was no hand to master, no rein to clutch, Where the riderless horses kicked their way through the crowd And the congressmen’s carriages choked Cat Hairpin Bend. Sykes and the regulars covered the retreat, And a few brigades were kept in some sort of order, But the rest—They tried to stop them at Centerville. McDowell and his tired staff held a haggard conference. But before the officers could order retreat The men were walking away. They had fought and lost. They were going to Washington, they were going back To their tents and their cooking-fires and their letters from Susie. They were going back home to Maine or Vermont or Ohio, And they didn’t care who knew it, and that was that. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Johnston and Beauregard, Now joined by the dusty Davis, found themselves As dazed by their victory as their foes by defeat. They had beaten one armed mob with another armed mob And Washington was theirs for the simple act Of stretching a hand to the apple up on the bough, If they had known. But they could not know it then. They too saw spectres—unbroken Union reserves Moving to cut their supply-line near Manassas. They called back the pursuit, such scattered pursuit as it was. Their men were tired and disordered. The chance went by While only the stiff-necked Jackson saw it clear As a fighting-psalm or a phrase in Napoleon’s tactics. He said to the surgeon who was binding his wound, With a taciturn snap, “Give me ten thousand fresh troops And I will be in Washington by tomorrow.” But they could not give him the troops while there yet was time. He had three days’ rations cooked for the Stonewall Brigade And dourly awaited the order that never came. He had always been at God’s orders, and God had used him As an instrument in winning a certain fight. Now, if God saw fit to give him the men and guns, He would take Washington for the glory of God. If He didn’t, it was God’s will and not to be questioned. Meanwhile he could while the hours of waiting away By seeing the Stonewall Brigade was properly fed, Endeavoring, with that rigid kindness of his To show Imboden his error in using profanity —In the heat of battle many things might be excused, But nothing excused profanity, even then— And writing his Pastor at Lexington a letter Enclosing that check for the colored Sunday-school Which he’d promised, and, being busy, had failed to send. There is not one word of Bull Run in all that letter Except the mention of “a fatiguing day’s service.” It would not have occurred to Jackson there might have been. * * * * * Walt Whitman, unofficial observer to the cosmos, reads of the defeat in a Brooklyn room. The scene rises before him, more real than the paper he stares upon. He sees the defeated army pouring along Pennsylvania Avenue in the drizzling rain, a few regiments in good order, marching in silence, with lowering faces—the rest a drenched, hungry mob that plods along on blistered feet and falls asleep on the stoops of houses, in vacant lots, in basement-areas huddled, too tired to remember battle or be ashamed of flight. Nothing said—no cries or cheers from the windows, no jeers from the secessionists in the watching crowd—half the crowd is secessionist at heart, even now, more than ever now. Two old women, white-haired, stand all day in the rain, giving coffee and soup and bread to the passing men. The tears stream down their faces as they cut the bread and pour out the coffee. Whitman sees it all in his mind’s eye—the tears of the two women—the strange look on the men’s faces, awake or asleep—the dripping, smoke-colored rain. Perplexed and deep in his heart, something stirs and moves—he is each one of them in turn—the beaten men, the tired women, the boy who sleeps there quietly with his musket still clutched tightly to him. The long lines of a poem begin to lash themselves against his mind, with the lashing surge and long thunder of Montauk surf. * * * * * Horace Greeley has written Lincoln an hysterical letter—he has not slept for seven nights—in New York, “on every brow sits sullen, scorching, black despair.” He was trumpeting “On to Richmond!” two weeks ago. But then the war was a thing for an editorial—a triumphal parade of Unionists over rebels. Now there has been a battle and a defeat. He pleads for an armistice—a national convention—anything on almost any terms to end this war. Many think as he does; many fine words ring hollow as the skull of an orator, the skull of a maker of war. They have raised the Devil with slogans and editorials, but where is the charm that will lay him? Who will bind the Devil aroused? Only Lincoln, awkwardly enduring, confused by a thousand counsels, is neither overwhelmed nor touched to folly by the madness that runs along the streets like a dog in August scared of itself, scaring everyone who crosses its path. Defeat is a fact and victory can be a fact. If the idea is good, it will survive defeat, it may even survive the victory. His huge, patient, laborious hands start kneading the stuff of the Union together again; he gathers up the scraps and puts them together; he sweeps the corners and the cracks and patches together the lost courage and the rags of belief. The dough didn’t rise that time—maybe it will next time. God must have tried and discarded a lot of experiment-worlds before he got one even good enough to whirl for a minute—it is the same with a belief, with a cause. It is wrong to talk of Lincoln and a star together—that old rubbed image is a scrap of tinsel, a scrap of dead poetry—it dries up and blows away when it touches a man. And yet Lincoln had a star, if you will have it so—and was haunted by a prairie-star. Down in the South another man, most unlike him but as steadfast, is haunted by another star that has little to do with tinsel, and the man they call “Evacuation” Lee begins to grow taller and to cast a longer shadow. BOOK THREE By Pittsburg Landing, the turbid Tennessee Sucks against black, soaked spiles with soil-colored waters. That country is huge and disorderly, even now. —This is Ellyat’s tune, this is no tune but his— Country of muddy rivers, sombre and swollen, Country of bronze wild turkeys and catfish-fries And brushpile landings going back to the brush. A province of mush and milk, a half-cleared forest, A speckled guinea-cock that never was cooped But ran away to grow his spurs by himself. Neither North nor South, but crunching a root of its own Between strong teeth—perhaps a wild-onion-root, Perhaps a white stalk of arbutus, hardier there, Than any phantom-arbutus of Eastern Springs. A mudsill man with the river-wash in his ears, Munching the coarse, good meal of a johnny-cake Hot from the hob—even now it tastes of the brush, The wilderness, the big lost star in the pines, The brown river-dirt, the perpetual river-sound, In spite of the sidewalks, in spite of the trolley-cars. No trolley-car-bell can drown that river-sound, Or take the loneliness out of the lost moon, The night too big for a man, too lonesome and wide. The vastness has been netted in railroad tracks But it is still vast, uneasy. And when the brief Screech of the railway-whistle stabs at the trees That grow so thick, so unplanned, so untidily strong On either side of the two planned ribs of steel, Ghost-steamboats answer it from the sucking brown water. In Sixty-two, it was shaggy with wilderness still For stretches and stretches of close-packed undergrowth, Wild as a muskrat, ignorant of the axe; Stretches and stretches where roughly-chinked log-cabins, Two shouts and a holler away from the nearest neighbors, Stood in a wisp of open. All night long The cabin-people heard the chant of the trees, The forest, hewn away from the painful clearing For a day or a year, with sweat and back-breaking toil, But waiting to come back, to crush the crude house And the planted space with vines and trailers of green, To quench the fire on the hearth with running green saps, With a chant of green, with tiny green tendrils curling, —This is Ellyat’s tune, this is no tune but his— The railway-train goes by with a shrill, proud scream And the woman comes to the door in a butternut dress Hair tousled up in a knot on the back of her head, A barefoot child at her skirt. The train goes by. They watch it with a slow wonder that is not pathos Nor heroism but merely a slow wonder. * * * * * Jack Ellyat, in camp above Pittsburg Landing, Speck in Grant’s Army of the Tennessee, Thought of old fences in Connecticut With a homesick mind. This country was too new, Too stragglingly-unplanned, too muddy with great, Uncomfortable floods, too roughly cut With a broad hatchet out of a hard tree. It had seemed fine when he was mustered out After Bull Run, to wear a veteran air, And tell pink Ellen Baker about war And how, as soon as he could re-enlist He’d do it where he got a chance to fight— Wet mouth of tears—he hadn’t wanted to kiss her At first, but it was easier later on. Why had he ever gone out to Chicago? Why had he ever heard that shallow band Whanging its brass along a Western street And run to sign the muster-roll again? Why had he ever talked about Bull Run To these green, husky boys from Illinois And Iowa, whose slang was different slang, Who called suspenders galluses and swore In the sharp pops of a mule-driver’s whip? Bull Run—it had impressed them for a week But then they started to call him “Bull Run Jack.” . . . Henry Fairfield marching along with his sword, All the old company marching after him Back in McClellan’s army, back by the known Potomac, back in the safe and friendly East; All the papers telling how brave they were And how, as soon as the roads dried up in the spring, “The little Napoleon” would hammer the South to bits With a blue thunderbolt. And here he was A lost pea, spilt at random in a lost war; A Tennessee war that had no _Tribunes_ or polish Where he was the only Easterner in the whole Strange-swearing regiment of Illinois farmers, Alien as Rebels, and rough as all outdoors. He wanted to get transferred, he wanted to be Back with the company, back with the Eastern voices, Back where nobody called him “Bull Run Jack” And snickered at him for shaving every two days. He’d written about it and Father knew a congressman But nothing would happen—he’d never get away, He’d stay being Bull Run Jack till the end of the war And march through acres of hostile Tennessee mud Till his legs dropped off, and never get to be Corporal. He was sick of the war and the mud and the Western faces. He hated the sight of his Illinois uniform. He was sorry for himself. He felt with a vague Soft blur of self-pity that he was really quite brave, And if people only knew, they’d do something about it. This is Ellyat’s tune, this is no tune but his. Nine months have passed since McDowell reddened Bull Run, Nine strong-hoofed months, but they have meant little to Ellyat. What means the noise of the wind to the dust in the wind? But the wind calls strange things out, calls strange men out, A dozen pictures flash in front of the eyes And are gone in a flash— rough-bearded Tecumseh Sherman, Who had tried most things, but being cursed with a taste For honesty, had found small luck in his stars; Ex-soldier, banker, lawyer, each in its turn, Ex-head of a Southern military-school, Untidy ex-president of a little horse-railroad; Talkative, nervous, salty, Scotch-Irish fighter, High-strung, quick-tempered, essentially modern-minded, Stamping the length of the dusty corridors Of a Western hotel with a dead cigar in his teeth, Talking the war to himself, till the word goes round The new general is crazy— neat, handsome McClellan, Ex-railroad president too, but a better railroad; The fortunate youth, the highly-modern boy-wonder, The snapping-eyed, brisk banner-salesman of war With all the salesman’s gifts and the salesman’s ego; Great organizer, with that magnetic spark That pulls the heart from the crowd—and all of it spoiled By the Napoleon-complex that haunts such men. There never has been a young banner-salesman yet That did not dream of a certain little cocked-hat And feel it fit. McClellan felt that it fitted. —After a year and a day, the auditors come, Dry auditors, going over the books of the company, Sad auditors, with groups of red and black figures That are not moved by a dream of precious cocked hats. And after the auditors go, the board of directors Decides, with a sigh, to do without banner-salesmen— It is safer to dream of a rusty Lincoln stovepipe. That dream has more patience in it. And yet, years later, Meeting the banner-salesman in some cheap street With the faded clippings of old success in his pocket, One cannot help feeling sorry for the cocked hat So briefly worn in a dream of luck and the ego. One cannot help feeling sorry for George McClellan, He should have been a hero by every rule. He looked the part—he could have acted the part Word perfectly. He looked like an empire-maker. But so few empire-makers have looked the part. Fate has a way of picking unlikely material, Greasy-haired second lieutenants of French artillery, And bald-headed, dubious, Roman rake-politicians. Her stiff hands were busy now with an odd piece of wood, Sometime Westpointer, by accident more than choice, Sometime brevet-captain in the old Fourth Infantry, Mentioned in Mexican orders for gallant service And, six years later, forced to resign from the Army Without enough money to pay for a stateroom home. Turned farmer on Hardscrabble Farm, turned bill-collector, Turned clerk in the country-store that his brothers ran, The eldest-born of the lot, but the family-failure, Unloading frozen hides from a farmer’s sleigh With stoop-shouldered strength, whittling beside the stove, And now and then turning to whiskey to take the sting From winter and certain memories. It didn’t take much. A glass or two would thicken the dogged tongue And flush the fair skin beneath the ragged brown beard. Poor and shabby—old “Cap” Grant of Galena, Who should have amounted to something but hadn’t so far Though he worked hard and was honest. A middle-aged clerk, A stumpy, mute man in a faded army overcoat, Who wrote the War Department after Fort Sumter, Offering them such service as he could give And saying he thought that he was fit to command As much as a regiment, but getting no answer. So many letters come to a War Department, One can hardly bother the clerks to answer them all— Then a Volunteer colonel, drilling recruits with a stick, A red bandanna instead of an officer’s sash; A brigadier-general, one of thirty-seven, Snubbed by Halleck and slighted by fussy Frémont; And then the frozen February gale Over Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, The gunboats on the cold river—the brief siege— “Unconditional surrender”—and the newspapers. Major-General Grant, with his new twin-stars, Who, oddly, cared so little for reading newspapers, Though Jesse Grant wrote dozens of letters to them Pointing out all the wonders his son had done And wringing one dogged letter from that same son That should have squelched anybody but Jesse Grant. It did not squelch him. He was a business man, And now Ulysses had astonished Galena By turning out to be somebody after all; Ulysses’ old father was going to see him respected And, incidentally, try to wangle a contract For army-harness and boom the family tannery. It was a great surprise when Ulysses refused, The boy was so stubborn about it. And everywhere Were business-people, picking up contraband cotton, Picking up army-contracts, picking up shoddy, Picking up shoes and blankets, picking up wagons, Businesslike robins, picking up juicy earthworms, Picking up gold all over Tom-Tiddler’s Ground, And Ulysses wouldn’t see it. Few people have been More purely Yankee, in essence, than Jesse Grant. More pictures—Jefferson Davis, in dripping Spring rain, Reading a chilly inauguration-address To an unstirred crowd. He is really President now. His eyes are more tired, his temper beginning to fray. A British steamer in the Bahama Channel Stopped by a Captain Wilkes and a Union cruiser. They take two men, and let the steamer puff on —And light a long hissing fuse that for a month Nearly brings war with England. Lincoln and Seward Stamp out the fuse, and let the Confederates go— Wooden frigates at anchor in Hampton Roads Burning and sinking with tattered banners apeak Under the strange new, armadillo-bite Of something plated with iron that yet can float, The _Merrimac_—and all Washington and the North In a twenty-four-hours’ panic—then, next day— As Lincoln stares from the window of the White House For the sooty sign in the sky that means defeat— The armadillo, smoking back in her pride To crunch up another meal of weak wooden ships, Is beaten off by another leaky prodigy A tin-can cylinder on a floating shingle, The _Monitor_—the first fight of iron-clads, The sinking of all the world’s old sea-bitten names, _Temeraire_, _Victory_, and _Constellation_, _Serapis_, _Bon Homme Richard_, _Golden Hind_, Galleys of Antony, galleys of Carthage, Galleons with gilded Virgins, galleasses, Viking long-serpents, siren-haunted galliots, Argos and argosies and the Achæan pride, Moving to sea in one long wooden wall Behind the huge ghost-flagship of the Ark In such a swelling cloud of phantom sail They whitened Ocean—going down by the head, Green water seeping through the battened ports, Spreading along the scrubbed and famous decks, Going down—going down—going down—to mermaid-pools, To Fiddler’s Green—to the dim barnacle-thrones, Where Davy Jones drinks everlasting rum With the sea-horses of his sunken dreams. But this is Ellyat’s tune—and if the new Army of the Potomac stands astrain To end Secession with its “little Napoleon.” If Lee is just about to find his hour; If, among many mirrors and gilt chairs, Under the flare of the gas-chandeliers A sallow-faced and puffy Emperor With waxed mustachios and a slick goatee Gave various Southern accents, talking French, Evasive answers and no definite help, Ready enough to recognize the South If he were sure of profit in the scheme But not yet finding such a profit sure; If in the foggy streets of Westminster, The salty streets of Liverpool and Hull, The same mole-struggle in the dark went on Between Confederate and Unionist— The _Times_ raved at the North—Mr. Gladstone thought England might recognize the South next year, While Palmerston played such a tangled game It is illegible yet—and Henry Adams Added one more doubt to his education By writing propaganda for the North, It is all mist to Ellyat. And when he sleeps, He does not dream of Grant or Lee or Lincoln. He only dreams that he is back at home With a heroic wound that does not hurt, A uniform that never stings with lice, And a sword like Henry Fairfield’s to show Ellen Baker. * * * * * As far as the maps and the blocks on the maps have meaning The situation is this. A wide Western river, A little lost landing, with a steamboat-store, A post office where the roads from the landings meet, A plank church three miles inland called Shiloh Chapel, An undulating and broken table-land Roughed into a triangle by bordering creeks. Each side of the triangle runs about four miles long And, scattered in camps from the tip of the triangle To the base at the landing, are thirty-three thousand men, Some fairly seasoned in war, but many green sticks, Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. Down the river Don Carlos Buell has twenty-five thousand more In the Army of the Ohio. Opposing these Are Albert Sidney Johnston and Beauregard With something like forty thousand butternut fighters, Including a martial bishop. Johnston plans To smash Grant’s army to bits, before Buell can join it, And water his wagon-trains in the Tennessee. He has sneaked his army along through wilderness roads Till now they are only a mile and a half away Tonight from the Union lines. He is tall and active. Light brown hair streaked with grey feathers, blue claymore eyes That get steel shadows in battle, a face like Hamilton’s, Old Westpointer, old cavalry-colonel, well-schooled in war. Lincoln offered to make him a major-general And rumor says that he could have had the command Of the Union armies, once. But he resigned And later, went with his State. It is hard to say What he might have been. They called him the “_preux chevalier_” At times, as they called and were to call many others With that Waverley-streak that was so strong in the South. They also called him one of Davis’s pets, One of the tin Westpointers that Davis favored Above good politicians and courtesy colonels. The Richmond _Enquirer_ didn’t think so much of him, His soldiers thought rather more. Only this can be said. He caught Grant napping in some strange flaw of skill Which happened once and did not happen again. And drove his unprepared, unwatchful brigades Back almost into the river. And in the heat Of seeing his lines go forward, he bled to death From a wound that should not have been mortal. After which, While the broken Union stragglers under the bluff Were still howling that they were beaten, Buell came up, Lew Wallace came up, the knife half-sunk in the wound Was not thrust home, the night fell, the battle lagged. The bulldog got the bone in his teeth again And next day, reinforced, beat Beauregard back And counted a Union victory. In the books Both sides claim victory on one day or the other And both claims seem valid enough. It only remains To take the verdict of the various dead In this somewhat indecisive meeting of blocks. There were thirty-five hundred dead when the blocks had met. But, being dead, their verdict is out of court. They cannot puzzle the books with their testimony. Now, though, it is only the evening before the day. Johnston and Beauregard meet with their corps-commanders By the wagon-cut Pittsburg road. The march has been slow. The marching men have been noisy and hard to manage. By every rule of war, Grant must have been warned Long before now, and is planning an ambush for them. They are being marched into an open Union trap. So Beauregard thinks and says—and is perfectly right According to rules. There is only one difficulty. There is no ambush. Sherman has just reported The presence of enemy troops in front of his lines But says he expects nothing more than some picket-firing And Grant that evening telegraphs General Halleck, “I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack.” So much for the generals. Beauregard makes his point And is overruled. The April night comes down. The butternut men try to get some sleep while they can. They are to be up and fighting by five in the morning. * * * * * Jack Ellyat, least of any, expected attack. He woke about five with a dazzle struck in his eyes Where a long dawn-ray slid through a crack in the tent. He cursed at the ray and tried to go back to sleep But he couldn’t do it, although he was tired enough, Something ate at his mind as soon as he wakened And kept on eating. This morning was Sunday morning. The bells would be jangling for church back home, pretty soon, The girls would be going to church in white Sunday dresses, No, it was too early for that—they’d be muffled up In coats and galoshes. Their cheeks would be pink as apples. He wanted to see a girl who washed her hair, Not a flat old woman sucking a yellow snuffstick Or one of the girls in the dirty blue silk wrappers With flags on their garters. He wanted to see a girl. He wondered idly about the flags on the garters. Did they change them to Rebel flags when the Rebels came? Some poor whore down the river had had herself Tattooed with a Secesh flag. She was patriotic. She cried so hard when the Union troops were landed That the madam had to hide her down in the cellar. He must be bad to be thinking of things like that On Sunday morning. He’d better go to church If they had any kind of church, and make up for it— O frosty churchbells jangling across the thin Crust of packed frost, under Connecticut sky, Put snow on my tongue, and the grey, cool flower of rain— He had to get up. He couldn’t lie here and listen To Bailey and the rest of them, snoring away. His throat was dry. He needed a drink of water But not from a muddy river—put rain on my tongue! Souse me with chilly, sweet flaws of Puritan rain— He started to put on his boots, looking over at Bailey. Bailey was bearded, Bailey was thirty-two, Bailey had been a teamster and was a corporal. The waking Bailey looked like a stupid horse, The sleeping Bailey looked like a dirty sack, Bailey called him “Colonel” and didn’t mean it, Bailey had had him tossed in a blanket once, Bailey had told the tale of the tattooed whore, Somehow he hated Bailey worse than the rest. He managed to leave the tent without waking Bailey. It was very early still. The sun was just up. A fair sky, a very fair day. The air still held That bloom which is not the bloom on apple or peach But the bloom on a fruit made up of pure water and light, The freshness of dawn, still trembling, being new-born. He sucked at it gratefully. The camp was asleep. All that length of tents still asleep. He could see through the tents. He could see all those sleeping, rough, lousy, detested men Laden with sleep as with soft leaden burdens laden, Movelessly lying between the brown fawns of sleep Like infants nuzzled against the flanks of a doe, In quietness slumbering, in a warm quietness, While sleep looked at them with her fawn’s agate eyes And would not wake them yet. And he was alone, And for a moment, could see this, and see them so And, being free, stand alone, and so being free To love or hate, do neither, but merely stand Above them like sleep and see them with untouched eyes. In a while they would wake, and he would hate them again. But now he was sleep. He was the sun on the coat Of the halted fawn at the green edge of the wood Staring at morning. He could not hate them yet. Somebody near by, in the woods, took a heap of dry sticks, And began to break them quickly, first one by one, Then a dozen together, then hard-cracking axe-helves breaking. Ellyat was running. His mouth felt stiff with loud words Though he heard no sound from his mouth. He could see the white Fine pine-splinters flying from those invisible axe-helves. . . . For a minute all of them were tangled together In the bucking tent like fish in a canvas scoop, Then they were out of it somehow—falling in line— Bailey’s hair looked angry and sleepy. The officers Were yelling the usual things that officers yelled. It was a surprise. They were going to be licked again. It did not matter yet. It would matter soon. Bailey had lost his blouse and his pants weren’t buttoned. He meant to tell Bailey about it. There wasn’t time. His eyes felt bald as glass but that was because He kept looking for flying pine-splinters in the air. Now they were setting off firecrackers under a boiler And a man ran past with one hand dripping red paint, Holding the hand with his other hand and talking As if the hurt hand were a doll. An officer hit him With the flat of a sword. It spanked some dust from his coat And the man’s face changed from a badly-fitting mask Of terror, cut into ridges of sallow wax, To something pink and annoyed, but he kept on running. All this happened at once as they were moving. The dawn had been hit to pieces with a hard mallet. There were no fawns. There was an increasing noise Through which he heard the lugubrious voice of Bailey Singing off-key, like a hymn, “When I was a weaver, I lived by myself, And I worked at the weaver’s tra-a-de—” The officers were barking like foxes now. As the last tent dropped behind them, Ellyat saw A red, puzzled face, looking out from under a tent-flap, Like a bear from a cave. The face had been drunk last night, And it stared at the end of the column with a huge and stupid wisdom. * * * * * “When I was a weaver, I lived by myself, And I worked at the weaver’s trade—” Jack Ellyat found himself back behind somebody’s tent After a while. He had been out in the woods. He remembered scrouging against a too-porous tree For a day or a number of minutes while he jerked A rattling ramrod up and down in a gun. But they couldn’t stay in the woods—they had to come back. They had called him “Bull Run Jack” but they had to come back, Bailey and all the rest. He had come back with them, But that was different—that was all right for him. This red-colored clang of haste was different for him. Bailey and all the rest could run where they liked. He was an old soldier. He would stay here and fight. Running, he tripped on a rope, and began to fall, Bailey picked him back on his feet. “Did they get you, Bud?” “No, they didn’t get me.” Ellyat’s voice was a snarl. What business had Bailey steadying him like that? He hadn’t been running. Suddenly he saw Grey shouting strangers bursting into the tents And his heart shrank up in a pea. “Oh hell,” he said, Hopelessly ramming a cartridge. He was an old soldier. He wasn’t going to run. He was going to act Vast fictive heroisms in front of Bailey, If they only gave him time, just a little time. A huge horse rose above the wall of the tent And hung there a second like a bad prodigy, A frozen scream full of hoofs. He struck at its head And tried to get out from under as it lunged down But he wasn’t quite quick enough. As he slipped and fell He saw the laughter pasted on Bailey’s face But before he could hear the laugh, the horse had fallen, Jarring the world. After blunt, sickly time A fat young man with a little pink moustache Was bawling “Hey, Yank, surrender!” into his ear And nervously waving a pistol in front of his eyes. He nodded weakly. “Hey, boys,” called the fat young man, “I got two Yanks!” His mouth was childish with pleasure. He was going to tell everybody he had two Yanks. “Here, Yank, come and pull the horse off the other Yank.” The prisoner’s column straggled along the road All afternoon. Jack Ellyat marched in it numbly. He was stiff and sore. They were going away from the battle But they could still hear it, quaking, The giant stones rolled over the grumbling bridge. Some of the prisoners tried to joke with the guards, Some walked in silence, some spoke out now and then, As if to explain to the world why they were there. One man said, “I got a sore heel.” Another said, “All the same the Tenth Missouri’s a damn good regiment.” Another said, “Listen, boys, don’t it beat all hell? I left my tobacco behind me, back in the tent, Don’t it beat all hell to lose your tobacco like that?” Bailey kept humming the “Weaver,” but now and then He broke it off, to say, with a queer satisfaction, “Well, we surely did skedaddle—we surely did.” Jack Ellyat had said nothing for a long time. This was war, this was Phaëton, this was the bronze chariot Rolling the sky. If he had a soul any more It felt scrawny and thin as a sick turkey-poult. It was not worth the trouble to fatten. He tried to fatten it With various thoughts, now and then, but the thoughts were spoilt Corn. They had damn well skedaddled. They damn well had. That was all. The rest of the army could win or lose They had surely skedaddled. They had been whipped again. He had been whipped again. He was no longer The old soldier—no longer even “Bull Run Jack.” He had lost a piece of himself. It had ragged edges That piece. He could see it left behind in the tents Under a dirty coat and a slab of tobacco. After a while he knocked against Bailey’s arm. “Where are we going?” he said, in a shy voice. Bailey laughed, not badly, “Well, Colonel, Corinth I guess, Corinth first—and then some damn prison-camp.” He spat in the road. “It won’t be good grub,” he said. “Bacon and hominy-grits. They don’t eat right. They don’t eat nothing but bacon and hominy-grits. God, I’m goin’ to get tired of bacon and hominy-grits!” Ellyat looked. There was something different about him. He stated a fact. “You’ve buttoned your pants,” he said. “I remember you didn’t have ’em buttoned this morning.” “That’s so,” said Bailey, impressed, “Now when did I button ’em?” They chewed at the question, trying to puzzle it out. It seemed very important to both for quite a long time. * * * * * It was night now. The column still marched. But Bailey and Ellyat Had dropped to the rear of the column, planning escape. There were few guards and the guards were as tired as they. Two men could fall in a ditch by the side of the road And get away, perhaps, if they picked a good time. They talked it over in stupid whispers of weariness. The next bend—no, the guard was coming along. The next bend after—no, there was light for a moment From a brief star, then clouded—the top of the hill— The bottom of the hill—and they still were marching. Rain began to fall, a drizzle at first, then faster. Ellyat’s eyes were thick. He walked in a dream, A heavy dream, cut from leaden foil with blunt shears. Then Bailey touched him—he felt the tired bones of his skull Click with a sudden spark—his feet stopped walking— He held his breath for an instant, And then wearily slumped in the ditch with enormous noise, Hunching his shoulders against a phantom bayonet. But when he could raise his head, the column had gone. He felt fantastic. They couldn’t escape like this. You had to escape like a drawing in _Harper’s Weekly_ With stiff little men on horses like sickle-pears Firing round frozen cream-puffs into your back. But they had escaped. Life came back to him in a huge Wave of burnt stars. He wanted to sing and yell. He crackled out of the ditch and stood beside Bailey. Had he ever hated Bailey? It could not have been. He loved Bailey better than anything else in the world. They moved slyly toward the woods, they were foxes escaped. Wise foxes sliding away to a hidden earth To a sandy floor, to the warm fawn-flanks of sweet sleep. . . . And then an awful molasses-taffy voice Behind them yelled “Halt!” and “Halt!” and—sudden explosion Of desultory popcorn in iron poppers— Wild running at random—a crash among broken boughs— A fighting sound—Bailey’s voice, half-strangled but clear, “Run like hell, Jack, they’ll never catch you!” He ran like hell. Time passed like the rain. Time passed and was one with the rain. * * * * * Ellyat woke from a nightmare and put out his hand To touch the wall by his bed, but there was no wall. Then he listened for Bailey’s snoring. And he heard The gorged, sweet pouring of water through infinite boughs, The hiss of the big spilt drop on the beaten leaf, The bird-voiced and innumerable rain, A wet quail piping, a thousand soaked black flutes Building a lonely castle of sliding tears, Strange and half-cruel as a dryad’s bright grief. Ellyat huddled closer under the tree, Remembering what he could. He had run for years, He had slept for years—and yet it was still not dawn. It seemed cruel to him that it should never be dawn. It seemed cruel that Bailey was lost. He had meant to show Some fictive heroisms in front of Bailey. He had not. Bailey had saved his skin instead, And Bailey was lost. And in him something was lost, Something worse than defeat or this rain—some piece of himself. Some piece of courage. Now the slant rain began To creep through his sodden heart. He thought, with wild awe, “This is Nibelung Hall. I am lying in Nibelung Hall. I am long dead. I fell there out of the sky In a wreck of horses, spilling the ball of the sun, And they shut my eyes with stone runes and put me to sleep On a bier where the living stream perpetually flows Past Ygdrasil and waters the roots of the world. I can hear the ravens scream from the cloudy roof. I can hear the bubbles rising in the clear stream. I can hear the old gods shout in the heathen sky As the hawk-Valkyrie carry the stiffened lumps Of corpse-faced heroes shriekingly to Valhalla. This is Nibelung Hall. I must break the runes from my eyes. I must escape it or die.” He slept. The rain fell. * * * * * Melora Vilas, rising by candlelight, Looked at herself in the bottom of the tin basin And wished that she had a mirror. Now Spring was here, She could kneel above the well of a forest pool And see the shadow hidden under the water, The intent brown eyes, the small face cut like a heart. She looked at the eyes and the eyes looked back at her, But just when it seemed they could start to talk to each other— “What are you like? Who are you?”— a ripple flawed The deep glass and the shadow trembled away. If she only had a mirror, maybe she’d know Something, she didn’t know what, but something important, Something like knowing your skin and you were alive On a good day, something as drenched as sleep, As wise as sleep, as piercing as the bee’s dagger. But she’d never know it unless she could get a mirror And they’d never get a mirror while they were hiders. They were bound to be hiders as long as the war kept on. Pop was that way. She remembered roads and places. She was seventeen. She had seen a lot of places, A lot of roads. Pop was always moving along. Everybody she’d ever known was moving along. —Dusty wagons full of chickens and children, Full of tools and quilts, Rising Sun and Roses of Sharon, Mahogany dressers out of Grandmother’s house, Tin plates, cracked china, a couple of silver spoons, Moving from State to State behind tired, scuffed horses Because the land was always better elsewhere. Next time they’d quit. Next stop they’d settle right down. Next year they’d have time to rub up the mahogany dresser. Next place, Mom could raise the flowers she wanted to raise. But it never began. They were always moving along. She liked Kansas best. She wished they’d go back to Kansas. She liked the smell of the wind there. But Pop hadn’t wanted to join with the Free-Soilers And then the slavery men had shot up the town And killed the best horse they had. That had settled Pop. He said something about a plague on both of your houses And moved along. So now they were hiders here And whenever you wanted to ask Pop about the war All he said was that same old thing about the plague. She mustn’t call him Pop—that was movers’-talk. She must call him Father, the way Mom, Mother wanted. But it was hard to remember. Mom talked a lot About old times back in the East and Grandmother’s house. She couldn’t remember an East. The East wasn’t real. There was only the dusty road and moving along. Although she knew that Mom had worn a silk dress And gone to a ball, once. There was a picture of Pop And Mom, looking Eastern, in queer old Eastern clothes. They weren’t white trash. She knew how to read and figure. She’d read _Macbeth_ and _Beulah_ and _Oliver Twist_. She liked _Beulah_ best but _Macbeth_ would have suited Pop. Sometimes she wondered what had happened to them, When Mother used to live in Grandmother’s house And wear silk dresses, and Father used to read Latin— When had they started to go just moving along, And how would it feel to live in Grandmother’s house? But it was so long ago, so hard to work out And she liked it this way—she even liked being hiders. It was exciting, especially when the guns Coughed in the sky as they had all yesterday, When Bent hid out in the woods to keep from recruiters, And you knew there were armies stumbling all around you, Big, blundering cows of armies, snuffling and tramping The whole scuffed world with their muddy, lumbering hoofs, Except the little lost brushpile where you were safe. There were guns in the sky again today. Big armies. An army must be fine to look at. But Pop Would never let her do it or understand. An army or a mirror. She didn’t know Which she’d rather find, but whenever she thought of it The mirror generally won. You could keep a mirror yourself. * * * * * She had to call the hogs that afternoon. You had to call them once or twice a month And give them food or else they ran too wild And never came for butchering in the Fall, Though they lived well enough without your calling, Fat in the forest, feeding on beech mast, Wild muscadines and forest provender That made their flesh taste sweet as hazelnuts. She liked the hogs, they weren’t tame, sleepy hogs Grunting in a black wallow, they were proud Rapid and harsh and savage as Macbeth. There was a young boar that she called Macbeth, She’d seen him fight grey-bristled, drowsy Duncan And drive him from the trough. Fagin was there, Bill Sikes was there and Beulah the black sow, And Lady Macduff whose grunt was half a whine. You could learn lots about a book from hogs. She poured the swill and cupped her hands to call. Sometimes they’d help her with it, Pop or Bent, But Pop was off with Bent this afternoon And Mom was always busy. Slim and straight She stood before the snake-rail pen that kept Macbeths on their own proper side of the fence. “Piggy,” she called, “Here, piggy, piggy, piggy!” It wasn’t the proper call, but the hogs knew That sweet clear loudness with its sleepy silver Trembling against a chanter of white ash. “Here, piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy! Here, piggy, piggy!” There was a scrambling noise At the edge of the woods. “Here, piggy!” It was Banquo. Greedy, but hesitant. The Artful Dodger Slim, black and wicked, had two feet in the trough Before that obese indecision moved. “Here, piggy! Here, piggy, piggy!” The gleaming call Floated the air like a bright glassy bubble, Far, far, with its clean silver and white ash. And Ellyat, lost and desperate in the wood, Heard it, desirous as the elvish blast Wound on a tiny horn of magic grass To witch steel riders into a green hill. He stumbled toward its music. “Piggy, piggy, Here, piggy, piggy!” The swine grunted and jostled. Melora watched them, trying to count them up With grave eyes, brown as nuts in rainwater. They were all there, she thought—she must be sure. She called again. No, something moved in the woods. She stared past the clearing, puzzled. So Ellyat saw her Beyond the swine, head lifted like a dark foal That listens softly for strangeness. And she saw An incoherent scarecrow in blue clothes Stagger on wooden feet from the deep wood. She called to him to keep away from the hogs, Half-frightenedly. He did not hear or obey. He was out of Nibelung Hall. She put one hand On the rail of the fence to steady herself and waited. “You can’t come in here,” she said, fiercely. “The hogs’ll kill you.” But he was past the fed hogs and over the fence. She saw a queer look on his face. “You’re hungry,” she said. He grinned, made a noise in his throat, and fell, trying to touch her. * * * * * Now that I am clean again, Now I’ve slept and fed, How shall I remember when I was someone dead? Now the balm has worked its art And the gashes dry, And the lizard at my heart Has a sleepy eye, How shall I remember yet Freezing underground, With the wakened lizard set To the living wound? Do not ponder the offence Nor reject the sore, Do not tear the cerements Flesh may need once more. Cold comes back and pain comes back And the lizard, too. And the burden in the sack May be meant for you. Do not play the risen dunce With unrisen men. Lazarus was risen once But earth gaped again. * * * * * So Ellyat swam back to life, swam back to warmth And the smell of cooking food. It was night. He heard Impenetrable rain shake a low roof And hiss stray, scattering drops on an open fire. But he was safe. That rain was caged in the sky. It could not fall on him. He lay in a lax Idleness, warm and hungry, not wanting to move. A grub in a close cocoon neither bold nor wise, but content. A tall woman was cooking mush in an iron pot. The smell of the mush was beautiful, the shape of the pot More beautiful than an urn by sea-nymphs carved From sunken marbles stained with the cold sea-rose. The woman was a great Norn, in her pot she cooked a new world, Made of pure vapors and the juices of unspoilt light, A new globe of sulliless amber and grains of white corn, An orbed perfection. All life was beautiful now. A girl came into the room upon light, quick feet. He stared at her, solemnly. She was young and thin. The small, just head was set on the slender neck With a clean sureness. The heavy hair was a helm Of bronze cooled under a ripple, marked by that flowing. It was not slight but it could not weight her down. Her hands and feet were well made and her body had That effortless ease, that blood that flies with the bird. She saw his open eyes and came over to him, Not shyly but not concernedly. Their eyes met. The older woman kept stirring her melted world. “Well,” said the girl, “You look better.” He nodded, “Yes.” Their eyes said, “I have seen a new thing. In the deep cells Below the paltry clockwork of the ticked heart, I have seen something neither light nor night, A new thing, a new picture. It may mean The lifting of a shut latch. It may mean nothing.” She made an escaping gesture with her right hand. “You didn’t say who you were,” she said. “You just fell. You better tell who you are, Pop’ll want to know.” A shadow crossed her. “Pop won’t want to keep you,” she said. “But I reckon we’ll have to keep you here for a piece, You’re not fit to travel yet and that’s a fact. You look a little bit like Young Seward,” she said Reflectively, “But sometimes you look more like Oliver. I dunno. What’s your name?” Ellyat put forth his hand Toward being alive again, slowly, hauling it down. He remembered. He was Jack Ellyat. He had been lost. He had lain with hel-shoes on in Nibelung Hall For twenty years. This was the girl with the swine Whose loud sweet calling had come to him in the wood And lifted him back to warmth and a cooking world. He had lost a piece of himself, a piece of life, He must find it, but now— “What’s your name?” he said in a whisper. * * * * * This is the hidden place that hiders know. This is where hiders go. Step softly, the snow that falls here is different snow, The rain has a different sting. Step softly, step like a cloud, step softly as the least Whisper of air against the beating wing, And let your eyes be sealed With two blue muscadines Stolen from secret vines, Or you will never find in the lost field The table spread, the signs of the hidden feast. This is where hiders live. This is the tentative And outcast corner where hiders steal away To bake their hedgehogs in a lump of clay, To raise their crops and children wild and shy, And let the world go by In accidental marches of armed wrath That stumble blindly past the buried path. Step softly, step like a whisper, but do not speak Or you will never see The furriness curled within the hollow tree, The shadow-dance upon the wilderness-creek. This is the hiders’ house. This is the ark of pine-and-willow-boughs. This is the quiet place. You may call now, but let your call be sweet As clover-honey strained through silver sieves And delicate as the dust upon the moth Or you will never find your fugitives. Call once, and call again, Then, if the lifted strain Has the true color and substance of the wild, You may perceive, if you have lucky eyes, Something that ran away from being wise And changed silk ribbons for a greener cloth, Some budding-horned and deer-milk-suckled child Some lightness, moving toward you on light feet, Some girl with indolent passion in her face. * * * * * Jack Ellyat wondered about things, six days later. The world had come back to its shape. He was well and strong. He had seen the old man with the burnt dreams in his eyes, Who had fallen from something years ago in his youth Or risen from something with an effort too stark; The runaway who had broken the pasture-bars To test the figments of life on a wild stone. You could see the ultimate hardness of that strange stone Cut in his face—but then, there was something else, That came at moments and went, and answered no questions. Had the feel of the stone been worth it, after all? It puzzled Ellyat. He couldn’t figure it out. Going West to get fat acres was common enough, But, once you got the acres, you settled down, You sent your children to school. You put up a fence. When a war came along, you fought on your proper side; You didn’t blast both sides with Mercutio’s curse And hide in a wilderness. The man was all wrong, And yet the man was not weak. It was very strange. If the man had been weak, you could understand him all right. The woman was more easy to understand. He liked the woman—he liked the rough shaggy boy Who had lived so much in the woods to keep from the armies That his ears were sharp as a squirrel’s, and all his movements Had something untamed about them, something leafy and strange. Of course he ought to be fighting for the North, He was really a skulk—but things were different here. You couldn’t reason about the difference in words But you felt it inside your skin. Things were different here. Like Nibelung Hall in the rain of his fever-dream, But with no terror, with an indolent peace. He’d have to get back to the regiment pretty soon. He couldn’t stay here. They none of them wanted him here. He’d have to get back. But he didn’t know where to go. They could tell him how to get back to Pittsburg Landing But how did he know if the army was there or not? He didn’t even know who’d won in the battle, And, if the Rebs had won, he’d be captured again As soon as he got on a road. Well, he’d have to chance it. He couldn’t stay here and fall in love with Melora. Melora came walking down the crooked path With a long shadow before her. It was the hour When the heat is out of the gold of afternoon And the cooled gold has not yet turned into grey, The hour of the paused tide, neither flow nor ebb, The flower beginning to close but not yet closed. He saw her carry her fairy head aloft Against that descending gold, He saw the long shadow that her slight body made. When she came near enough to him, she heard him humming A tune he had thought forgotten, the weaver’s tune. “And the only harm that I’ve ever done, Was to love a pretty maid.” She halted, trying to listen. He stopped the tune. “What’s that you were singing?” she said. “Oh, just trash,” he said. “I liked it. Sing it some more.” But he would not sing it. They regarded each other a foot or so apart. Their shadows blotted together into one shadow. She put her hand to both cheeks, and touched them lightly, As if to cool them from something. A soft, smooth shock Inexplicable as the birth of a star And terrible as the last cry of the flesh Ran through his cords and struck. He stared at the shadows. Then she took her shadow into the house with her But he still stood looking where the shadows had touched. * * * * * John Vilas watched them go off through the wood To get the water from the other spring, The big pail clanking between them. His hard mouth Was wry with an old nursery-rhyme, but his eyes Looked somewhere beyond hardness. Let them go. Harriet said and Harriet always said And Harriet was right, but let them go. Men who go looking for the wilderness-stone And find it, should not marry or beget, But, having done so, they must take the odds As the odds are. Faustus and I are old. We creep about among the hollow trees Where the bright devils of our youth have gone Like a dissolving magic, back to earth. But in our tarnished and our antique wands And in the rusty metal of our spells There still remain such stubbornness and pith As may express elixirs from a rock Or pick a further quarrel with the gods Should we find cause enough. I know this girl, This boy, this youth, this honey in the blood, This kingly danger, this immediate fire. I know what comes of it and how it lies And how, long afterwards, at the split core Of the prodigious and self-eaten lie, A little grain of truth lies undissolved By all the acids of philosophy. Therefore, I will not seek a remedy Against a sword but in the sword itself Nor medicine life with anything but life. I am too old to try the peddler’s tricks, Too wise, too foolish, too long strayed in the wood, The custom of the world is not my custom, Nor its employments mine. I know this girl As well as if I never lay with her mother. I know her heart touched with that wilderness-stone That turns good money into heaps of leaves And builds an outcast house of apple-twigs Beside a stream that never had a name. She will forget what I cannot forget, And she may learn what I shall never learn, But, while the wilderness-stone is strong in her, I’d have her use it for a touchstone yet And see the double face called good and bad With her own eyes. So, if she stares it down, She is released, and if it conquers her, She was not weighted with a borrowed shield. We are no chafferers, my daughter and I. We give what pleases us and when we choose, And, having given, we do not take back. But once we shut our fists upon a star It will take portents to unloose that grip And even then the stuff will keep the print. It is a habit of living. For the boy I do not know but will not stand between. He has more toughness in him than he thinks. —I took my wife out of a pretty house. —I took my wife out of a pleasant place. —I stripped my wife of comfortable things. —I drove my wife to wander with the wind. —And we are old now, Faustus. Let it be so. There was one man who might have understood, Because he was half-oriole and half-fox, Not Emerson, but the man by Walden Pond. But he was given to the birds in youth And never had a woman or a daughter. * * * * * The filled pail stood on a stone by the lip of the spring, But they had forgotten the pail. The spring was a cool Wavering mirror that showed them their white, blurred faces And made them wonder to see the faces so like And yet so silent and distant. Melora turned. “We ought to go back,” she said in a commonplace voice. “Not yet, Melora.” Something, as from the spring Rising, in silver smoke, in arras of silvers, Drifting around them, pushed by a light, slow wind. “Not yet Melora.” They sat on a log above. Melora’s eyes were still looking down at the spring. Her knees were hunched in her arms. “You’ll be going,” she said, Staring at the dimmed glass. “You’ll be going soon.” The silver came closer, soaking into his body, Soaking his flesh with bright, impalpable dust. He could smell her hair. It smelt of leaves and the wind. He could smell the untaken whiteness of her clean flesh, The deep, implacable fragrance, fiercer than sleep, Sweeter than long sleep in the sun. He touched her shoulder. She let the hand stay but still she gazed at the spring. Then, after a while, she turned. The mirrored mouths Fused in one mouth that trembled with the slow waters. * * * * * Melora, in the room she had to herself Because they weren’t white-trash and used to be Eastern, Let the rain of her hair fall down, In a stream, in a flood, on the white birch of her body. She was changed, then. She was not a girl any more. She was the white heart of the birch, Half hidden by a fleece that a South wind spun Out of bronze air and light, on a wheel of light. Her sharp clear breasts Were two young victories in the hollow darkness And when she stretched her hands above her head And let the spun fleece ripple to her loins, Her body glowed like deep springs under the sun. She had no song to sing herself asleep Tonight, but she would need no song to sing. A thousand thoughts ran past her in a brief Unhurrying minute, on small, quiet feet But did not change her. Nothing could change her now. —Black winter night against the windowpane And she, a child, singing her fear to sleep With nursery-rhymes and broken scraps of tunes. How well she could remember those old songs. But this night she would sleep without a song Except the song the earth knows in the night After the huge embrace of the bright day, And that was better. She thought to herself. “I don’t know. I can’t think. I ought to be scared. I ought to have lots of maybes. I can’t find them. It’s funny. It’s different. It’s a big pair of hands Pushing you somewhere—but you’ve got to go. Maybe you’re crazy but you’ve got to go. That’s why Mom went. I know about Mom now. I know how she used to be. It’s pretty sweet. It’s rhymes, it’s hurting, it’s feeling a bird’s heart Beat in your hand, it’s children growing up, It’s being cut to death with bits of light, It’s wanting silver bullets in your heart, It’s not so happy, but it’s pretty sweet, I’ve got to go.” She passed her narrow hands Over her body once, half-wonderingly. “Divide this transitory and temporal flesh Into twelve ears of red and yellow corn And plant each ear beside a different stream. Yet, in the summer, when the harvesters Come with their carts, the grain shall change again And turn into a woman’s body again And walk across a heap of sickle-blades To find the naked body of its love.” She slipped her dress back on and stole downstairs. The bare feet, whispering, made little sound. A sleeper breathed, a child turned in its sleep. She heard the tiny breathings. She shut the door. The moon rode a high heaven streaked with cloud. She watched it for a moment. Then she drank That moon from its high heaven with her mouth And felt the immaculate burning of that frost Run from her fingers in such corporal silver Her whole slight body was a corposant Of hollow light and the cold sap of the moon. She knew the dark grass cool beneath her feet. She knew the opening of the stable door. It shut behind her. She was in darkness now. * * * * * Jack Ellyat, lying in a warm nest of hay, Stared at the sweet-smelling darkness with troubled eyes. He was going tomorrow. He couldn’t skulk any more. —Oh, reasonless thirst in the night, what can slake your thirst, Reasonless heart, why will you not let me rest? I have seen a woman wrapped in the grace of leaves, I have kissed her mouth with my mouth, but I must go— He was going back to find a piece of himself That he had lost in a tent, in a red loud noise, Under a sack of tobacco. Until he found it He could never be whole again —but the hunger creeps Like a vine about me, crushing my narrow wisdom, Crushing my thoughts— He couldn’t stay with Melora. He couldn’t take her back home. If he were Bailey He would know what to do. He would follow the weaver’s tune. He would keep Melora a night from the foggy dew And then go off with the sunrise to tell the tale Sometime for a campfire yarn. But he wasn’t Bailey. He saw himself dead without ever having Melora And he didn’t like it. Maybe, after the war. Maybe he could come back to the hider’s place, Maybe—it is a long time till after the war And this is now—you took a girl when you found her— A girl with flags on her garters or a new girl— It didn’t matter—it made a good campfire yarn— It was men and women—Bailey—the weaver’s tune— He heard something move and rustle in the close darkness “What’s that?” he said. He got no answering voice But he knew what it was. He saw a light-footed shadow Come toward the nest where he lay. For a moment then He felt weak, half-sickened almost. Then his heart began To pound to a marching rhythm that was not harsh Nor sweet, but enormous cadence. “Melora,” he said. His hand went out and touched the cup of her breast. * * * * * What things shall be said of you, Terrible beauty in armor? What things shall be said of you, Horses riding the sky? The fleetness, the molten speed, The rhythm rising like beaten Drums of barbaric gold Until fire mixes with fire? The night is a sparkling pit Where Time no longer has power But only vast cadence surging Toward an instant of tiny death. Then, with the slow withdrawal Of seas from a rock of moonlight, The clasping bodies unlock And the lovers have little words. What is this spear, this burnished Arrow in the deep waters That is not quenched by them Until it has found its mark? What is this beating of wings In the formless heart of the tempest? This wakening of a sun That was not wakened before? They have dragged you down from the sky And broken you with an ocean Because you carried the day, Phaëton, charioteer. But still you loose from the cloud The matched desires of your horses And sow on the ripened earth The quickened, the piercing flame. What things shall be said of you, Terrible beauty in armor? Dance that is not a dance, Brief instant of welded swords. For a moment we strike the black Door with a fist of brightness. And then it is over and spent, And we sink back into life. Back to the known, the sure, The river of sleep and waking, The dreams floating the river, The nearness, the conquered peace. You have come and smitten and passed, Poniard, poniard of sharpness. The child sleeps in the planet. The blood sleeps again. * * * * * He wasn’t going away when he went to the wood. He told himself that. They had broken the dime together. They had cut the heart on the tree. The jack-knife cut Two pinched half-circles of white on the green bark. The tree-gum bled from the cuts in sticky, clear drops, And there you were. And shortly the bark would dry Dead on the living wood and leave the white heart All through the winter, all through the rain and snow, A phantom-blaze to guide a tall phantom-hunter Who came in lightness along a leaf-buried path. All through the snowing winter it would be white. It would take many springs to cover that white again. What have I done in idleness, in sweet idleness, What have I done to the forest? I have marked A tree to be my own with a jack-knife blade In idleness, in sweet idleness. I have loosed A dryad out of the tree to chain me with wild Grapevines and forest trailers forever and ever To the hider’s place, to the outcast house of the lost, And now, when I would be free, I am free no more. He thought of practical matters. There ought to be A preacher and a gold ring and a wedding-dress, Only how could there be? He rolled hard words Over his tongue. “A shotgun wedding,” he said. It wasn’t like that, it never could be like that, But there was a deadly likeness. He saw the bored Shamefaced seducer in the clean Sunday collar, The whining, pregnant slut in the cheesecloth veil. They weren’t like that—but the picture colored his mind. If he only could go away without going away And have everything turn out just as it ought to be Without rings or hiding! He told himself “I’m all right. I’m not like Bailey. I wouldn’t sleep with a girl Who never slept with anybody before And then just go off and leave her.” But it was Melora. It wasn’t seducing a girl. It was all mixed up. All real where it ought to be something told in a sermon, And all unreal when you had to do something about it, His thoughts went round and round like rats in a cage, But all he knew was— he was sick for a room And a red tablecloth with tasselled fringes, Where a wife knitted on an end of a scarf, A father read his paper through the same Unchanging spectacles with the worn bows And a young girl beneath a nickeled lamp Soundlessly conjugated Latin verbs, “Amo, amas, amat,” and still no sound— Slight dryad, trailing the green, curled vines of the Spring, I hate you for this moment, I hate your white breast And idleness, sweet, hidden idleness— He started awake. He had been walking through dreams. How far had he come? He studied the sun and the trees. Was he lost? No, there was the way. He turned back slowly, To the dryad, the idleness—to the cheesecloth veil, The incredible preacher, the falling out of life. He’d ask her this evening where you could find such preachers. The old man mustn’t know till the thing was done Or he would turn to a father out of a cheap Play, a cheap shotgun father with a wool beard Roaring gilt rhetoric—and loading a musket. He got the dry grins. If the property-father shot him Would they carve his name on the soldiers’ monument After the war? There should be a special tablet. “Here lies John Ellyat Junior, shot and killed By an angry father for the great cause of Union. ‘How sleep the brave.’” He stumbled and looked around him. “Well, I might go on as far as the road,” he said. A little while later he burst through the screen of brush. And saw the highroad below him. He wiped his face. The road dipped down a hill to a little bridge. He was safe enough now. What was it Melora had said? The highroad was six miles away from the farm, Due west, and he could tell the west by the sun. He must have covered a dozen, finding the road, But getting back would be easy. The sun was high. He ought to be starting soon. But he lay down And stared for a while at the road. It was good to see A road in the open again, a dust-bitten road Where people and horses went along to a town. —Dryad, deep in the woods, your trails are small, Winding and faint—they run between grass and flowers— But it is good once more to come on a road That is not drowsy with your idleness— He looked down toward the bridge. There were moving blobs of dust Crossing it—men on horses. His heart gave a strange Throb of desire. What were they? They looked like soldiers. Blue coats or grey? He could not tell for the dust. He’d have to get back in the woods before they passed, He was a hider now. But he kept on staring A long two minutes, trying to make them out, Till his eyes stung. One man had a yellow beard And carried his rifle slung the Missouri way But there were Missouri troops on either side. In a minute he could tell—and wriggle away— A round stick jabbed in his back. A slow voice said “Reach for the sky, Yank, or I’ll nachully drill yuh.” His hands flew up. “Yuh’re the hell of a scout,” said the voice With drawling scorn. “Yuh h’ain’t even got a gun. I could have picked yuh off ten minutes ago, Yuh made more noise than a bear, bustin thru’ that bresh. What’d yuh ust to work at—wrappin’ up corsets? Yeah—yuh kin turn around.” Jack Ellyat turned Incredulously. “Well, I’ll be damned,” said the boy In butternut clothes with the wrinkled face of a leaf. “Yuh’re a young ’un all right—aw, well, don’t take it so hard. Our boys get captured, too. Hey, Billy!” he called, “Got a Yankee scout.” The horse-hoofs stopped in the road. “Well, bring him along,” said a voice. Jack Ellyat slid Down a little bank and stood in front of the horses. He was dazed. This was not happening. But the horses Were there, the butternut men on the horses were there. A gaunt old man with a sour, dry mouth was talking, “He’s no scout,” he said, “He’s one of their lousy spies. Don’t he look like a spy? Let’s string him up to a tree.” His eye roved, looking for a suitable branch, His mouth seemed pleased. Ellyat saw two little scooped dishes, Hung on a balance, wavering in the air. One was bright tin and carried his life and breath, The other was black. They were balanced with dreadful evenness. But now the black dish trembled, starting to fall. “Hell, no,” said the boy with the face like a wrinkled leaf. “He’s a scout all right. What makes yuh so savage, Ben? Yuh’re always hankerin’ after a necktie-party. Who captured the bugger anyhow?” “Oh, well,” Said the other man. “Oh, well.” He spat in the dust. “Anyhow,” he said, with a hungry look at Ellyat, “He’s got good boots.” The boy with the wrinkled face Remarked that, as for the boots, no Arkansaw catfish Was going to take them away from their lawful captor. The rest sat their horses loosely and looked at him With mild curiosity, ruminating tobacco. Ellyat tried to think. He could not think. He was free, These stuffless men on stuffless horses had freed him From dryads and fathers, from cheesecloth veils and Melora. He began to talk fast. He didn’t hear what he said. “But I’ve got to get back,” he said. Then he stopped. They laughed. “Oh, yuh’ll get over it, Bub,” said the wrinkled boy, “It ain’t so bad. You won’t have to fight no more. Maybe yuh’ll git exchanged. Git up on that horse. No, take off them boots first, thanks.” He slung the boots Around his neck. “Now I got some good boots,” he said. And grinned at the gaunt man with the sour mouth. “Now, Bub, I’ll just tie yuh a little with this yere rope And then you won’t be bustin’ loose from the gang. Grab the pommel as well as yuh kin.” The gaunt man coughed. “I tell you,” he said, in a disappointed voice, “If we just strung him up it’d make things a hull lot easier. He’s a spy for sure, and everyone strings up spies. We got a long piece to go yet and he’s a nuisance.” “Aw, shut yore face,” said Jim Breckinridge in a drawl, “Yuh kin hang any Yanks yuh ketch on a piece uh dishrag, Yuh ain’t caught no armies yit.” The gaunt man was silent. Ellyat saw the little tin dish that carried the life Slowly sink down, to safety, the black dish rise. “Come on,” said Billy. The horses started to move, Stirring a dust that rose for a little while In a faint cloud. But after the horses had gone, The cloud settled, the road went to sleep again. BOOK FOUR Strike up, strike up for Wingate’s tune, Strike up for Sally Dupré! Strike up, strike up for the April moon, And the rain on the lilac spray! For Wingate Hall in its pride once more, For the branch of myrtle over the door, Because the men are back from the war; For the clean bed waiting the dusty rider And the punchbowl cooling for thirsty throttles, For the hot cooks boiling the hams in cider And Cudjo grinning at cobwebbed bottles— The last of the wine, the last of the wine, The last of the ’12 and the ’29! Three times voyaged around the Cape Till old Judge Brooke, with an oath oracular, Pronounced it the living soul of the grape, And the veriest dregs to be supernacular! Old Judge Brooke with his double chins Sighing over his hoarded claret And sending the last of his cherished bins To the hospital-doctors with “I can spare it But if you give it to some damned layman Who doesn’t know brandy from licorice-water And sports a white ribbon, by fire and slaughter, I’ll hang the lot of you higher than Haman!” The Wingate cellars are nearly bare But Miss Louisa is doing her hair In the latest style of Napoleon’s court. (A blockade-runner brought the report, A blockade-runner carried the silk, Heavy as bullion and white as milk, That makes Amanda a gleaming moth. For the coasts are staked with a Union net But the dark fish slip through the meshes yet, Shadows sliding without a light, Through the dark of the moon, in the dead of night, Carrying powder, carrying cloth, Hoops for the belle and guns for the fighter, Guncotton, opium, bombs and tea. Fashionplates, quinine and history. For Charleston’s corked with a Northern fleet And the Bayou City lies at the feet Of a damn-the-torpedoes commodore; The net draws tighter and ever tighter, But the fish dart past till the end of the war, From Wilmington to the Rio Grande, And the sandy Bahamas are Dixie Land Where the crammed, black shadows start for the trip That, once clean-run, will pay for the ship. They are caught, they are sunk with all aboard. They scrape through safely and praise the Lord, Ready to start with the next jammed hold To pull Death’s whiskers out in the cold, The unrecorded skippers and mates Whom even their legend expurgates, The tough daredevils from twenty ports Who thumbed their noses at floating forts And gnawed through the bars of a giant’s cage For a cause or a laugh or a living-wage, Who five long years on a sea of night, Pumped new blood to the vein bled white —And, incidentally, made the money For the strangely rich of the after years— For the flies will come to the open honey, And, should war and hell have the same dimensions, Both have been paved with the best intentions And both are as full of profiteers.) The slaves in the quarters are buzzing and talking. —All through the winter the ha’nts went walking, Ha’nts the size of a horse or bigger, Ghost-patrollers, scaring a nigger, But now the winter’s over and broken, And the sun shines out like a lovin’ token, There’s goin’ to be mixin’s and mighty doin’s, Chicken-fixin’s and barbecuin’s, Old Marse Billy’s a-comin’ home! He’s slewn a brigade with a ha’nts’s jaw-bone, He’s slewn an army with one long sabre, He’s scared old Linkum ’most to death, Now he’s comin’ home to rest from he labor, Play on he fiddle and catch he breath! The little black children with velvet eyes Tell each other tremendous lies. They play at Manassas with guns of peeled Willow-stalks from the River Field, Chasing the Yanks into Kingdom Come While one of them beats on a catskin drum. They are happy because they don’t know why. They scare themselves pretending to die, But all through the scare, and before and after, Their voices are rich with the ancient laughter, The negro laughter, the blue-black rose, The laughter that doesn’t end with the lips But shakes the belly and curls the toes And prickles the end of the fingertips. Up through the garden, in through the door, That undercurrent of laughter floats, It mounts like a sea from floor to floor, A dark sea, covering painted boats, A warm sea, smelling of earth and grass, It seeps through the back of the cheval-glass Where Amanda stares at her stately self Till her eyes are bright with a different spark, It sifts like a dye, where Louise’s peering In a shagreen-case for a garnet ear-ring Till the little jewels shine in the dark, It spills like a wave in the crowded kitchen Where the last good sugar of Wingate Hall Is frosting a cake like a Polar Highland And fat Aunt Bess in her ice-wool shawl Spends the hoarded knowledge her heart is rich in On oceans of trifle and floating-island. Fat Aunt Bess is older than Time But her eyes still shine like a bright, new dime, Though two generations have gone to rest On the sleepy mountain of her breast. Wingate children in Wingate Hall, From the first weak cry in the bearing-bed She has petted and punished them, one and all, She has closed their eyes when they lay dead. She raised Marse Billy when he was puny, She cared for the Squire when he got loony, Fed him and washed him and combed his head, Nobody else would do instead. The matriarch of the weak and the young, The lazy crooning, comforting tongue. She has had children of her own, But the white-skinned ones are bone of her bone. They may not be hers, but she is theirs, And if the shares were unequal shares, She does not know it, now she is old. They will keep her out of the rain and cold. And some were naughty, and some were good, But she will be warm while they have wood, Rule them and spoil them and play physician With the vast, insensate force of tradition, Half a nuisance and half a mother And legally neither one nor the other, Till at last they follow her to her grave, The family-despot, and the slave. —Curious blossom from bitter ground, Master of masters who left you bound, Who shall unravel the mingled strands Or read the anomaly of your hands? They have made you a shrine and a humorous fable, But they kept you a slave while they were able, And yet, there was something between the two That you shared with them and they shared with you, Brittle and dim, but a streak of gold, A genuine kindness, unbought, unsold, Graciousness founded on hopeless wrong But queerly living and queerly strong. . . . There were three stout pillars that held up all The weight and tradition of Wingate Hall. One was Cudjo and one was you And the third was the mistress, Mary Lou. Mary Lou Wingate, as slightly made And as hard to break as a rapier-blade. Bristol’s daughter and Wingate’s bride, Never well since the last child died But staring at pain with courteous eyes. When the pain outwits it, the body dies, Meanwhile the body bears the pain. She loved her hands and they made her vain, The tiny hands of her generation That gathered the reins of the whole plantation; The velvet sheathing the steel demurely In the trained, light grip that holds so surely. She was at work by candlelight, She was at work in the dead of night, Smoothing out troubles and healing schisms And doctoring phthisics and rheumatisms, Guiding the cooking and watching the baking, The sewing, the soap-and-candle-making, The brewing, the darning, the lady-daughters, The births and deaths in the negro-quarters, Seeing that Suke had some new, strong shoes And Joe got a week in the calaboose, While Dicey’s Jacob escaped a whipping And the jellybag dripped with its proper dripping, And the shirts and estrangements were neatly mended, And all of the tasks that never ended. Her manner was gracious but hardly fervent And she seldom raised her voice to a servant. She was often mistaken, not often blind, And she knew the whole duty of womankind, To take the burden and have the power And seem like the well-protected flower, To manage a dozen industries With a casual gesture in scraps of ease, To hate the sin and to love the sinner And to see that the gentlemen got their dinner Ready and plenty and piping-hot Whether you wanted to eat or not. And always, always, to have the charm That makes the gentlemen take your arm But never the bright, unseemly spell That makes strange gentlemen love too well, Once you were married and settled down With a suitable gentleman of your own. And when that happened, and you had bred The requisite children, living and dead, To pity the fool and comfort the weak And always let the gentlemen speak To succor your love from deep-struck roots When gentlemen went to bed in their boots, And manage a gentleman’s whole plantation In the manner befitting your female station. This was the creed that her mother taught her And the creed that she taught to every daughter. She knew her Bible—and how to flirt With a swansdown fan and a brocade skirt. For she trusted in God but she liked formalities And the world and Heaven were both realities. —In Heaven, of course, we should all be equal, But, until we came to that golden sequel, Gentility must keep to gentility Where God and breeding had made things stable, While the rest of the cosmos deserved civility But dined in its boots at the second-table. This view may be reckoned a trifle narrow, But it had the driving force of an arrow, And it helped Mary Lou to stand up straight, For she was gentle, but she could hate And she hated the North with the hate of Jael When the dry hot hands went seeking the nail, The terrible hate of women’s ire, The smoky, the long-consuming fire. The Yankees were devils, and she could pray, For devils, no doubt, upon Judgment Day, But now in the world, she would hate them still And send the gentlemen out to kill. The gentlemen killed and the gentlemen died, But she was the South’s incarnate pride That mended the broken gentlemen And sent them out to the war again, That kept the house with the men away And baked the bricks where there was no clay, Made courage from terror and bread from bran And propped the South on a swansdown fan Through four long years of ruin and stress, The pride—and the deadly bitterness. Let us look at her now, let us see her plain, She will never be quite like this again. Her house is rocking under the blast And she hears it tremble, and still stands fast, But this is the last, this is the last. The last of the wine and the white corn meal, The last high fiddle singing the reel, The last of the silk with the Paris label, The last blood-thoroughbred safe in the stable —Yellow corn meal and a jackass colt, A door that swings on a broken bolt, Brittle old letters spotted with tears And a wound that rankles for fifty years— This is the last of Wingate Hall, The last bright August before the Fall, Death has been near, and Death has passed, But this is the last, this is the last. There will be hope, and a scratching pen, There will be cooking for tired men, The waiting for news with shut, hard fists, And the blurred, strange names in the battle-lists, The April sun and the April rain, But never this day come back again. But she is lucky, she does not see The axe-blade sinking into the tree Day after day, with a slow, sure stroke Till it chops the mettle from Wingate oak. The house is busy, the cups are filling To welcome the gentlemen back from killing, The hams are boiled and the chickens basting, Fat Aunt Bess is smiling and tasting, Cudjo’s napkin is superfine, He knows how the gentlemen like their wine, Amanda is ready, Louisa near her, Glistering girls from a silver mirror, Everyone talking, everyone scurrying, Upstairs and downstairs, laughing and hurrying, Everyone giving and none denying, There is only living, there is no dying. War is a place but it is not here, The peace and the victory are too near. One more battle, and Washington taken, The Yankees mastered, the South unshaken, Fiddlers again, and the pairing season, The old-time rhyme and the old-time reason, The grandchildren, and the growing older Till at last you need a gentleman’s shoulder, And the pain can stop, for the frayed threads sever, But the house and the courtesy last forever. So Wingate found it, riding at ease, The cloud-edge lifting over the trees, A white-sail glimmer beyond the rise, A sugar-castle that strained the eyes, Then mounting, mounting, the shining spectre Risen at last from the drop of nectar, The cloud expanding, the topsails swelling, The doll’s house grown to a giant’s dwelling, Porches and gardens and ells and wings Linking together like puzzle-rings, Till the parts dissolved in a steadfast whole, And Wingate saw it, body and soul. Saw it completely, and saw it gleam, The full-rigged vessel, the sailing dream, The brick and stone that were somehow quick With a ghost not native to stone and brick, The name held high and the gift passed on From Wingate father to Wingate son, No longer a house but a conjur-stone That could hate and sorrow and hold its own As long as the seed of Elspeth Mackay Could mix its passion with Wingate clay And the wind and the river had memories. . . . Wingate saw it all—but with altered eyes. He was not yet broken on any wheel, He had no wound of the flesh to heal, He had seen one battle, but he was still The corn unground by the watermill, He had ridden the rainy winter through And he and Black Whistle were good as new, The Black Horse Troop still carried its pride And rode as the Yankees could not ride, But, when he remembered a year-old dawn, Something had come and something gone, And even now, when he smelt the Spring, And his heart was hot with his homecoming, There was a whisper in his ear That said what he did not wish to hear, “This is the last, this is the last, Hurry, hurry, this is the last, Drink the wine before yours is spilled, Kiss the sweetheart before you’re killed, She will be loving, and she will grieve, And wear your heart on her golden sleeve And marry your friend when he gets his leave. It does not matter that you are still The corn unground by the watermill, The stones grind till they get their will. Pluck the flower that hands can pluck, Touch the walls of your house for luck, Eat of the fat and drink the sweet, There is little savor in dead men’s meat. It does not matter that you once knew Future and past and a different you, That went by when the wind first blew. There is no future, there is no past, There is only this hour and it goes fast, Hurry, hurry, this is the last, This is the last, This is the last.” He heard it and faced it and let it talk. The tired horses dropped to a walk. And then Black Whistle lunged at the bit And whinnied because he was alive, And he saw the porch where the evenings sit And the tall magnolias shading the drive, He heard the bell of his father’s mirth, “Tallyho, Yanks—we’ve gone to earth! Home, boy, home to Wingate Hall, Home in spite of them, damn them all!” He was stabbed by the rays of the setting sun, He felt Black Whistle break to a run, And then he was really there again, Before he had time to think or check, And a boy was holding his bridle-rein, And Mary Lou’s arms were around his neck. * * * * * Sally Dupré and Wingate talk with the music. . . . The dance. Such a lovely dance. But you dance so lightly. Amanda dances so well. But you dance so lightly. (Do you remember the other dance?) Phil Ferrier was here, remember, last year. (He danced with me. He could dance rather well. He is dead.) We were all so sorry when we heard about Phil. (How long will you live and be able to dance with me?) Yes. Phil was a fine fellow. We all liked Phil. (Do not talk of the dead. At first we talk of the dead, we write of the dead, We send their things to their people when we can find them, We write letters to you about them, we say we liked him, He fought well, he died bravely, here is his sword, Here is his pistol, his letters, his photograph case; You will like to have these things, they will do instead. But the war goes on too long. After a while you still want to talk of the dead. But we are too tired. We will send you the pistol still, The photograph-case, the knickknacks, if we can find them, But the war has gone on too long. We cannot talk to you still, as we used to, about the dead.) Nancy Huguenot’s here tonight. Have you danced with her yet? She didn’t want to come. She was brave to come. (Phil Ferrier was Nancy’s lover. She sent him off. She cut her hair for a keepsake. They were going to be married as soon as he came back. For a long time she dressed in black. Then one morning she rose, and looked at the sun on the wall, She put on a dress with red sleeves and a red, striped shawl, She said “Phil was my beau. He wouldn’t have liked me in black.” She used to cry quite a lot but she hasn’t cried much since then. I think she’ll get well and marry somebody else. I think she’s right. If I had to wear grief for a lover, I wouldn’t wear black. I would wear my best green silk and my Empire sacque And walk in the garden at home and feel the wind Blow through my rags of honor forever and ever. And after that, when I married some other beau, I would make a good wife and raise my children on sweet Milk, not on poison, though it might have been so. And my husband would never know When he turned to me, when I kissed him, when we were kind, When I cleaned his coat, when we talked about dresses and weather, He had married something that belonged to the wind And felt the blind And always stream of that wind on her too-light bones, Neither fast nor slow, but never checked or resigned, Blowing through rags of honor forever and ever.) They are calling for partners again. Shall we dance again? (Why do we hate each other so well, when we Are tied together by something that will not free us? If I see you across a room, I will go to you, If you see me across a room, you will come to me, And yet we hate each other.) Not yet, for a minute. I want to watch for a minute. (I do not hate you. I love you. But you must take me. I will not take your leavings nor you my pity. I must break you first for a while and you must break me. We are too strong to love the surrendered city. So we hate each other.) That’s a pretty girl over there. Beautiful hair. (She is the porcelain you play at being.) Yes, isn’t she. Her name is Lucy Weatherby. (I hate her hair. I hate her porcelain air.) She can’t be from the county or I’d remember her. (I know that kind of mouth. Your mouth is not that. Your mouth is generous and bitter and sweet. If I kissed your mouth, I would have to be yours forever. Her mouth is pretty. You could kiss it awhile.) No, they’re kin to the Shepleys. Lucy comes from Virginia. (I know that kind of mouth. I know that hair. I know the dolls you like to take in your hands, The dolls that all men like to take in their hands, I will not fight with a doll for you or any one.) We’d better dance now. (Lucy Weatherby. When this dance is done, I will leave you and dance with her. I know that shallow but sufficient mouth.) As you please. (Lucy Weatherby. I will make an image of you, a doll in wax. I will pierce the little wax palms with silver bodkins. No, I will not.) That’s good music. It beats in your head. (It beats in the head, it beats in the head, It ties the heart with a scarlet thread, This is the last, This is the last, Hurry, hurry, this is the last. We dance on a floor of polished sleet, But the little cracks are beginning to meet, Under the play of our dancing feet. I do not care. I am Wingate still. The corn unground by the watermill. And I am yours while the fiddles spill, But my will has a knife to cut your will, My birds will never come to your hill. You are my foe and my only friend, You are the steel I cannot bend, You are the water at the world’s end. But Wingate Hall must tumble down, Tumble down, tumble down, A dream dissolving, a ruined thing, Before we can melt from the shattered crown Gold enough for a wedding-ring. And Wingate Hall must lie in the dust, And the wood rot and the iron rust And the vines grow over the broken bust, Before we meet without hate or pride, Before we talk as lover and bride, Before the daggers of our offence Have the color of innocence, And nothing is said and all is said, And we go looking for secret bread, And lie together in the same bed.) Yes, it’s good music, hear it lift. (It is too mellow, it is too swift, I am dancing alone in my naked shift, I am dancing alone in the snowdrift. You are my lover and you my life, My peace and my unending strife And the edge of the knife against my knife. I will not make you a porcelain wife. We are linked together for good and all, For the still pool and the waterfall, But you are married to Wingate Hall. And Wingate Hall must tumble down, Tumble down, tumble down, Wingate Hall must tumble down, An idol broken apart, Before I sew on a wedding gown And stitch my name in your heart. And Wingate Hall must lie in the grass, And the silk stain and the rabbits pass And the sparrows wash in the gilded glass, Before the fire of our anger smothers, And our sorrows can laugh at their lucky brothers, Before the knives of our enmity Are buried under the same green tree And nothing is vowed and all is vowed And we have forgotten how to be proud, And we sleep like cherubs in the same cloud.) * * * * * Lucy Weatherby, cuddled up in her bed, Drifted along toward sleep with a smile on her mouth, “I was pretty tonight,” she thought, “I was pretty tonight. Blue’s my color—blue that matches my eyes. I always ought to wear blue. I’m sorry for girls Who can’t wear that sort of blue. Her name is Sally But she’s too dark to wear the colors I can, I’d like to give her my blue dress and see her wear it, She’d look too gawky, poor thing. He danced with her For a while at first but I hadn’t danced with him then, He danced with me after that. He’s rather a dear. I wonder how long he’ll be here. I think I like him. I think I’m going to be pretty while I am here. Lucy Weatherby—Lucy Shepley—Lucy Wingate— Huger’s so jealous, nearly as jealous as Curly, Poor Curly—I ought to answer his mother’s letter But it’s so hard answering letters.” She cried a little, Thinking of Curly. The tears were fluent and warm, They did not sting in her eyes. They made her feel brave. She could hardly remember Curly any more But it was right to cry for him, now and then, Slight tears at night and a long, warm, dreamless sleep That left you looking pretty. She dried the tears And thought to herself with a pleasant little awe, “You really are mighty brave, dear. You really are. Nobody would think your beau was killed at Manassas.” —She could hardly remember Curly any more— She tried to make Curly’s face come out of the darkness But it was too hard—the other faces kept coming— Huger Shepley and all the Virginia boys And now this new boy’s face with the dark, keen eyes. Boys who were privates, boys who were majors and captains, Nice old Generals who patted your shoulder, Darling convalescents who called you an angel— A whole, great lucky-bag of nice, thrilling boys, Fighting for you—and the South and the Cause, of course. You were a flame for the Cause. You sang songs about it. You sent white feathers to boys who didn’t enlist And bunches of flowers to boys who were suitably wounded. You wouldn’t dream of making peace with the North While a single boy was left to fight for the Cause And they called you the Dixie Angel. They fought for the Cause But you couldn’t help feeling, too, that they fought for you, And when they died for you—and the Cause and the flag— Your heart was tender enough. You were willing to say You had been engaged to them, even when you hadn’t And answer their mothers’ letters in a sweet way, Though answering letters was hard. She cuddled closer, “Pillow, tell me I’m pretty, tell me I’m lovely, Tell me I’m nicer than anybody you know, Tell me that nice new boy is thinking about me, Tell me that Sally girl couldn’t wear my blue, Tell me the war won’t end till we’ve whipped the Yankees, Tell me I’ll never get wrinkles and always have beaus.” * * * * * The slave got away from Zachary’s place that night. He was a big fellow named Spade with one cropped ear. He had splay feet and sometimes walked with a limp. His back was scarred. He was black as a pine at night. He’d tried to run away a couple of times —That was how he got some of the marks you could tell him by— But he’d been pretty quiet now for a year or so And they thought he had settled down. When he got away He meant to kill Zachary first but the signs weren’t right. He talked to the knife but the knife didn’t sweat or heat, So he just got away instead. When he reached the woods And was all alone, he was pretty scared for a while, But he kept on going all night by the big soft stars, Loping as fast as he could on his long splay feet And when morning broke, he knew he was safe for a time. He came out on a cleared place, then. He saw the red Sun spill over the trees. He threw his pack Down on the ground and started to laugh and laugh, “Spade, boy, Spade, you’s lucky to git dis far. You never managed to git dis far before, De Lawd’s sho’ly with you, Spade.” He ate and drank. He drew a circle for Zachary’s face in the ground And spat in the circle. Then he thought of his woman. “She’s sho’ly a grievin’ woman dis mawnin’, Spade.” The thought made him sad at first, but he soon cheered up. “She’ll do all right as soon as she’s thu with grievin’. Grievin’ yaller gals always does all right. Next time I’se gwine to git me a coal-black gal. I’se tired of persimmon-skins. I’se gwine to break loose. De signs is right dis time. I’se gwine to be free, Free in de Norf.” He saw himself in the North. He had a stovepipe hat and a coal-black gal. He had a white-folks’ house and a regular mule. He worked for money and nobody ever owned him. He got religion and dollars and lucky dice And everybody he passed in the white folks’ street Said “Good mawnin’, Mr. Spade—Mr. Spade, good mawnin’.” He chuckled aloud. “Good mawnin’, Mistuh Spade, Gwine to be free, Mistuh Spade—yes, suh, Mistuh Spade!” For a lazy moment, he was already there— Then he stiffened, nostrils flaring, at a slight sound. It couldn’t be dogs already. “Jesus,” he whispered, “Sweet, lovin’ Jesus, don’t let ’em git me again, Burn me up, but don’t let ’em git me again, Dey’s gwine to cut me apart.” The rabbit ran past. He stared at it for a moment with wild, round eyes, Started a yell of laughter—and choked it off. “Dat ain’t no nachul rabbit dere, Spade, boy. Dat’s a sign. Yes, suh. You better start makin’ tracks. Take your foot in your hand, Mistuh Spade.” He swung the bundle Up on his shoulders and slid along through the trees. The bundle was light. He was going to be hungry soon And the big splay feet would soon be bleeding and sore, But, as he went, he shook with uncanny chuckles. “Good mawnin’, Mr. Spade—glad to see you dis mawnin’ How’s Mrs. Spade, Mr. Spade?” * * * * * Sally Dupré, from the high porch of her house Stared at the road. They would be here soon enough. She had waved a flag the last time they went away. This time she would wave her hand or her handkerchief. That was what women did. The column passed by And the women waved, and it came back and they waved, And, in between, if you loved, you lived by a dull Clock of long minutes that passed like sunbonneted women Each with the same dry face and the same set hands. _I have read, they have told me that love is a pretty god_ _With light wings stuck to his shoulders._ _They did not tell me_ _That love is nursing a hawk with yellow eyes,_ _That love is feeding your heart to the beak of the hawk_ _Because an old woman, gossiping, uttered a name._ They were coming now. She remembered the first time. They were different now. They rode with a different rein. They rode all together. They knew where they were going. They were famous now, but she wondered about the fame. And yet, as she wondered, she felt the tears in her blood Because they could ride so easily. He was there. She fed her heart to the hawk and watched him ride. She thought, “But they like this, too. They are like small boys Going off to cook potatoes over a fire Deep in the woods, where no women can ever come To say how blackened and burnt the potatoes are And how you could cook them better back in a house. Oh, they like to come home. When they’re sick they like to come home, They dream about home—they write you they want to come back, And they come back and live in the house for a while And raise their sons to hear the same whistle-tune Under the window, the whistle calling the boys Out to the burnt potatoes. O whistler Death, What have we done to you in a barren month, In a sterile hour, that our lovers should die before us?” Then she thought. “No, no, I can’t bear it. It cannot be borne.” And knowing this, bore it. He saw her. He turned his horse. “If he comes here, I can’t keep it back, I can’t keep it back, I can’t stand it, don’t let him come.” He was coming now. He rides well, she thought, while her hands made each other cold. I will have to remember how. And his face is sharper. The moustache quite changes his face. The face that I saw While he was away was clean-shaven and darker-eyed. I must change that, now. I will have to remember that. It is very important. He swung from Black Whistle’s back. His spurs made a noise on the porch. She twisted her hands. “If I shut my eyes, I can make him kiss me. I will not.” They were saying good-by, now. She heard polite voices saying it. Then the voices ended. “No, no, it is not to be borne, It is the last twist of the vise.” Her will snapped then. When she looked at him, she knew that the knives were edgeless. In an instant life would begin, life would be forever. His eyes wavered. There was a thin noise in her ears, A noise from the road. The instant fell and lay dead Between them like something broken. She turned to see what had killed it. Lucy Weatherby, reining a bright bay mare, Played with the braided lash of a riding-whip And talked to Wingate’s father with smiling eyes, While Huger Shepley tried to put in a word And the whole troop clustered about her. Her habit was black But she had a knot of bright ribbons pinned at her breast, Red and blue—the Confederate colors. They had cheered her. They had cheered her, riding along with her colored ribbons. It was that which had killed the instant. Sally looked At the face with the new moustache she had to remember. “Good-by,” she said. The face bent over her hand And kissed it acceptably. Then the face had gone. He was back with the others now. She watched for a minute. Lucy was unpinning her knot of ribbons. She saw a dozen hands go up for the knot And Lucy laugh her sweet laugh and shake her bright head, Glance once at Huger Shepley and once at Clay, And then toss the colored knot to the guidon-bearer Who grinned and tied the ribbons around the staff While some of them cheered again. Then the horses moved. They went by Lucy. Lucy was waving her hand. She had tears in her eyes and was saying brave words to the soldiers. Sally watched a back and a horse go out of sight. She was tired, then. When the troop had quite disappeared Lucy rode up to the house. The two women kissed And talked for a while about riding-habits and war. “I just naturally love every boy in the Black Horse Troop, Don’t you, Sally darling? They’re all so nice and polite, Quite like our Virginia boys, and the Major’s a dear, And that nice little one with the guidon is perfectly sweet. You ought to have heard what he said when I gave him the knot. Though, of course, I can tell why you didn’t come down to the road, War’s terrible, isn’t it? All those nice boys going off— I feel just the way you do, darling—we just have to show them Whenever we can that we know they are fighting for us, Fighting for God and the South and the cause of the right— ‘Law, Chile, don’t you fret about whether you’s pretty or plain, You just do what you kin, and the good Lawd’ll brighten your tracks.’ That’s what my old mammy would tell me when I was knee-high And I always remember and just try to do what I can For the boys and the wounded and—well, that’s it, isn’t it, dear? We’ve all got to do what we can in this horrible war.” Sally agreed that we had, and drank from a cup. She thought. “Lucy Weatherby. Yes. I must look for a doll. I must make a doll with your face, an image of wax. I must call that doll by your name.” * * * * * Now the scene expands, we must look at the scene as a whole. How are the gameboards chalked and the pieces set? There is an Eastern game and a Western game. In the West, blue armies try to strangle the long Snake of the Mississippi with iron claws; Buell and Grant against Bragg and Beauregard. They have hold of the head of the snake where it touches the Gulf, New Orleans is taken, the fangs of the forts drawn out, The ambiguous Butler wins ambiguous fame By issuing orders stating that any lady Who insults a Union soldier in uniform Shall be treated as a streetwalker plying her trade. The orders are read and hated. The insults stop But the ladies remember Butler for fifty years And make a fabulous devil with pasteboard horns —“Beast” Butler, the fiend who pilfered the silver spoons— From a slightly-tarnished, crude-minded, vain politician Who loved his wife and ached to be a great man. You were not wise with the ladies, Benjamin Butler, It has been disproved that you stole New Orleans spoons But the story will chime at the ribs of your name and stain it, Ghost-silver, clinking against the ribs of a ghost, As long as the ladies have tongues. Napoleon was wiser But he could not silence one ugly, clever De Staël. Make war on the men—the ladies have too-long memories. The head of the snake is captured—the tail gripped fast— But the body in between still writhes and resists, Vicksburg is still unfallen—Grant not yet master— Sheridan, Sherman, Thomas still in the shadow. The eyes of the captains are fixed on the Eastern game, The presidents—and the watchers oversea— For there are the two defended kings of the board, Muddy Washington, with its still-unfinished Capitol, Sprawling, badly-paved, beset with sharp hogs That come to the very doorsteps and grunt for crumbs, Full of soldiers and clerks, full of all the baggage of war, “Bombproof” officers, veterans back on leave, Recruits, spies, spies on the spies, politicians, contractors, Reporters, slackers, ambassadors, bands and harlots, Negro-boys who organize butting-matches To please the recruits, tattooers and fortune-tellers, Rich man, poor man, soldier, beggarman, thief, And one most lonely man in a drafty White House Whose everlasting melancholy runs Like a deep stream under the funny stories, The parable-maker, humble in many things But seldom humble with his fortitude, The sorrowful man who cracked the sure-fire jokes, Roared over Artemus Ward and Orpheus C. Kerr And drove his six cross mules with a stubborn hand. He has lost a son, but he has no time to grieve for him. He studies tactics now till late in the night With the same painful, hewing industry He put on studying law. McClellan comes, McClellan goes, McClellan bustles and argues, McClellan is too busy to see the President, McClellan complains of this, complains of that, The Government is not supporting him, The Government cannot understand grand strategy, The Government— McClellan feels abused. McClellan is quite sincere and sometimes right. They come to the lonely man about McClellan With various tales. McClellan lacks respect, McClellan dreams about a dictatorship, McClellan does that and this. The lonely man Listens to all the stories and remarks, “If McClellan wins, I will gladly hold his horse.” A hundred miles away in an arrow-line Lies the other defended king of the giant chess, Broad-streeted Richmond. All the baggage of war Is here as well, the politicians, the troops, The editors who scream at the government, The slackers, the good and the bad, but the flavor is different: There is something older here, and smaller and courtlier, The trees in the streets are old trees used to living with people, Family-trees that remember your grandfather’s name. It is still a clan-city, a family-city, a city That thinks of the war, on the whole, as a family-matter, A woman city, devoted and fiercely jealous As any of the swan-women who ruled it then— Ready to give their lives and hearts for the South, But already a little galled by Jefferson Davis And finding him rather too much of a doctrinaire With a certain comparative touch of the parvenu. He is not from Virginia, we never knew his grandfather. The South is its husband, the South is not quite its master. It has a soul while Washington is a symbol, Beautiful, witty, feminine, narrow and valiant, Unwisely-chosen, perhaps, for a king of the game, But playing the part with a definite air of royalty Until, in the end, it stands for the South completely And when it falls, the sword of the South snaps short. At present, the war has not yet touched it home. McClellan has landed, on the Peninsula, But his guns are still far away. The ladies go To Mrs. Davis’s parties in last year’s dresses. Soon they are to cut the green and white chintz curtains That shade their long drawing-rooms from the lazy sun To bandage the stricken wounded of Seven Pines. The lonely man with the chin like John Calhoun’s Works hard and is ill at ease in his Richmond White House. His health was never too strong—it is tiring now Under a mass of detail, under the strain Of needless quarrels with secretaries and chiefs And a Congress already beginning to criticize him. He puts his trust in God with a charmed devotion And his faith, too often, in men who can feed his vanity. They mock him for it. He cannot understand mocking. There is something in him that prickles the pride of men Whom Lincoln could have used, and makes them his foes. Joe Johnston and he have been at odds from the first, Beauregard and he are at odds and will be at odds, One could go through a list— He is quite as stubborn as Lincoln In supporting the people he trusts through thick and thin, But—except for Lee—the people he trusts so far Seldom do the work that alone can repay the trust. They fail in the end and his shoulders carry the failure, And leave him, in spite of his wife, in spite of his God, Lonely, beginning and end, with that other’s loneliness. The other man could have understood him and used him. He could never have used or comprehended the other. It is their measure. And yet, a deep loneliness, A deep devotion, a deep self-sacrifice, Binds the strange two together. He, too, is to lose A child in his White House, ere his term is accomplished. He, too, is to be the scapegoat for all defeat. And he is to know the ultimate bitterness, The cause lost after every expense of mind, And bear himself with decent fortitude In the prison where the other would not have kept him. One cannot balance tragedy in the scales Unless one weighs it with the tragic heart. The other man’s tragedy was the greater one Since the blind fury tore the huger heart, But this man’s tragedy is the more pitiful. Thus the Eastern board and the two defended kings. But why is the game so ordered, what crowns the kings? They are cities of streets and houses like other cities. Baltimore might be taken, and war go on, Atlanta will be taken and war go on, Why should these two near cities be otherwise? We do not fight for the real but for shadows we make. A flag is a piece of cloth and a word is a sound, But we make them something neither cloth nor a sound, Totems of love and hate, black sorcery-stones, So with these cities. And so the third game is played, The intricate game of the watchers oversea, The shadow that falls like the shadow of a hawk’s wing Over the double-chessboard until the end— The shadow of Europe, the shadows of England and France, The war of the cotton against the iron and wheat. The shadows ponder and mutter, biding their time; If the knights and bishops that play for the cotton-king Can take the capital-city of wheat and iron, The shadow-hands will turn into hands of steel And intervene for the cotton that feeds the mills. But if the fable throned on a cotton-bale Is checkmated by the pawns of iron and wheat, The shadows will pause, and cleave to iron and wheat, They will go their ways and lift their eyes from the game, For iron and wheat are not to be lightly held. So the watchers, searching the board. And so the game. The blockade grips, the blockade-runners break through, There are duels and valors, the Western game goes on And the snake of the Mississippi is tamed at last, But the fight in the East is the fight between the two kings. If Richmond is threatened, we threaten Washington, You check our king with McClellan or Hooker or Grant, We will check your king with Jackson or Early or Lee And you must draw back strong pieces to shield your king, For we hold the chord of the circle and you the arc And we can shift our pieces better than you. So it runs for years until Jubal Early, riding, A long twelve months after Gettysburg’s high tide, Sees the steeples of Washington prick the blue June sky And the Northern king is threatened for the last time. But, by then, the end is too near, the cotton is withered. Now the game still hangs in the balance—the cotton in bloom— The shadows of the watchers long on the board. McClellan has moved his men from their camps at last In a great sally. There are many gates he can try. The Valley gate and the old Manassas way, But he has chosen to ferry his men by sea, To the ragged half-island between the York and the James And thrust up a long, slant arm from Fortress Monroe Northwest toward Richmond. The roads are sticky and soft, There are forts at Yorktown and unmapped rivers to cross. He has many more men than Johnston or John Magruder But the country hinders him, and he hinders himself By always thinking the odds on the other side And that witches of ruin haunt each move he makes. But even so—he has boarded that jutting deck That is the Peninsula, and his forces creep Slowly toward Richmond, slowly up to the high Defended captain’s cabin of the great ship. —There was another force that came from its ships To take a city set on a deck of land, The cause unlike, but the fighting no more stark, The doom no fiercer, the fame no harder to win. There are no gods to come with a golden smoke Here in the mud between the York and the James And wrap some high-chinned hero away from death. There are only Bibles and buckles and cartridge belts That sometimes stop a bullet before it kills But oftener let it pass. And when Sarpedon Falls and the heavy darkness stiffens his limbs They will let him lie where he fell, they will not wash him In the running streams of Scamander, the half-divine, They will bury him in a shallow and cumbered pit. But, if you would sing of fighters, sing of these men, Sing of Fair Oaks and the battered Seven Days, Not of the raging of Ajax, the cry of Hector, These men were not gods nor shielded by any gods, They were men of our shape: they fought as such men may fight With a mortal skill: when they died it was as men die. Army of the Potomac, advancing army, Alloy of a dozen disparate, alien States, City-boy, farm-hand, bounty-man, first volunteer, Old regular, drafted recruit, paid substitute, Men who fought through the war from First Bull Run, And other men, nowise different in look or purpose, Whom the first men greeted at first with a ribald cry “Here they come! Two hundred dollars and a ka-ow!” Rocks from New England and hickory-chunks from the West, Bowery boy and clogging Irish adventurer, Germans who learnt their English under the shells Or didn’t have time to learn it before they died. Confused, huge weapon, forged from such different metals, Misused by unlucky swordsmen till you were blunt And then reforged with anguish and bloody sweat To be blunted again by one more unlucky captain Against the millstone of Lee. Good stallion, Ridden and ridden against a hurdle of thorns By uncertain rider after uncertain rider. The rider fails and you shiver and catch your breath, They plaster your wounds and patch up your broken knees, And then, just as you know the grip of your rider’s hands And begin to feel at home with his horseman’s tricks, Another rider comes with a different seat, And lunges you at the bitter hurdle again, And it beats you again—and it all begins from the first, The patching of wounds, the freezing in winter camps, The vain mud-marches, the diarrhea, the wastage, The grand reviews, the talk in the newspapers, The sour knowledge that you were wasted again, Not as Napoleons waste for a victory But blindly, unluckily— until at last After long years, at fish-hook Gettysburg, The blade and the millstone meet and the blade holds fast. And, after that, the chunky man from the West, Stranger to you, not one of the men you loved As you loved McClellan, a rider with a hard bit, Takes you and uses you as you could be used, Wasting you grimly but breaking the hurdle down. You are never to worship him as you did McClellan, But at the last you can trust him. He slaughters you But he sees that you are fed. After sullen Cold Harbor They call him a butcher and want him out of the saddle, But you have had other butchers who did not win And this man wins in the end. You see him standing, Reading a map, unperturbed, under heavy fire. You do not cheer him as the recruits might cheer But you say “Ulysses doesn’t scare worth a darn. Ulysses is all right. He can finish the job.” And at last your long lines go past in the Grand Review And your legend and his begins and are mixed forever. Now, though, he is still just one of the Western leaders, And Little Mac is your darling. You are unshaken By the ruin of Fredericksburg, the wounds of Antietam, Chancellorsville is a name in the Wilderness, Your pickets, posted in front of the Chickahominy, Hear the churchbells of Richmond, ringing; Listen well to those bells, they are very near tonight, But you will not hear them again for three harsh years. Black months of war, hard-featured, defeated months Between Fair Oaks and Gettysburg, What is your tale for this army? What do the men, So differently gathered for your word to devour, Say to your ears, deaf with cannon? What do they bring In powder-pocked hands to the heart of the burst shell? Let us read old letters awhile, Let us try to hear The thin, forgotten voices of men forgotten Crying out of torn scraps of paper, notes scribbled and smudged On aces, on envelope-backs, on gilt-edged cards stolen out of a dead man’s haversack. —Two brothers lay on the field of Fredericksburg After the assault had failed. They were unwounded but they could not move, The sharpshooters covered that patch of ground too well. They had a breastwork to hide them from the bullets, A shelter of two dead men. One had lost his back, Scooped out from waist to neck with a solid shot. The other’s legs were gone. They made a good breastwork. The brothers lay behind them, flat in the mud, All Sunday till night came down and they could creep off. They did not dare move their hands for fourteen hours. —A middle-aged person named Fletcher from Winchester Enlisted in the Massachusetts Sharpshooters. He was a crack-duckshooter, skilful and patient. They gave him the wrong sort of rifle and twenty rounds And told him to join his company. It took him days to find it. He had no rations, He begged bread and green corn and peaches and shot a hog; So got there at last. He joined just before Antietam. He’d never been drilled but he knew how to shoot, Though at first his hands kept shaking. “It was different kind of gunning from what I was used to, I was mad with myself that I acted so like a coward.” But as soon as they let him lie down and fight on his own, He felt all right. He had nineteen cartridges now. The first five each killed a man—he was a good shot— Then the rifle fouled. He began to get up and fix it, Mechanically. A bullet went through his lung. He lay on the field all day. At the end of the day He was captured, sent to prison, paroled after weeks, Died later, because of the wound. That was his war— Other voices, rising out of the scraps of paper, Till they mix in a single voice that says over and over “It is cold. It is wet. We marched till we couldn’t stand up. It is muddy here. I wish you could see us here. I wish everybody at home could see us here. They would know what war is like. We are still patriotic. We are going to fight. We hope this general’s good. We hope he can make us win. We’ll do all we can. But I wish we could show everybody who stays at home What this is like.” Voices of tired men, Sick, convalescent, afraid of being sick. “The diarrhea is bad. I hope I don’t get it But everybody seems to get it sometime. I felt sick last night. I thought I was going to die, But Jim rubbed me and I feel better. There’s just one thing, I hope I never get sent to the hospital, You don’t get well when you go to the hospital. I’d rather be shot and killed quick.” (Nurses and doctors, savagely, tenderly working, Trying to beat off death without enough knowledge, Trying and failing. Clara Barton, Old Mother Bickerdyke, Overworked evangels of common sense, Nursing, tending, clearing a ruthless path Through the cant and red tape, through the petty jealousies To the bitter front, bringing up the precious supplies In spite of hell and high water and pompous fools, To the deadly place where the surgeons’ hands grew stiff Under the load of anguish they had to deal, Where they bound men’s wounds and swabbed them with green corn leaves, There being no other lint. Whitman, with his sack of tobacco and comfits, Passing along the terrible, crowded wards, Listening, writing letters, trying to breathe Strong life into lead-colored lips. He does what he can. The doctors do what they can. The nurses save a life here and another there, But the sick men die like flies in the hospitals.) Voices of boys and men, Homesick, stubborn, talking of little things, “We get better food. I’m getting to be a good cook. The food’s bad. The whole company yelled ‘Hard Bread!’ today. There are only three professed Christians in my whole regiment, I feel sad about that. I wish you could see the way we have to live here, I wish everybody at home could see what it’s like. It’s muddy. It’s cold. My shoes gave out on the march. We lost the battle. The general was drunk. This is the roughest life that you ever saw. If I ever get back home—” And, over and over, in stiff, patriotic phrases, “I am resigned to die for the Union, mother. If we die in this battle, we will have died for the right, We will have died bravely—you can trust us for that. It is only right to die for our noble Union. We will save it or die for it. There’s just one thing. I hope I die quick. I hope I don’t have to die In the hospital. There is one thought that to me is worse than death. (This, they say over and over) it is the thought Of being buried as they bury us here After a battle. Sometimes they barely cover us. I feel sick when I think of getting buried like that, Though if nothing except our death will rescue our Union, You can trust us to die for it.” And, through it all, the deep diapason swelling, “It is cold. We are hungry. We marched all day in the mud. We could barely stand when we got back into camp. Don’t believe a thing the newspapers say about us. It’s all damn lies. We are willing to die for our Union, But I wish you could all of you see what this is like, Nobody at home can imagine what it is like. We are ready to fight. We know we can fight and win. But why will they waste us in fights that cannot be won? When will we get a man that can really lead us?” These are the articulate that write the letters. The inarticulate merely undergo. There are times of good food and times of campfire jokes, Times of good weather, times of partial success In those two years. “The mail came. Thanks for the papers. We had a good feed at Mrs. Wilson’s place. I feel fine today. We put on a show last night. You ought to have seen Jim Wheeler in ‘Box and Cox.’ Our little band of Christians meets often now And the spirit moves in us strongly, praise be to God. The President reviewed us two days ago. You should have seen it, father, it was majestic. I have never seen a more magnificent sight. It makes me proud to be part of such an army. We got the tobacco. The socks came. I’m feeling fine.” All that—but still the deep diapason throbs Under the rest. The cold. The mud. The bleak wonder. The weakening sickness—the weevils tainting the bread— We were beaten again in spite of all we could do. We don’t know what went wrong but something went wrong. When will we find a man who can really lead us? When will we not be wasted without success? Army of the Potomac, army of brave men, Beaten again and again but never quite broken, You are to have the victory in the end But these bleak months are your anguish. Your voice dies out. Let us hear the voice of your steadfast enemy. Army of Northern Virginia, fabulous army, Strange army of ragged individualists, The hunters, the riders, the walkers, the savage pastorals, The unmachined, the men come out of the ground, Still for the most part, living close to the ground As the roots of the cow-pea, the roots of the jessamine, The lazy scorners, the rebels against the wheels, The rebels against the steel combustion-chamber Of the half-born new age of engines and metal hands. The fighters who fought for themselves in the old clan-fashion. Army of planters’ sons and rusty poor-whites, Where one man came to war with a haircloth trunk Full of fine shirts and a body-servant to mend them, And another came with a rifle used at King’s Mountain And nothing else but his pants and his sun-cracked hands, Aristo-democracy armed with a forlorn hope, Where a scholar turned the leaves of an Arabic grammar By the campfire-glow, and a drawling mountaineer Told dirty stories old as the bawdy world, Where one of Lee’s sons worked a gun with the Rockbridge Battery And two were cavalry generals. Praying army, Full of revivals, as full of salty jests, Who debated on God and Darwin and Victor Hugo, Decided that evolution might do for Yankees But that Lee never came from anything with a tail, And called yourselves “Lee’s miserables faintin’” When the book came out that tickled your sense of romance, Army of improvisators of peanut-coffee Who baked your bread on a ramrod stuck through the dough, Swore and laughed and despaired and sang “Lorena,” Suffered, died, deserted, fought to the end. Sentimental army, touched by “Lorena,” Touched by all lace-paper-valentines of sentiment, Who wept for the mocking-bird on Hallie’s grave When you had better cause to weep for more private griefs, Touched by women and your tradition-idea of them, The old, book-fed, half-queen, half-servant idea, False and true and expiring. Starving army, Who, after your best was spent and your Spring lay dead, Yet held the intolerable lines of Petersburg With deadly courage. You too are a legend now And the legend has made your fame and has dimmed that fame, —The victor strikes and the beaten man goes down But the years pass and the legend covers them both, The beaten cause turns into the magic cause, The victor has his victory for his pains— So with you—and the legend has made a stainless host Out of the dusty columns of footsore men Who found life sweet and didn’t want to be killed, Grumbled at officers, grumbled at Governments. That stainless host you were not. You had your cowards, Your bullies, your fakers, your sneaks, your savages. You got tired of marching. You cursed the cold and the rain. You cursed the war and the food—and went on till the end. And yet, there was something in you that matched your fable. What was it? What do your dim, faint voices say? “Will we ever get home? Will we ever lick them for good? We’ve got to go on and fight till we lick them for good. They’ve got the guns and the money and lots more men But we’ve got to lick them now. We’re not fighting for slaves. Most of us never owned slaves and never expect to, It takes money to buy a slave and we’re most of us poor, But we won’t lie down and let the North walk over us About slaves or anything else. We don’t know how it started But they’ve invaded us now and we’re bound to fight Till every last damn Yankee goes home and quits. We used to think we could lick them in one hand’s turn. We don’t think that any more. They keep coming and coming. We haven’t got guns that shoot as well as their guns, We can’t get clothes that wear as well as their clothes, But we’ve got to keep on till they’re licked and we’re independent, It’s the only thing we can do. Though some of us wonder— Some of us try and puzzle the whole thing through, Some of us hear about Richmond profiteers, The bombproofs who get exempted and eat good dinners, And the rest of it, and say, with a bitter tongue, ‘This is the rich man’s war and the poor man’s fight.’ And more of us, maybe, say that, after a while, But most of us just keep on till we’re plumb worn out, We just keep on. We’ve got the right men to lead us, It doesn’t matter how many the Yankees are, Marse Robert and Old Jack will take care of that, We’ll have to march like Moses and fight like hell But we’re bound to win unless the two of them die And God wouldn’t be so mean as to take them both, So we just keep on—and keep on—” To the Wilderness, To Appomattox, to the end of the dream. Army of Northern Virginia, army of legend, Who were your captains that you could trust them so surely? Who were your battle-flags? Call the shapes from the mist, Call the dead men out of the mist and watch them ride. Tall the first rider, tall with a laughing mouth, His long black beard is combed like a beauty’s hair, His slouch hat plumed with a curled black ostrich-feather, He wears gold spurs and sits his horse with the seat Of a horseman born. It is Stuart of Laurel Hill, “Beauty” Stuart, the genius of cavalry, Reckless, merry, religious, theatrical, Lover of gesture, lover of panache, With all the actor’s grace and the quick, light charm That makes the women adore him—a wild cavalier Who worships as sober a God as Stonewall Jackson, A Rupert who seldom drinks, very often prays, Loves his children, singing, fighting, spurs, and his wife. Sweeney his banjo-player follows him. And after them troop the young Virginia counties, Horses and men, Botetort, Halifax, Dinwiddie, Prince Edward, Cumberland, Nottoway, Mecklenburg, Berkeley, Augusta, the Marylanders, The horsemen never matched till Sheridan came. Now the phantom guns creak by. They are Pelham’s guns. That quiet boy with the veteran mouth is Pelham. He is twenty-two. He is to fight sixty battles And never lose a gun. The cannon roll past, The endless lines of the infantry begin. A. P. Hill leads the van. He is small and spare, His short, clipped beard is red as his battleshirt, Jackson and Lee are to call him in their death-hours. Dutch Longstreet follows, slow, pugnacious and stubborn, Hard to beat and just as hard to convince, Fine corps commander, good bulldog for holding on, But dangerous when he tries to think for himself, He thinks for himself too much at Gettysburg, But before and after he grips with tenacious jaws. There is D. H. Hill—there is Early and Fitzhugh Lee— Yellow-haired Hood with his wounds and his empty sleeve, Leading his Texans, a Viking shape of a man, With the thrust and lack of craft of a berserk sword, All lion, none of the fox. When he supersedes Joe Johnston, he is lost, and his army with him, But he could lead forlorn hopes with the ghost of Ney. His bigboned Texans follow him into the mist. Who follows them? These are the Virginia faces, The Virginia speech. It is Jackson’s foot-cavalry, The Army of the Valley, It is the Stonewall Brigade, it is the streams Of the Shenandoah, marching. Ewell goes by, The little woodpecker, bald and quaint of speech, With his wooden leg stuck stiffly out from his saddle, He is muttering, “Sir, I’m a nervous Major-General, And whenever an aide rides up from General Jackson I fully expect an order to storm the North Pole.” He chuckles and passes, full of crotchets and courage, Living on frumenty for imagined dyspepsia, And ready to storm the North Pole at a Jackson phrase. Then the staff—then little Sorrel—and the plain Presbyterian figure in the flat cap, Throwing his left hand out in the awkward gesture That caught the bullet out of the air at Bull Run, Awkward, rugged and dour, the belated Ironside With the curious, brilliant streak of the cavalier That made him quote Mercutio in staff instructions, Love lancet windows, the color of passion-flowers, Mexican sun and all fierce, taut-looking fine creatures; Stonewall Jackson, wrapped in his beard and his silence, Cromwell-eyed and ready with Cromwell’s short Bleak remedy for doubters and fools and enemies, Hard on his followers, harder on his foes, An iron sabre vowed to an iron Lord, And yet the only man of those men who pass With a strange, secretive grain of harsh poetry Hidden so deep in the stony sides of his heart That it shines by flashes only and then is gone. It glitters in his last words. He is deeply ambitious, The skilled man, utterly sure of his own skill And taking no nonsense about it from the unskilled, But God is the giver of victory and defeat, And Lee, on earth, vicegerent under the Lord. Sometimes he differs about the mortal plans But once the order is given, it is obeyed. We know what he thought about God. One would like to know What he thought of the two together, if he so mingled them. He said two things about Lee it is well to recall. When he first beheld the man that he served so well, “I have never seen such a fine-looking human creature.” Then, afterwards, at the height of his own fame, The skilled man talking of skill, and something more. “General Lee is a phenomenon, He is the only man I would follow blindfold.” Think of those two remarks and the man who made them When you picture Lee as the rigid image in marble. No man ever knew his own skill better than Jackson Or was more ready to shatter an empty fame. He passes now in his dusty uniform. The Bible jostles a book of Napoleon’s Maxims And a magic lemon deep in his saddlebags. And now at last, Comes Traveller and his master. Look at them well. The horse is an iron-grey, sixteen hands high, Short back, deep chest, strong haunch, flat legs, small head, Delicate car, quick eye, black mane and tail, Wise brain, obedient mouth. Such horses are The jewels of the horseman’s hands and thighs, They go by the word and hardly need the rein. They bred such horses in Virginia then, Horses that were remembered after death And buried not so far from Christian ground That if their sleeping riders should arise They could not witch them from the earth again And ride a printless course along the grass With the old manage and light ease of hand. The rider, now. He too, is iron-grey, Though the thick hair and thick, blunt-pointed beard Have frost in them. Broad-foreheaded, deep-eyed, Straight-nosed, sweet-mouthed, firm-lipped, head cleanly set, He and his horse are matches for the strong Grace of proportion that inhabits both. They carry nothing that is in excess And nothing that is less than symmetry, The strength of Jackson is a hammered strength, Bearing the tool marks still. This strength was shaped By as hard arts but does not show the toil Except as justness, though the toil was there. —And so we get the marble man again, The head on the Greek coin, the idol-image, The shape who stands at Washington’s left hand, Worshipped, uncomprehended and aloof, A figure lost to flesh and blood and bones, Frozen into a legend out of life, A blank-verse statue— How to humanize That solitary gentleness and strength Hidden behind the deadly oratory Of twenty thousand Lee Memorial days, How show, in spite of all the rhetoric, All the sick honey of the speechifiers, Proportion, not as something calm congealed From lack of fire, but ruling such a fire As only such proportion could contain? The man was loved, the man was idolized, The man had every just and noble gift. He took great burdens and he bore them well, Believed in God but did not preach too much, Believed and followed duty first and last With marvellous consistency and force, Was a great victor, in defeat as great, No more, no less, always himself in both, Could make men die for him but saved his men Whenever he could save them—was most kind But was not disobeyed—was a good father, A loving husband, a considerate friend: Had little humor, but enough to play Mild jokes that never wounded, but had charm, Did not seek intimates, yet drew men to him, Did not seek fame, did not protest against it, Knew his own value without pomp or jealousy And died as he preferred to live—sans phrase, With commonsense, tenacity and courage, A Greek proportion—and a riddle unread. And everything that we have said is true And nothing helps us yet to read the man, Nor will he help us while he has the strength To keep his heart his own. For he will smile And give you, with unflinching courtesy, Prayers, trappings, letters, uniforms and orders, Photographs, kindness, valor and advice, And do it with such grace and gentleness That you will know you have the whole of him Pinned down, mapped out, easy to understand— And so you have. All things except the heart. The heart he kept himself, that answers all. For here was someone who lived all his life In the most fierce and open light of the sun, Wrote letters freely, did not guard his speech, Listened and talked with every sort of man, And kept his heart a secret to the end From all the picklocks of biographers. He was a man, and as a man he knew Love, separation, sorrow, joy and death. He was a master of the tricks of war, He gave great strokes and warded strokes as great. He was the prop and pillar of a State, The incarnation of a national dream, And when the State fell and the dream dissolved He must have lived with bitterness itself— But what his sorrow was and what his joy, And how he felt in the expense of strength, And how his heart contained its bitterness, He will not tell us. We can lie about him, Dress up a dummy in his uniform And put our words into the dummy’s mouth, Say “Here Lee must have thought,” and “There, no doubt, By what we know of him, we may suppose He felt—this pang or that—” but he remains Beyond our stagecraft, reticent as ice, Reticent as the fire within the stone. Yet—look at the face again—look at it well— This man was not repose, this man was act. This man who murmured “It is well that war Should be so terrible, if it were not We might become too fond of it—” and showed Himself, for once, completely as he lived In the laconic balance of that phrase; This man could reason, but he was a fighter, Skilful in every weapon of defence But never defending when he could assault, Taking enormous risks again and again, Never retreating while he still could strike, Dividing a weak force on dangerous ground And joining it again to beat a strong, Mocking at chance and all the odds of war With acts that looked like hairbreadth recklessness —We do not call them reckless, since they won. We do not see him reckless for the calm Proportion that controlled the recklessness— But that attacking quality was there. He was not mild with life or drugged with justice, He gripped life like a wrestler with a bull, Impetuously. It did not come to him While he stood waiting in a famous cloud, He went to it and took it by both horns And threw it down. Oh, he could bear the shifts Of time and play the bitter loser’s game, The slow, unflinching chess of fortitude, But while he had an opening for attack He would attack with every ounce of strength. His heart was not a stone but trumpet-shaped And a long challenge blew an anger through it That was more dread for being musical First, last, and to the end. Again he said A curious thing to life. “I’m always wanting something.” The brief phrase Slides past us, hardly grasped in the smooth flow Of the well-balanced, mildly-humorous prose That goes along to talk of cats and duties, Maxims of conduct, farming and poor bachelors, But for a second there, the marble cracked And a strange man we never saw before Showed us the face he never showed the world And wanted something—not the general Who wanted shoes and food for ragged men, Not the good father wanting for his children, The patriot wanting victory—all the Lees Whom all the world could see and recognize And hang with gilded laurels—but the man Who had, you’d say, all things that life can give Except the last success—and had, for that, Such glamor as can wear sheer triumph out, Proportion’s son and Duty’s eldest sword And the calm mask who—wanted something still, Somewhere, somehow and always. Picklock biographers, What could he want that he had never had? He only said it once—the marble closed— There was a man enclosed within that image. There was a force that tried Proportion’s rule And died without a legend or a cue To bring it back. The shadow-Lees still live. But the first-person and the singular Lee? The ant finds kingdoms in a foot of ground But earth’s too small for something in our earth, We’ll make a new earth from the summer’s cloud, From the pure summer’s cloud. It was not that, It was not God or love or mortal fame. It was not anything he left undone. —What does Proportion want that it can lack? —What does the ultimate hunger of the flesh Want from the sky more than a sky of air? He wanted something. That must be enough. Now he rides Traveller back into the mist. * * * * * Continual guns, be silent for a moment, Be silent, now. We know your thirst. We hear the roll of your wheels Crushing down tangled June, Virginia June, With tires of iron, with heavy caissons creaking, Crushing down maidenhair and wilderness-seal, Scaring the rabbit and the possum-children, Scaring the redbird and the mockingbird As McClellan’s army moves forward. We know your bloody thirst so soon to be slaked With the red burst-grape juices. But now, we would have you silent, a little moment, We would have you hold your peace and point at the moon For when you speak, we can hear no sound but your sound, And we would hear the voices of men and women For a little while. Jake Diefer, the barrel-chested Pennsylvanian, Shippy, the little man with the sharp rat-eyes, Luke Breckinridge, the gawky boy from the hills, Clay Wingate, Melora Vilas, Sally Dupré, The slaves in the cabins, ragged Spade in the woods, We have lost these creatures under a falling hammer. We must look for them now, again. Jake Diefer is with the assault that comes from the ships, He has marched, he has fought at Fair Oaks, but he looks the same: A slow-thought-chewing Clydesdale horse of a man Who doesn’t think much of the way that they farm down here. The sun may be good, if you like that sort of sun, But the barns and the fields are different, they don’t look right, They don’t look like Pennsylvania. He spits and wonders. Whenever he can, he reads a short, crumpled letter And tries to puzzle out from the round, stiff writing How things are back on the farm. The boy’s a good boy But the boy can’t do it all, or the woman either. He knows too much about weather and harvest-hands —It’s all right fighting the Rebels to save the Union But they ought to get through with it quicker, now they’ve begun, They don’t take the way the crops are into account, You can’t go off and leave a farm like a store, And you can’t expect a boy to know everything, Or a hired man. No, sir. He walks along like an ox. —He’d like to see the boy and the woman again, Eat pancakes and sleep in a bed and look at the hay— This business comes first but after it’s finished up— He can’t say he’s bothered exactly most of the time. The weather bothers him more than anything. He knows it’s not the same sort of weather down here, But every day when he wakes, he looks at the sky And tries to figure out what it’s like back home. Shippy, the little man with the sharp rat-eyes, Creeps into an old house in beleaguered Richmond And meets a woman dressed in severe black silk With a gentle voice, soft delicate useless hands, A calm, smooth, faded, handsome mask of a face And an incredible secret under her brooches. You would picture her with ivory crochet-needles Demurely tatting, demurely singing mild hymns To an old melodeon before a blurred mirror. She is to live in Richmond throughout the war, A Union spy, never caught, never once suspected, And when she dies, she dies with a shut prim mouth Locked on her mystery. Shippy is afraid. She gives him instructions, he tries to remember them. But his hands are sweating, his eyes creep around the floor. He is afraid of the rustle of the black silk. He wishes he were back in Pollet’s Hotel With Sophy, the chambermaid. The woman talks And he listens, while the woman looks through and through him. Melora Vilas, rising by crack of dawn, Looked at herself in the bottom of her tin basin And wished that she had a mirror. She thought dully, “He’s been gone two months. I can’t get used to it yet. I’ve got to get used to it. Maybe I’ll die instead. No, I’d know if he’d died.” Sally Dupré was tired of scraping lint But her hands kept on. The hours, sunbonneted women, Passed and passed. “If he ever comes back to me!” She finished her scraping and wondered how to make coffee Out of willow-bark and life from a barren stick. . . . Spade the fugitive stared at the bleak North Star. . . . Luke Breckinridge, on picket out in the woods, Remembered a chambermaid at Pollet’s Hotel. And wanted a fight. He hadn’t been lucky, of late. Jim, his cousin, was lucky, out in the West, Riding a horse and capturing Yankee scouts. But his winter here had been nothing but work and mud, He’d nearly got courtmartialed a dozen times, Though they knew how he could shoot. The chambermaid’s name Was Sophy. She was little and scared and thin, But he liked her looks and he liked the size of her eyes, He’d like to feed her up and see how she looked, If they ever got through with fighting the Yankees here. The Yankees weren’t all Kelceys. He knew that now, But he always looked for Kelceys whenever he fought. . . . Clay Wingate slept in his cloak and dreamed of a girl With Sally’s face and Lucy Weatherby’s mouth And waked again To know today there would be continual guns. Continual guns, silent so brief a moment, Speak again, now, For now your ignorance Drowns out the little voices of human creatures. Jackson slips from the Valley where he has played A dazzling game against Banks and Shield and Frémont And threatened the chess-game-king of Washington Till strong pieces meant to join in McClellan’s game Are held to defend that king. And now the two, Jackson and Lee, strike hard for Seven Days At the host come up from its ships, come up from the sea To take the city set on a deck of land, Till the deck is soaked and red with a bloody juice. And the host goes back. You can read in the histories How the issue wavered, the fog of tiny events, How here, at one dot, McClellan might have wrung A victory, perhaps, with his larger force, And there, on the other hand, played canny and well; How Jackson, for once, moved slowly, how Porter held, And the bitter, exhausted wrestling of Malvern Hill. What we know is this. The host from the ships went back, Hurt but not broken, hammered but undestroyed, To find a new base far up the crook of the James And rest there, panting. Lincoln and Halleck come. The gaunt, plain face is deeper furrowed than ever, The eyes are strained with looking at books of tactics And trying to understand. There is so much For one man to understand, so many lies, So much half-truth, so many counselling voices, So much death to be sown and reaped and still no end. The dead of the Seven Days. The four months dead Boy who used to play with a doll named Jack, Was a bright boy as boys are reckoned and now is dead. The doll named Jack was sometimes a Union soldier, Sometimes a spy. The boy and his brother held A funeral in the White House flower-beds After suitably executing the doll named Jack But then they thought of a different twist to the game. The gaunt man signed a paper. “The doll named Jack Is pardoned. By order of the President. A. Lincoln.” So Jack was held in honor awhile But next day the boy and his brother forgot the pardon And the doll named Jack was shot and buried once more. So much death to be sown and reaped. So much death to be sown By one no sower of deaths. And still no end. The council is held. The chiefs and captains debate. McClellan clings to his plan of storming the deck From the water ways. He is cool now. He argues well. He has written Lincoln “From the brink of eternity” —A strained, high-flown, remarkable speech of a letter Of the sort so many have written and still will write— Telling how well he has done in saving his army, No thanks to the Government, or to anything else But the pith of his fighting-men and his own craft. Lincoln reads and pockets the speech and thanks him. There had been craft and courage in that retreat And much was due to McClellan. The others speak. Some corps commanders agree and some demur, The Peninsula-stroke has failed and will fail again. Elbow-rubbing Halleck, newly-made chief of staff, Called “Old Brains,” for reasons that history Still tries to fathom, demurs. He urges withdrawal. Washington must be defended first and last— Withdraw the army and put it in front of Washington. Lincoln listens to all as he tries to sift The mustardseed from the twenty barrels of chaff With patient hands. There has been a growth in the man, A tempering of will in these trotting months Whose strong hoofs striking have scarred him again and again. He still rules more by the rein than by whip or spur But the reins are fast in his hands and the horses know it. He no longer says “I think,” but “I have decided.” And takes the strength and the burden of such decision For good or bad on himself. He will bear all things But lack of faith in the Union and that not once. Now at last he decides to recall McClellan’s army For right or wrong. We see the completed thing, Long afterward, knowing all that was still to come, And say “He was wrong.” He saw the incomplete, The difficult chance that might turn a dozen ways And so decided. Be it so. He was wrong. So the deck is cleared and the host goes back to its ships. The bells in the Richmond churches, clanging for Sunday, Clang as if silver were mixed in their sweet bell-metal, The dark cloud lifts, the girls wear flowers again. Virginia June, Crushed under cannon, under the cannon ruts, The trampled grass lifts up its little green guidons, The honeysuckle and the eglantine Blow on their tiny trumpets, Blow out “Dixie,” Blow out “Lorena,” blow the “Bonnie Blue Flag” —There are many dead, there are many too many dead, The hospitals are crowded with broken dolls— But cotton has won again, cotton is haughty, Cotton is mounting again to a sleepy throne, Wheat and iron recoil from the fields of cotton, The sweet grass grows over them, the cotton blows over them, One more battle and free, free, free forever. Cotton moves North in a wave, in a white-crested Wave of puff-blossoms—in a long grey coil Of marching men with tongues as dry as cotton. Cotton and honeysuckle and eglantine Move North in a drenching wave of blossom and guns To wash out wheat and iron forever and ever. There will be other waves that set toward the North, There will be a high tide, But this is the high hour. Jackson has still three hammerstrokes to strike, Lee is still master of the attacking sword, Stuart still carries his black feather high. Put silver in your bell-metal, Richmond bells, The wave of the cotton goes North to your sweet ringing, The first great raiding wave of the Southern dream. * * * * * Jack Ellyat, in prison deep in the South, Gaunt, bearded, dirty old man with the captive eyes, Lay on his back and stared at the flies on the wall And tried to remember, through an indifferent mist, A green place lost in the woods and a herd of black swine. They came and went and the mist moved round them again. The mist was not death. He was used to death by now, But the mist still puzzled him, sometimes. It was curious—being so weak and yet used to death. When you were strong, you thought of death as a strong Rider on a black horse, perhaps, or at least As some strong creature, dreadful because so strong. But when you were weak and lived in a place like this, Things changed. There was nothing strong about death any more. He was only the gnawed rat-bone on the dirty floor, That you stumbled across and hardly bothered to curse. That was all. The two Michigan men had died last night. The Ohio brothers were going to die this week, You got pretty soon so you knew when people would die, It passed the time as well as carving bone-rings, Playing checkers with straws or learning Italian nouns From the lanky schoolteacher-sergeant from Vermont. Somewhere, sometime, in a tent, by a red loud noise, Under a dirty coat and a slab of tobacco, He had lost a piece of himself, a piece of life. He couldn’t die till he got that piece of him back And felt its ragged edges fit in his heart. Or so he thought. Sometimes, when he slept, he felt As if he were getting it back—but most of the time It was only the mist and counting the flies that bothered him. He heard a footstep near him and turned his head. “Hello, Charley,” he said, “Where you been?” Bailey’s face looked strange, The red, hot face of a hurt and angry boy, “Out hearing the Rebs,” he said. He spat on the floor And broke into long, blue curses. When he was through, “Did you hear them?” he asked. Jack Ellyat tried to remember A gnat-noise buzzing the mist. “I guess so,” he said. “What was it? Two-bottle Ed on another tear?” “Hell,” said Bailey. “They cheered. They’ve licked us again. The news just come. It happened back at Bull Run.” “You’re crazy,” said Ellyat. “That was the start of the war. “I was in that one.” “Oh, don’t be a fool,” said Bailey, “They licked us again, I tell you, the same old place. Pope’s army’s ruined.” “Who’s he?” said Ellyat wearily. “Aw, we had him out West—he’s God Almighty’s pet horse, He came East and told all the papers how good he was, ‘Headquarters in the saddle’!” Bailey snickered. “Well, they snaffled his saddle and blame near snaffled him, Jackson and Lee—anyhow they licked us again.” “What about Little Mac?” “Well, Gawd knows what’s happened to _him_,” Said Bailey, flatly, “Maybe he’s captured, too, Maybe they captured Old Abe and everyone else. I don’t know—you can’t tell from those lyin’ Rebs.” There was a silence. Ellyat lay on his back And watched the flies on the wall for quite a long time. “I wish I had a real newspaper,” said Bailey, “Not one of your Richmond wipers. By God, you know, Jack, When we get back home, I’ll read a newspaper, sometimes. I never was much at readin’ the newspaper But I’d like to read one now, say once in a while.” Ellyat laughed. “You know, Charley,” he said at last. “We’ve got to get out of this place.” Bailey joined in the laugh. Then he stopped and stared at the other with anxious eyes. “You don’t look crazy,” he said, “Stop countin’ those flies.” Ellyat raised himself on one arm. “No, honest, Charley, I mean it, damn it. We’ve got to get out of here. I know we can’t but we’ve got to. . . .” He swallowed dryly. “Look here—” he said, “It just came over me then. I’ve got a girl and she doesn’t know where I am. I left her back in a tent—no, that wasn’t a girl— And you say we got licked again. But that’s just it, Charley. We get licked too much. We’ve got to get out of here.” He sank back to the floor and shut his ghost-ridden eyes. Bailey regarded him for a long, numb moment. “You couldn’t walk a mile and a half,” he muttered, “And, by God, I couldn’t carry you twenty feet, And, by God, if we could, there ain’t no way to get out, But all the same—” “If there was any use tryin’,” He said, half-pleadingly, half-defiantly, “I tell you, Jack, if there was any use tryin’—” He stopped. Ellyat’s eyes were shut. He rose with great care. “I’ll get you some water,” he muttered. “No, let you sleep.” He sat down again and stared at the sleeping face. “He looks bad,” he thought. “I guess I look bad myself. I guess the kid’s goin’ to die if we don’t get out. I guess we’re both goin’ to die. I don’t see why not.” He looked up at the flies on the ceiling and shook his fist. “Listen, you dirty Rebs,” he said, under his breath, “Flap your goddam wings—we’re goin’ to get out of here!” * * * * * John Brown lies dead in his grave and does not stir, It is nearly three years since he died and he does not stir, There is no sound in his bones but the sound of armies And that is an old sound. He walks, you will say, he walks in front of the armies, A straggler met him, going along to Manassas, With his gun on his shoulder, his phantom-sons at heel, His eyes like misty coals. A dead man saw him striding at Seven Pines, The bullets whistling through him like a torn flag, A madman saw him whetting a sword on a Bible, A cloud above Malvern Hill. But these are all lies. He slumbers. He does not stir. The spring rains and the winter snows on his slumber And the bones of his flesh breed armies and yet more armies But he himself does not stir. It will take more than cannon to shake his fortress, His song is alive and throbs in the tramp of the columns, His song is smoke blown out of the mouth of a cannon, But his song and he are two. The South goes ever forward, the slave is not free, The great stone gate of the Union crumbles and totters, The cotton-blossoms are pushing the blocks apart, The roots of cotton grow in the crevices, (John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave.) Soon the fight will be over, the slaves will be slaves forever. (John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave.) You did not fight for the Union or wish it well, You fought for the single dream of a man unchained And God’s great chariot rolling. You fought like the thrown Stone, but the fighters have forgotten your dream. (John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave.) You fought for a people you did not comprehend, For a symbol chained by a symbol in your own mind, But, unless you arise, that people will not be free. Are there no seeds of thunder left in your bones Except to breed useless armies? (John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave.) Arise, John Brown, Call up your sons from the ground, In smoky wreaths, call up your sons to heel, Call up the clumsy country boys you armed With crazy pikes and a fantastic mind. Call up the American names, Kagi, the self-taught scholar, quiet and cool, Stevens, the cashiered soldier, bawling his song, Dangerfield Newby, the freed Scotch-mulatto, Watson and Oliver Brown and all the hard-dying. Call up the slug-riddled dead of Harper’s Ferry And cast them down the wind on a raid again. This is the dark hour, This is the ebb-tide, This is the sunset, this is the defeat. The cotton-blossoms are growing up to the sky, The great stone gate of the Union sinks beneath them, And under the giant blossoms lies Egypt’s land, The dark river, The ground of bondage, The chained men. If the great gate falls, the cotton grows over your dream. Find your heart, John Brown, (A-mouldering in the grave.) Call your sons and get your pikes, (A-mouldering in the grave.) Your song goes on, but the slave is still a slave, And all Egypt’s land rides Northward while you moulder in the grave! Rise up, John Brown, (A-mouldering in the grave.) Go down, John Brown, (Against all Egypt’s land) Go down, John Brown, Go down, John Brown, Go down, John Brown, and set that people free! BOOK FIVE It was still hot in Washington, that September, Hot in the city, hot in the White House rooms, Desiccate heat, dry as a palm-leaf fan, That makes hot men tuck cotton handkerchiefs Between their collars and their sweaty necks, And Northern girls look limp at half-past-four, Waiting the first cool breath that will not come For hours yet. The sentinel on post Clicks back and forth, stuffed in his sweltering coat, And dreams about brown bottles of cold beer Deep in a cellar. In the crowded Bureaus The pens move slow, the damp clerks watch the clock. Women in houses take their corsets off And stifle in loose gowns. They could lie down But when they touch the bed, the bed feels hot, And there are things to do. The men will want Hot food when they come back from work. They sigh And turn, with dragging feet, to the hot kitchens. Sometimes they pause, and push a window up To feel the blunt, dry buffet of the heat Strike in the face and hear the locust-cry Of shrilling newsboy-voices down the street, “News from the army—extra—ter-ble battle— Terr-r-ble vic’try—ter-r-ble defeat— Lee’s army trapped invading Maryland— McClellan—Sharpsburg—fightin’—news from the front—” The women at the windows sigh and wonder “I ought to buy a paper—No, I’ll wait Till Tom gets home—I wonder if it’s true— Terrible victory—terrible defeat— They’re always saying that—when Tom gets home He’ll have some news—I wonder if the army— No, it’s too hot to buy a paper now—” A hot, spare day of waiting languidly For contradictory bits of dubious news. It was a little cooler, three miles out, Where the tall trees shaded the Soldiers’ Home. The lank man, Abraham Lincoln, found it so, Glad for it, doubtless, though his cavernous eyes Had stared all day into a distant fog Trying to pierce it. “General McClellan Is now in touch with Lee in front of Sharpsburg And will attack as soon as the fog clears.” It’s cleared by now. They must be fighting now. We can’t expect much from the first reports. Stanton and Halleck think they’re pretty good But you can’t tell. Nobody here can tell. We’re all too far away. You get sometimes Feeling as if you heard the guns yourself Here in the room and felt them shake the house When you keep waiting for the news all day. I wish we’d get some news. Bull Run was first. We got the news of Bull Run soon enough. First that we’d won, hands down, which was a lie, And then the truth. It may be that to-day. I told McClellan not to let them go, Destroy them if he could—but you can’t tell. He’s a good man in lots of different ways, But he can’t seem to finish what he starts And then, he’s jealous, like the rest of them, Lets Pope get beaten, wanted him to fail, Because he don’t like Pope. I put him back Into command. What else was there to do? Nobody else could lick those troops in shape. But, if he wins, and lets Lee get away, I’m done with him. Bull Run—the Seven Days— Bull Run again—and eighteen months of war— And still no end to it. What is God’s will? They come to me and talk about God’s will In righteous deputations and platoons, Day after day, laymen and ministers. They write me Prayers From Twenty Million Souls Defining me God’s will and Horace Greeley’s. God’s will is General This and Senator That, God’s will is those poor colored fellows’ will, It is the will of the Chicago churches, It is this man’s and his worst enemy’s. But all of them are sure they know God’s will. I am the only man who does not know it. And, yet, if it is probable that God Should, and so very clearly, state His will To others, on a point of my own duty, It might be thought He would reveal it me Directly, more especially as I So earnestly desire to know His will. The will of God prevails. No doubt, no doubt— Yet, in great contests, each side claims to act In strict accordance with the will of God. Both may, one must be wrong. God could have saved This Union or destroyed it without war If He so wished. And yet this war began, And, once begun, goes on, though He could give Victory, at any time, to either side. It is unfathomable. Yet I know This, and this only. While I live and breathe, I mean to save the Union if I can, And by whatever means my hands can find Under the Constitution. If God reads The hearts of men as clearly as He must To be Himself, then He can read in mine And has, for twenty years, the old, scarred wish That the last slave should be forever free Here, in this country. I do not go back From that scarred wish and have not. But I put The Union, first and last, before the slave. If freeing slaves will bring the Union back Then I will free them; if by freeing some And leaving some enslaved I help my cause, I will do that—but should such freedom mean The wreckage of the Union that I serve I would not free a slave. O Will of God, I am a patient man, and I can wait Like an old gunflint buried in the ground While the slow years pile up like moldering leaves Above me, underneath the rake of Time, And turn, in time, to the dark, fruitful mold That smells of Sangamon apples, till at last There’s no sleep left there, and the steel event Descends to strike the live coal out of me And light the powder that was always there. That is my only virtue as I see it, Ability to wait and hold my own And keep my own resolves once they are made In spite of what the smarter people say. I can’t be smart the way that they are smart. I’ve known that since I was an ugly child. It teaches you—to be an ugly child. It teaches you—to lose a thing you love. It sticks your roots down into Sangamon ground And makes you grow when you don’t want to grow And makes you tough enough to wait life out, Wait like the fields, under the rain and snow. I have not thought for years of that lost grave That was my first hard lesson in the queer Thing between men and women we call love. But when I think of it, and when I hear The rain and snow fall on it, as they must, It fills me with unutterable grief. We’ve come a good long way, my hat and I, Since then, a pretty lengthy piece of road, Uphill and down but mostly with a pack. Years of law-business, years of cracking jokes, And watching Billy Herndon do his best To make me out, which seemed to be a job; Years trying how to learn to handle men, Which can be done, if you’ve got heart enough, And how to deal with women or a woman And that’s about the hardest task I know. For, when you get a man, you’ve got the man Like a good big axehandle in your fist, But you can’t catch a woman like an axe. She’ll run like mercury between your hands And leave you wondering which road she went, The minute when you thought you knew her ways. I understand the uses of the earth, And I have burned my hands at certain fires Often enough to know a use for fire, But when the genius of the water moves, And that’s the woman’s genius, I’m at sea In every sense and meaning of the word, With nothing but old patience for my chart, And patience doesn’t always please a woman. Bright streams of water, watering the world, Deep seas of water that all men must sail Or rest half-men and fill the narrow graves, When will I understand or comprehend Your salt, sweet taste, so different from the taste Of Sangamon russets, weighing down the bough? You can live with the water twenty years And never understand it like the earth But that’s the lesson I can’t seem to learn. “Abraham Lincoln, his hand and pen, He will be good, but God knows when.” He will be wise, but God knows when. It doesn’t matter. If I had some news— News from that fog— I’ll get the hypo, sure, Unless I watch myself, waiting for news. I can’t afford to get the hypo now, I’ve got too much to do. Political years, Housekeeping years of marrying and begetting And losing, too, the children and the town, The wife, the house, the life, the joy and grief, The profound wonder still behind it all. I had a friend who married and was happy. But something haunted him that haunted me Before he did, till he could hardly tell What his own mind was, for the brooding veil And immaterial horror of the soul Which colors the whole world for men like that. I do not know from whence that horror comes Or why it hangs between us and the sun For some few men, at certain times and days, But I have known it closer than my flesh, Got up with it, lain down and walked with it, Scotched it awhile, but never killed it quite, And yet lived on. I wrote him good advice, The way you do, and told him this, for part, “Again you fear that that Elysium Of which you’ve dreamed so much is not to be. Well, I dare swear it will not be the fault Of that same black-eyed Fanny, now your wife. And I have now no doubt that you and I, To our particular misfortune, dream Dreams of Elysium far exceeding all That any earthly thing can realize.” I wrote that more than twenty years ago, At thirty-three, and now I’m fifty-three, And the slow days have brought me up at last Through water, earth and fire, to where I stand, To where I stand—and no Elysiums still. No, no Elysiums—for that personal dream I dreamt of for myself and in my youth Has been abolished by the falling sledge Of chance and an ambition so fulfilled That the fulfillment killed its personal part. My old ambition was an iron ring Loose-hooped around the live trunk of a tree. If the tree grows till bark and iron touch And then stops growing, ring and tree are matched And the fulfillment fits. But, if by some Unlikely chance, the growing still keeps on, The tree must burst the binding-ring or die. I have not once controlled the circumstances. They have controlled me. But with that control They made me grow or die. And I have grown. The iron ring is burst. Three elements, Earth, water and fire. I have passed through them all, Still to find no Elysium for my hands, Still to find no Elysium but growth, And the slow will to grow to match my task. Three elements. I have not sought the fourth Deeply, till now—the element of air, The everlasting element of God, Who must be there in spite of all we see, Who must be there in spite of all we bear, Who must exist where all Elysiums Are less than shadows of a hunter’s fire Lighted at night to scare a wolf away. I know that wolf—his scars are in my hide And no Elysiums can rub them out. Therefore at last, I lift my hands to You Who Were and Are and Must Be, if our world Is anything but a lost ironclad Shipped with a crew of fools and mutineers To drift between the cold forts of the stars. I’ve never found a church that I could join Although I’ve prayed in churches in my time And listened to all sorts of ministers Well, they were good men, most of them, and yet— The thing behind the words—it’s hard to find. I used to think it wasn’t there at all Couldn’t be there. I cannot say that, now. And now I pray to You and You alone. Teach me to know Your will. Teach me to read Your difficult purpose here, which must be plain If I had eyes to see it. Make me just. There was a man I knew near Pigeon Creek Who kept a kennel full of hunting dogs, Young dogs and old, smart hounds and silly hounds. He’d sell the young ones every now and then, Smart as they were and slick as they could run. But the one dog he’d never sell or lend Was an old half-deaf foolish-looking hound You wouldn’t think had sense to scratch a flea Unless the flea were old and sickly too. Most days he used to lie beside the stove Or sleeping in a piece of sun outside. Folks used to plague the man about that dog And he’d agree to everything they said, “No—he ain’t much on looks—or much on speed— A young dog can outrun him any time, Outlook him and outeat him and outleap him, But, Mister, that dog’s hell on a cold scent And, once he gets his teeth in what he’s after, He don’t let go until he knows he’s dead.” I am that old, deaf hunting-dog, O Lord, And the world’s kennel holds ten thousand hounds Smarter and faster and with finer coats To hunt your hidden purpose up the wind And bell upon the trace you leave behind. But, when even they fail and lose the scent, I will keep on because I must keep on Until You utterly reveal Yourself And sink my teeth in justice soon or late. There is no more to ask of earth or fire And water only runs between my hands, But in the air, I’ll look, in the blue air, The old dog, muzzle down to the cold scent, Day after day, until the tired years Crackle beneath his feet like broken sticks And the last barren bush consumes with peace. I should have tried the course with younger legs, This hunting-ground is stiff enough to pull The metal heart out of a dog of steel; I should have started back at Pigeon Creek From scratch, not forty years behind the mark. But you can’t change yourself, and, if you could, You might fetch the wrong jack-knife in the swap. It’s up to you to whittle what you can With what you’ve got—and what I am, I am For what it’s worth, hypo and legs and all. I can’t complain. I’m ready to admit You could have made a better-looking dog From the same raw material, no doubt, But, since You didn’t, this’ll have to do. Therefore I utterly lift up my hands To You, and here and now beseech Your aid. I have held back when others tugged me on, I have gone on when others pulled me back Striving to read Your will, striving to find The justice and expedience of this case, Hunting an arrow down the chilly airs Until my eyes are blind with the great wind And my heart sick with running after peace. And now, I stand and tremble on the last Edge of the last blue cliff, a hound beat out, Tail down and belly flattened to the ground, My lungs are breathless and my legs are whipped, Everything in me’s whipped except my will. I can’t go on. And yet, I must go on. I will say this. Two months ago I read My proclamation setting these men free To Seward and the rest. I told them then I was not calling on them for advice But to hear something that I meant to do. We talked about it. Most of them approved The thing, if not the time. Then Seward said Something I hadn’t thought of, “I approve The proclamation—but, if issued now With our defeats in everybody’s mouth It may be viewed as a last shriek for help From an exhausted, beaten government. Put it aside until a victory comes, Then issue it with victory.” He was right. I put the thing aside—and ever since There has been nothing for us but defeat, Up to this battle now—and still no news. If I had eyes to look to Maryland! If I could move that battle with my hands! No, it don’t work. I’m not a general. All I can do is trust the men who are. I’m not a general, but I promise this, Here at the end of every ounce of strength That I can muster, here in the dark pit Of ignorance that is not quite despair And doubt that does but must not break the mind! The pit I have inhabited so long At various times and seasons, that my soul Has taken color in its very grains From the blind darkness, from the lonely cave That never hears a footstep but my own Nor ever will, while I’m a man alive To keep my prison locked from visitors. What if I heard another footstep there, What if, some day—there is no one but God, No one but God who could descend that stair And ring his heavy footfalls on the stone. And if He came, what would we say to Him? That prison is ourselves that we have built, And, being so, its loneliness is just, And, being so, its loneliness endures. But, if another came, What would we say? What can the blind say, given back their eyes? No, it must be as it has always been. We are all prisoners in that degree And will remain so, but I think I know This—God is not a jailor. . . . And I make A promise now to You and to myself. If this last battle is a victory And they can drive the Rebel army back From Maryland, back over the Potomac, My proclamation shall go out at last To set those other prisoners and slaves From this next year, then and forever free. So much for my will. Show me what is Yours! That must be news, those footsteps in the hall, Good news, or else they wouldn’t come so fast. What is it, now? Yes, yes, I’m glad of that. I’m very glad. There’s no mistake this time? We have the best of them? They’re in retreat? This is a great day, Stanton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If McClellan Can only follow up the victory now! Lord, I will keep my promise and go on, Your will, in much, still being dark to me, But, in this one thing, as I see it, plain. And yet—if Lee slips from our hands again As he well may from all those last reports And the war still goes on—and still no end— Even after this Antietam—not for years— I cannot read it but I will go on, Old dog, old dog, but settled to the scent And with fresh breath now from this breathing space, Almighty God. At best we never seem To know You wholly, but there’s something left, A strange, last courage. We can fail and fail, But, deep against the failure, something wars, Something goes forward, something lights a match, Something gets up from Sangamon County ground Armed with a bitten and a blunted axe And after twenty thousand wasted strokes Brings the tall hemlock crashing to the ground. * * * * * Spade saw the yellow river rolling ahead His sore, cracked lips curled back in a death’s head grin And his empty belly ceased to stick to his sides. He sat on the bank a minute to rest his legs And catch his breath. He had lived for the last three days On a yam, two ears of horse-corn and the lame rabbit That couldn’t run away when he threw the stick. He was still a big man but the ribs stuck into his skin And the hard, dry muscles were wasted to leather thongs. “Boy, I wisht we had a good meal,” he thought with a dull Fatigue. “Dat’s Freedom’s lan’ ovah dere fer sho’, But how we gwine to swim it without a good meal? I wisht we had even a spoonful of good hot pot-licker Or a smidgin’ of barbecued shote. Dat river’s cold. Colder’n Jordan. I wisht we had a good meal.” He went down to the river and tested it with his hand. The cold jumped up his arm and into his heart, Sharp as the toothache. His mouth wried up in a queer Grimace. He felt like crying. “I’se tired,” he said. “Flow easy, river,” he said. Then he tumbled in. The hard shock of the plunge took his breath away. So stinging at first that his arms and legs moved fast, But then the cold crept into his creaking bones And he rolled wild eyes. “Oh, God,” he thought as he struggled, “I’se weak as a cat. I ust to be a strong man.” The yellow flood sucked round him, pulling him down, The yellow foam had a taste like death in his mouth, “We ought to of had a good meal,” he thought with a weak Wonder, as he fought weakly. “A good hot meal. Dis current, she’s too strong for a hungry mouth. We’se done our best, but she fights like a angel would Like wrestlin’ with a death-angel.” He choked and sank To come up gasping and staring with bloodshot eyes. His brain had a last, clear flash. “You’re drowned,” said the brain. Then it stopped working. But the black, thrashing hands Caught hold of something solid and hard and rough And hung to it with a last exhausted grip. —He had been fighting an angel for seven nights And now he hung by his hands to the angel’s neck, Lost in an iron darkness of beating wings. If he once let go, the angel would push him off And touch him across the loins with a stony hand In the last death-trick of the wrestle. He moaned a little. The blackness began to lighten. He saw the river Rolling and rolling. He was clutched to a log Like a treetoad set afloat on a chip of wood, And the log and he were rushing downstream together, But the current pulled them both toward the freedom side. He hunched up a little higher. An eddy took The log and him and spun them both like a top While he prayed and sickened. Then they were out of the eddy And drifting along more slowly, straight for the shore. He hauled himself up the bank with enormous care, Vomited and lay down. When he could arise He looked at his hands. They were still hooked into a curve. It took quite a time to straighten them back again. He said a prayer as he tried to dry his clothes, Then he looked for a stone and threw it into the river. “You’se a mean and hungry river,” he said. “You is. Heah’s a present for you. I hope it busts up your teef. Heah’s a present fum Mistah Spade.” He felt better then, But his belly started to ache. “Act patient,” he said, Rubbing it gently, “We’se loose in Freedom’s land, Crossed old Jordan—bound to get vittles now.” He started out for the town. The town wasn’t far But he had to go slow. Sometimes he fell on the way. The last time he fell was in front of a little yard With a white, well-painted fence. A woman came out. “Get along,” she said. “You can’t get sick around here. I’m tired of you nigger tramps. You’re all of you thieves.” Spade rose and said something vague about swimming rivers And vittles. She stamped her foot. “Get along!” she said, “Get along or I’ll call the dog and——” Spade got along. The next house, the dog was barking out in the yard, He went by as fast as he could, but when he looked back A man had come out with a hostile stick in his hand. Spade shook his head. “Freedom’s land,” he thought to himself, “They’s some mighty quick-actin’ people in Freedom’s land, Some mighty rash-tempered dogs.” He swayed as he walked. Here was another house. He looked for the dog With fright in his eyes. Then a swimming qualm came over him, A deathly faintness. His hands went out to the fence. He gripped two palings, hung, and stared at his shoes. Somebody was talking to him. He tried to move on But his legs wouldn’t walk. The voice was a woman’s voice. She’d be calling the dog in a minute. He shivered hard. “Excuse me ma’am, but I’se feelin’ poorly,” he said. “I just crossed over—I’ll go as soon as I kin.” A man’s voice now. They were taking him under the arms. He didn’t care what they did. He let himself walk. Then he was sitting up in a bentwood chair In a tidy kitchen that smelt of frying and ham; The thick, good smell made him strangely sick at first But it soon passed off. They fed him little by little Till at last he could tell his tale and ask about them. They were churchgoing people and kind to runaway slaves. She wore a blue dress. They had two sons in the war. That was all that he knew and all that he ever knew. But they let him sleep in the garret and gave him some shoes And fifty cents when he left. He wanted to stay But times were bad and they couldn’t afford to keep him. The town was tired of runaway negroes now. All the same, when he left, he walked with a different step. He went down town. He was free. He was Mister Spade. The President had written a letter about it And the mule and the coal-black gal might come any day. He hummed a tuneless whistle between his teeth And fished a piece of paper out of his pants, They’d written him down a boss’s name and address But he’d have to get somebody to read it again. He approached a group of three white men on a corner Holding the paper. “’Scuse me, boss, can you tell me—” The white men looked at him with hard, vacant eyes. At last one of them took the paper. “Oh, Hell,” he said, Spitting, and gave Spade a stare. Then he seemed to think Of something funny. He nudged the other two men. “Listen, nigger,” he said. “You want Mr. Braid. You’ll find him two blocks down at the Marshal’s office, Tell him Mr. Clarke sent you there—Mr. William Clarke— He’ll fix you up all right.” The other men grinned, Adding directions. Spade thanked them and went away. He heard them laugh as he went. Another man took him To a red-faced person who sat in a tilted chair, Reading a paper, his feet cocked up on his desk. He looked at Spade and his feet came down with a slam. “Take that God damn smile off,” he said. “Who let you come in? You contraband niggers think that you own this town And that all you’ve got to do is cross over here For people to feed you free the rest of your lives. Well it don’t go down with me—just understand that.” Spade brought out his paper, dumbly. The man looked at it. “Hell, this ain’t for me,” he said. Spade started to go. “Come back here, nigger,” ordered the red-faced man. “Hey, Mike!” he yelled, “Here’s another of Lincoln’s pets. Send him out with the rest of the gang.” “But, boss——” said Spade. “Don’t get lippy with me,” said the man, “Mike, take him along.” The pimply boy named Mike jerked a sallow thumb. “Come on, black beauty,” he said. “We got you a job.” Spade followed him, dazed. When they were out in the street The boy turned to him. “Now, nigger, watch out,” he said, Patting a heavy pistol swung at his belt, With puppy-fierceness, “You don’t get away from me. I’m a special deputy, see?” “All right, boss,” said Spade. “I ain’t aimin’ to get away from nobody now, I just aims to work till I gets myself a good mule.” The boy laughed briefly. The conversation dropped. They walked out of the town till they came to a torn-up road Where a gang of negroes was working. “Say, boss—” said Spade. The boy cut him off. “Hey, Jerry,” he called to the foreman, “Here’s another one.” The foreman looked up and spat. “Judas!” he said, “Can’t they keep the bastards at home? I’d put a gun on that river if I was Braid. Well, come along, nig, get a move on and find a shovel. Don’t stand lookin’ at me all day.” The boy went away. Spade found a shovel and started work on the road. The foreman watched him awhile with sarcastic eyes, Spade saw that he, too, wore a pistol. “Christ,” said the foreman, Disgustedly, “Try and put some guts in it there. You’re big enough. That shovel’ll cost five dollars. Remember that—it comes out of your first week’s pay. You’re a free nigger now.” He chuckled. Spade didn’t answer And, after a while, the foreman moved away. Spade turned to the gingerskinned negro who worked beside him. “You fum de Souf?” he mouthed at him. Ginger nodded. “I been here a month now. They fotched me here the first day. Got any money?” “Nuthin’ but fifty cents.” “You better give it to him,” said Ginger, stealing A glance at the foreman. “He’ll treat you bad if you don’t. He’s a cranky man.” Spade’s heart sank into his boots. “Don’t we uns get paid? We ain’t none of us slaves no more, The President said so. Why we wuhkin’ like dis?” Ginger snickered. “Sho’ we uns get paid,” he said, “But we got to buy our stuff at de company sto’ And he sells his old shovels a dozen times what dey’s wuth. I only been here a month but I owes twelve dollars. Dey ain’t no way to pay it except by wuhk, And de more you wuhk de more you owe at the sto.’ I kain’t figure it out exactly but it’s dat way.” Spade worked for a while, revolving these things in his mind. “I reckoned I sho’ was gwine to be sassy and free When I swum dat river,” he said. Ginger grinned like a monkey, “Swing your shubbel, boy, and forget what you ain’t. You mought be out on de chain-gang, bustin’ up rocks, Or agin, you mought be enlisted.” “Huh?” said Spade. “Sho’, dey’s gwine to enlist us all when we finish dis road. All excep’ me. I got bad sight in my eyes And dey knows about it.” “Dey kain’t enlist me,” said Spade. “I ain’t honin’ to go an’ fight in no white-folks war, I ain’t bust loose into Freedom’s land fer dat, All I want is a chance to git me a gal and a mule. If I’se free, how kin dey enlist me, lessen I want?” “You watch ’em,” said Ginger. They worked on for a time. The foreman stood on the bank and watched them work, Now and then he drank from a bottle. Spade felt hungry. * * * * * Autumn is filling his harvest-bins With red and yellow grain, Fire begins and frost begins And the floors are cold again. Summer went when the crop was sold, Summer is piled away, Dry as a faded marigold In the dry, long-gathered hay. It is time to walk to the cider-mill Through air like apple wine And watch the moon rise over the hill, Stinging and hard and fine. It is time to cover your seed-pods deep And let them wait and be warm, It is time to sleep the heavy sleep That does not wake for the storm. Winter walks from the green, streaked West With a bag of Northern Spies, The skins are red as a robin’s breast, The honey chill as the skies. * * * * * Melora Vilas walked in the woods that autumn And heard the dry leaves crackle under her feet, Feeling, below the leaves, the blunt heavy earth. “It’s getting-in time,” she thought. “It’s getting-in time, Time to put things in barns and sit by the stove, Time to watch the long snow and remember your lover. He isn’t dead. I know that he isn’t dead. Maybe they’ve changed his body into a tree, Maybe they’ve changed his body into a cloud Or something that sleeps through the Winter. But I’ll remember. I’ll sleep through the Winter, too. We all sleep then And when the Spring freshet drums in the narrow brooks And fills them with a fresh water, they’ll let him come Out of the cloud and the tree and the Winter-sleep. The Winter falls and we lie like beleaguered stones In the black, cramped ground. And then you wake in the morning And the air’s got soft and you plant the narrow-edged seeds, They grow all Summer and now we’ve put them in barns To sleep again for a while. I am the seed and the husk. I have sown and reaped. My heart is a barn full of grain that my work has harvested. My body holds the ripe grain. I can wait my time.” She walked on farther and came to the lip of the spring, The brown leaves drifted the water. She watched them drift. “I am satisfied,” she thought, “I am satisfied. I can wait my time in spite of Mom being sad And Pop looking fierce and sad when he sees me walk So heavy and knows I’ll have to walk heavier still Before my time comes. I’m sorry to make them sad, I’m sorry I did a bad thing if it was a bad thing; But I’m satisfied. We cut the heart on the tree. I’ve got my half of the dime and he’s got his, He’ll come back when Winter’s over or else I’ll find him, When you can push up the windows, when the new colts Come out in the Spring, when the snake sheds his winter coat, When the old, shed coat of Winter lies on the ground Grey as wasp-paper under the green, slow rain, When the big barn door rolls open. I was worried to death at first and I couldn’t tell. But as soon as I knew what it was—it was different then— It made things all right. I can’t tell why it did that.” She awkwardly stooped and put her hand on the ground, Under the brittle leaves the soil was alive, Torn with its harvest, turned on its side toward sleep, But stripped for battle, too, for the unending Battle with Winters till the Spring is born Like a tight green leaf uncurling, so slightly, so gently, Out of the husk of ice and the blank, white snows. The wind moved over it, blowing the leaves away, Leaving the bare, indomitable breast. She felt a wind move over her heavy body, Stripping it clean for war. She felt the blind-featured Mystery move, the harmonics of the quick grain, The battle and the awakening for battle, And the salt taste of peace. A flight of geese passed by in a narrow V, Honking their cry. That cry was stuck in her heart Like a bright knife. She could have laughed or wept Because of that cry flung down from a moving wing, But she stood silent. She had touched the life in the ground. * * * * * Love came by from the riversmoke, When the leaves were fresh on the tree, But I cut my heart on the blackjack oak Before they fell on me. The leaves are green in the early Spring, They are brown as linsey now, I did not ask for a wedding-ring From the wind in the bending bough. Fall lightly, lightly, leaves of the wild, Fall lightly on my care, I am not the first to go with child Because of the blowing air. I am not the first nor yet the last To watch a goosefeather sky, And wonder what will come of the blast And the name to call it by. Snow down, snow down, you whitefeather bird, Snow down, you winter storm, Where the good girls sleep with a gospel word To keep their honor warm. The good girls sleep in their modesty, The bad girls sleep in their shame, But I must sleep in the hollow tree Till my child can have a name. I will not ask for the wheel and thread To spin the labor plain, Or the scissors hidden under the bed To cut the bearing-pain. I will not ask for the prayer in church Or the preacher saying the prayer, But I will ask the shivering birch To hold its arms in the air. Cold and cold and cold again, Cold in the blackjack limb The winds of the sky for his sponsor-men And a bird to christen him. Now listen to me, you Tennessee corn, And listen to my word, This is the first child ever born That was christened by a bird. He’s going to act like a hound let loose When he comes from the blackjack tree, And he’s going to walk in proud shoes All over Tennessee. I’ll feed him milk out of my own breast And call him Whistling Jack. And his dad’ll bring him a partridge nest, As soon as his dad comes back. * * * * * John Brown’s raid has gone forward, the definite thing is done, Not as we see it done when we read the books, A clear light burning suddenly in the sky, But dimly, obscurely, a flame half-strangled by smoke, A thing come to pass from a victory not a victory, A dubious doctrine dubiously received. The papers praise, but the recruiting is slow, The bonds sell badly, the grind of the war goes on— There is no sudden casting off of a chain, Only a slow thought working its way through the ground, A slow root growing, touching a hundred soils, A thousand minds—no blossom or flower yet It takes a long time to bring a thought into act And when it blossoms at last, the gardeners wonder— There have been so many to labor this patch of ground, Garrison, Beecher, a dozen New England names, Courageous, insulting Sumner, narrow and strong, With his tongue of silver and venom and his wrecked body, Wendell Phillips, Antinous of Harvard— But now that the thought has arisen, they are not sure It was their thought after all—it is good enough— The best one could expect from a man like Lincoln, But this and that are wrong, are unshrewdly planned, We could have ordered it better, we knew the ground, It should have been done before, in a different way, And our praise is grudging. Pity the gardeners, Pity Boston, pity the pure in heart, Pity the men whom Time goes past in the night, Without their knowledge. They worked through the heat of the day. Let us even pity Wendell Phillips, Antinous of Harvard, For he was a model man and such men deserve A definite pity at times. He too did his best. Secure in his own impenetrable self-knowledge, He seldom agreed with Lincoln or thought him wise; He sometimes thought that a stunning defeat would give A needed lesson to the soul of the nation, And, before, would have broken the Union as blithely as Yancey For his own side of abolition, speaking about it In many public meetings where he was heckled But usually silenced the hecklers sooner or later With his mellifluous, masculine, well-trained accents. War could hardly come too soon for a man like that And when it came, he was busy. He did his part, Being strong and active, blessed with a ready mind, And the cause being one to which he professed devotion, He spoke. He spoke well, with conviction, and frequently. So much for the banner-bearers of abolition, The men who carried the lonely flag for years And could bear defeat with the strength of the pure in heart But could not understand the face of success. The other dissenters are simpler to understand. They are ready to fight for the Union but not for niggers, They don’t give a damn for niggers and say so now With a grievous cry. And yet the slow root-thought works Gradually through men’s minds. The Lancashire spinners, Thrown out of work because no cotton can come To feed their mills through the choking Union blockade, Yet hold starvation meetings and praise the Union. The tide has begun to turn in some English minds, The watchers overseas feel their hands grow numb, Slidell and Mason and Huse still burrow and argue, But a cold breath blows through the rooms with the chandeliers. A door is beginning to close. Few men perceive The turn of the tide, the closing of the door. Lincoln does not perceive it. He sees alone The grind of the war, the lagging of the recruits, Election after election going against him, And Lee back safe in Virginia after Antietam While McClellan sticks for five weeks and will not move. He loses patience at last and removes McClellan. Burnside succeeds him— and the grimly bewildered Army of the Potomac has a new rider, Affable, portly, whiskered and self-distrusting, Who did not wish the command and tried to decline it, Took it at last and almost wept when he did. A worried man who passes like a sad ghost Across November, looking for confidence, And beats his army at last against stone walls At Fredericksburg in the expected defeat With frightful slaughter. The news of the thing comes back. There are tears in his eyes. He never wanted command. “Those men over there,” he groans, “Those men over there” —They are piled like cordwood in front of the stone wall— He wants to lead a last desperate charge himself, But he is restrained. The sullen army draws back, Licking its wounds. The night falls. The newspapers rave. There are sixty-three hundred dead in that doomed attack That never should have been made. His shoulders are bowed. He tries a vain march in the mud and resigns at last The weapon he could not wield. Joe Hooker succeeds him. The winter clamps down, cold winter of doubt and grief. * * * * * The sun shines, the wind goes by, The prisoners and captives lie In a cell without an eye. Winter will not touch them more Than the cold upon a sore That was frozen long before. Summer will not make them sweet Nor the rainy Springs refresh That extremity of heat In the self-corrupting flesh. The band blares, the bugles snort, They lose the fort or take the fort, Someone writes a wise report. Someone’s name is Victory. The prisoners and captives lie Too long dead before they die. * * * * * For all prisoners and captives now, For the dark legion, The Andersonvillers, the Castle Thunder men, The men who froze at Camp Morton and came from the dungeons With blood burst out on their faces. The men who died at Salisbury and Belle Isle, Elmira, St. Louis, Camp Douglas—the Libby tunnellers— The men in the fetid air. There are charges back and forth upon either side, Some true, some false. You can read the official reports, The dozen thick black-bound volumes of oaths and statements, A desert of type, a dozen black mummy-cases Embalming the long-forgotten, building again The cumbrous machine of guards and reports and orders, “Respectfully submitted” . . . “I beg to state” . . . “State of kitchen—good.” . . . “Food, quality of—quite good.” . . . “Police of hospital—good except Ward 7” . . . “Remarks—we have ninety-five cases of smallpox now.” . . . “Remarks—as to general health of prisoners, fair.” . . . “Remarks” . . . “Remarks” . . . “Respectfully submitted” . . . Under this type are men who used to have hands But the creaking wheels have respectfully submitted them Into a void, embalmed them in mummy-cases, With their chills and fever, their looks and plans of escape. They called one “Shorty,” they called another “The Judge,” One man wore the Virgin’s medal around his neck, One had a broken nose and one was a liar, “Respectfully submitted—” But, now and then, A man or a scene escapes from the mummy-cases, Like smoke escaping, blue smoke coiling into pictures, Stare at those coils— and see in the hardened smoke, The triple stockade of Andersonville the damned, Where men corrupted like flies in their own dung And the gangrened sick were black with smoke and their filth. There were thirty thousand Federal soldiers there Before the end of the war. A man called Wirtz, A Swiss, half brute, half fool, and wholly a clod, Commanded that camp of spectres. One reads what he did And longs to hang him higher than Haman hung, And then one reads what he said when he was tried After the war—and sees the long, heavy face, The dull fly buzzing stupidly in the trap, The ignorant lead of the voice, saying and saying, “Why, I did what I could, I was ordered to keep the jail. Yes, I set up deadlines, sometimes chased men with dogs, Put men in torturing stocks, killed this one and that, Let the camp corrupt till it tainted the very guards Who came there with mortal sickness. But they were prisoners, they were dangerous men, If a hundred died a day—how was it my fault? I did my duty. I always reported the deaths. I don’t see what I did different from other people. I fought well at Seven Pines and was badly wounded. I have witnesses here to tell you I’m a good man And that I was really kind. I don’t understand. I’m old. I’m sick. You’re going to hang me. Why?” Crush out the fly with your thumb and wipe your hand, You cannot crush the leaden, creaking machine, The first endorsement, the paper on the desk Referred by Adjutant Feeble to Captain Dull For further information and his report. Some men wish evil and accomplish it But most men, when they work in that machine, Just let it happen somewhere in the wheels. The fault is no decisive, villainous knife But the dull saw that is the routine mind. Why, if a man lay dying on their desk They’d do their best to help him, friend or foe, But this is merely a respectfully Submitted paper, properly endorsed To be sent on and on, and gather blood. Stare at the smoke again for a moment’s space And see another live man in another prison. A colored trooper named Woodson was on guard In the prison at Newport News, one night around nine. There was a gallery there, where the privy was, But prisoners weren’t allowed in it after dark. The colored soldier talked with the prisoners At first, in a casual, more or less friendly way; They tried to sell him breastpins and rings they had And bothered him by wanting to go to the privy. At last, he fired on a man Who went in the gallery, but happened to miss him. A lieutenant came down to ask the cause of the shot. Woodson told him. A second prisoner went On the same errand, a shadow slipping through shadows. Woodson halted him twice but he kept on moving. “There’s a man in the gallery now,” said the young lieutenant. “Well, I reckon it’s one of the men makin’ water again,” Said Woodson, uneasily. The lieutenant stiffened. He was officer of the guard and orders were orders. “Why don’t you use the bayonet on him?” he said. Woodson jumped forward. The bayonet hunched and struck. The man ran into the privy and fell like a log. . . . . A prisoner said “You’ve killed him dead,” in a voice. “Yes, by God!” said Woodson, cleaning his bayonet, “They buried us alive at Fort Pillow.” The court Found the sentry a trifle hasty, but on the whole Within his instructions, the officer’s orders lawful; One cannot dispute the court. And yet the man Who went to the privy is inconveniently dead. It seems an excessive judgment for going there. The little pictures wreathe into smoke again. The mummy-cases close upon the dark legion. The papers are filed away. If they once were sent To another court for some last word of review, They are back again. It seems strange that such tidy files Of correspondence respectfully submitted Should be returned from God with no final endorsement. * * * * * The slow carts hitched along toward the place of exchange Through a bleak wind. It was not a long wagon train, Wagons and horses were too important to waste On prisoners for exchange, if the men could march. Many did march and some few died on the way But more died up in the wagons, which was not odd. If a man was too sick to walk, he was pretty sick. They had been two days on the road. Jack Ellyat lay Between a perishing giant from Illinois Who raved that he was bailing a leaky boat Out on the Lakes, and a slight, tubercular Jew Who muttered like a sick duck when the wagon jounced. Bailey marched. He still was able to march But his skin hung on him. He hummed to the Weaver’s tune. They got to the river at last. Jack Ellyat saw A yellow stream and slow boats crossing the stream. Bailey had helped him out. He was walking now With his arm around Bailey’s neck. Their course was a crab’s. The Jew was up and staring with shoe-button eyes While his cough took him. The giant lay on a plank, Some men were trying to lift him. The wind blew Over a knife of frost and shook their rags. The air was a thawing ice of most pure, clear gold. They stared across the river and saw the flag And the tall, blue soldiers walking in thick, warm coats Like strong, big men who fed well. And then they cheered, A dry thin cheer, pumped up from exhausted lungs And yet with a metal vibrance. The bright flag flapped. “I can smell ’em frying meat,” said the coughing Jew. He sniffed, “Oh God, I hope it ain’t ham,” he said With his mouth puckered. A number of scarecrows laughed. And then they heard the echo of their own cheer Flung back at them, it seemed, in a high, shrill wail With that tongue of metal pulsing its feebleness. But it did not end like an echo, it gathered and rose, It was the Confederate sick on the other side, Cheering their own. The two weak crowd-voices met In one piping, gull-like cry. Then the boats began To take the weak men on board. Jack Ellyat walked To his boat on stuffless legs. “Keep quiet,” he thought, “You’re not through yet—you won’t be through till you land. They can jerk you back, even now, if you look too pleased. Look like a soldier, damn you, and show them how.” The thought was childish but it stiffened his back And got him into the boat. In the midst of the stream They passed a boat with Confederate prisoners So near they could yell at each other. “Hello there, Yank.” “Hello Reb” . . . “You look pretty sick—don’t we feed you good?” . . . “You don’t look so damn pretty, yourself” . . . “My, ain’t that a shame!” . . . “You’ll look a lot sicker when Hooker gets after you.” . . . “Hell, old Jack’ll take Hooker apart like a coffee-pot” . . . “Well, good-by, Yank” . . . “Good-by, Reb” . . . “Get fat if you kin.” So might meet and pass, perhaps, on a weedier stream Other boats, no more heavily charged, to a wet, black oar. Bailey watched the boat move away with its sick grey men Still yelling stingless insults through tired lips. He cupped his hands to his mouth. “Oh——” he roared, Then he sank back, coughing. “They look pretty bad,” he said, “They look glad to get back. They ain’t such bad Rebs at that.” The boat’s nose touched the wharf. It swung and was held. They got out. They didn’t move toward the camp at first. They looked back at the river first and the other side, Without saying words. They stood there thus for a space Like a row of tattered cranes at the edge of a stream, Blinking at something. “All right, you men,” said an officer. “Come along.” Jack Ellyat’s heart made a sudden lump in his chest. It was a blue officer. They were back in their lines, Back out of prison. Bailey whirled out his arm In a great wheel gesture. “Hell,” he said in a low, Moved voice, thumbed his nose across at the Stars and Bars And burst into horrible tears. Jack Ellyat held him. “Captain, when do we eat?” said the Jew in a wail. BOOK SIX Cudjo breathed on the silver urn And rubbed till his hand began to burn, With his hoarded scrap of chamois-skin. The metal glittered like bright new tin And yet, as he labored, his mouth was sad— “Times is gettin’ almighty bad. Christmas a-comin’, sure and swif’, But no use hollerin’ ‘Christmas Gif!’ No use keepin’ the silver fittin’, No use doin’ nothin’ but sittin’. Old Marse Billy stayin’ away, Yankees shootin’ at Young Marse Clay, Grey hairs in Miss Mary’s brush, And a-whooin’ wind in de berry-bush, Dat young red setter done eat her pups, We was washin’ de tea set an’ bust two cups, Just come apart in Liza’s han’— Christmas, where has you gwine to, man? Won’t you never come back again? I feels like a cat in de outdoors rain.” Christmas used to come without fail, A big old man with a raccoon tail, So fine and bushy it brushed the ground And made folks sneeze when he waltzed around. He was rolling river and lucky sun And a laugh like a double-barrelled gun, And the chip-straw hat on his round, bald head Was full of money and gingerbread. “Come in, Christmas, and have a cheer! But, if he’s comin’, he won’t stop here, He likes folks cheerful and dinners smokin’ And famblies shootin’ off caps and jokin’, But he won’t find nothin’ on dis plantation, But a lot of grievin’ conversation. Dey’s tooken de carpets and window-weights To go and shoot at de Yankee States, Dey’s tooken Nelly, de cross-eye mule, And whoever took her was one big fool; Dey’s tooken dis an’ dey’s tooken dat, Till I kain’t make out what dey’s drivin’ at. But if Ole Marse Billy could see dis place He’d cuss all Georgia blue in de face. To see me wuhkin with dis ole shammy Like a field-hand-nigger fum Alabammy, And Ole Miss wearin’ a corn-husk hat, Dippin’ ole close in de dyein’ vat, Scrapin’ her petticoats up for lint An’ bilin’ her tea out of julep-mint. Young Marse Clay he’d feel mighty sad If he’d seed de weddin’ his sisters had. De grooms was tall and de brides was fine, But dey drunk de health in blackberry wine, And supper was thu at half-past-nine. Weddin’s ust to last for a week, But now we’s rowin’ up Hard Times Creek. Somethin’s conjured dis white-folks’ South. Somethin’ big with a hongry mouth, Eatin’ an’ eatin’—I done my bes’, Scattered de fedders and burnt de nes’, Filled de bottle an’ made de hand An’ buried de trick in Baptis’ land, An’ dat trick’s so strong, I was skeered all night, But, somehow or udder, it don’ wuhk right. Ef I got me a piece of squinch-owl’s tail An’ some dead-folks’ yearth fum de county jail, It mout wuhk better—but I ain’t sho’, And de wind keeps scrabblin’ under de do’, Scratchin’ and scratchin’ his buzzard-claws, Won’t nuthin’ feed you, hongry jaws? Field hands keeps on hoein’ de corn, Stupidest niggers ever born, All dey’s good for is gravy-lickin’, Ram-buttin’ and cotton-pickin’; Dey don’t hear de wind in de slew, But dat wind’s blowin’ over ’em too, An’ dat wind’s res’less an’ dat wind’s wile, An’ dat wind aches like a motherless chile, Won’t nuthin’ feed you, achin’ wind?” The hand stopped rubbing. The spoons were shined. He put them back in the flannel bag And stared at his scrap of chamois-rag. War was a throat that swallowed things And you couldn’t cure it with conjurings. * * * * * Sally Dupré watched over her dyeing-pots, Evening was setting in with a light slow rain That marched like a fairy army—there being nothing From the white fog on the hill to the soaked door-stone But a moving grey and silver hurry of lances, Distinct yet crowded, thin as the edge of the moon, Carried in no fleshed hand. She thought to herself, “I have stained my arms with new colors, doing this work, The red is pokeberry-juice, the grey is green myrtle, The deep black is queen’s delight. If he saw me now With my hands so parti-colored he would not know them. He likes girls’ hands that nothing has stained but lotions, This is too fast a dye. I will dye my heart In a pot of queen’s delight, in the pokeberry sap, I will dye it red and black in the fool’s old colors And send it to him, wrapped in a calico rag, To keep him warm through the rain. It will keep him warm. And women in love do better without a heart. What fools we are to wait the wheel of the year, The year will not help our trouble. What fools we are To give our parti-colored hearts to the rain. I am tired of the slogans now and tired of the saving, I want to dance all night in a brand-new dress And forget about wars and love and the South and courage. The South is an old high house full of charming ladies, The war is a righteous war full of gallant actions, And love is a white camellia worn in the hair. But I am tired of talking to charming ladies And the smell of the white camellia, I will dye My hands twice as black as ink in the working waters And wait like a fool for bitter love to come home. He was wounded this year. They hurt him. They hurt you, darling. I have no doubt she came with a bunch of flowers And talked to your wound and you like a charming lady. I have no doubt that she came. Her heart is not parti-colored. She’ll not go steeping Her gentle hands in the pulp and the dead black waters Till the crooked blot lies there like a devil’s shadow, And the heart is stained with the stain. If I came to the bed where you lay sick and in fever, I would not come with little tight-fisted flowers But with the white heron’s plume that lay in the forest Till it was cooler than sleep. The living balm would touch on your wound less gently, The Georgia sun less fierce than my arms to hold you, The steel bow less stubborn than my curved body Strung against august death. They hurt you, darling, they hurt you and I not with you, I nowhere there to slit the cloth from your burning, To find the head of the man who fired the bullet And give his eyes to the crows. House, house, house, it is not that my friend was wounded, But that you kept him from me while he had freedom, You and the girl whose heart is a snuffed white candle— Now I will curse you both. Comely house, high-courteous house of the gentle, You must win your war for my friend is mixed in your quarrel, But then you must fall, you must fall, for your walls divide us, Your worn stones keep us apart. I am sick of the bland camellias in your old gardens, Your pride and passion are not my pride and my passion, I am strangling to death in your cables of honeysuckle, Your delicate lady-words. I would rather dig in the earth than learn your patience, I have need of a sky that never was cut for dresses And a rough ground to tear my hands on like lion’s clothing, And a hard wheel to move. The low roof by the marches of rainy weather, The sharp love that carries the fool’s old colors, The bare bed that is not a saint’s or a lady’s, The strong death at the end. They hurt you, darling, they hurt you, and I not with you, I nowhere by to see you, to touch my darling, To take your fever upon me if I could take it And burn my hands at your wound. If I had been there—oh, how surely I would have found you, How surely killed your foe—and sat by your bedside All night long, like a mouse, like a stone unstirring, Only to hear your slow breath moving the darkness, Only to hear, more precious than childish beauty, The slow tired beat of your heart.” * * * * * Wingate sat by a smoky fire Mending a stirrup with rusty wire. His brows were clenched in the workman’s frown, In a day or a week they’d be back in town, He thought of it with a brittle smile That mocked at guile for its lack of guile And mocked at ease for its lack of ease. It was better riding through rainy trees And playing tag with the Union spies Than telling ladies the pleasant lies, And yet, what else could you do, on leave? He touched a rent in his dirty sleeve, That was the place that the bullet tore From the blue-chinned picket whose belt he wore, The man who hadn’t been quick enough, And the powder-burn on the other cuff Belonged to the fight with the Yankee scout Who died in Irish when he went out. He thought of these things as a man might think Of certain trees by a river-brink, Seen in a flash from a passing train, And, before you could look at them, gone again. It was more important to eat and drink Than give the pain or suffer the pain And life was too rapid for memory. “There are certain things that will cling to me, But not the things that I thought would cling, And the wound in my body cannot sting Like the tame black crow with the bandaged wing, The nervous eye and the hungry craw That picked at the dressing-station straw Till I was afraid it would pick my eyes And couldn’t lift hand to beat it off. I can tell the ladies the usual lies Of the wild night-duels when two scouts clash And your only light is his pistol-flash; But I remember a watering-trough Lost in a little brushwood town And the feel of Black Whistle slumping down Under my knees in the yellow air, Hit by a bullet from God knows where . . . Not the long, mad ride round the Union lines But the smell of the swamp at Seven Pines, The smell of the swamp by Gaines’s Mill, And Lee in the dusk before Malvern Hill, Riding along with his shoulders straight Like a sending out of the Scæan Gate, The cold intaglio of war. ‘This is Virginia’s _Iliad_,’ But Troy was taken nevertheless— I remember the eyes my father had When we saw our dead in the Wilderness— I cannot remember any more— Lucy will wear her English gown When the Black Horse Troop comes back to town, Pin her dress with a silver star And tell our shadows how brave we are. Lucy I like your white-and-gold—” He blew on his hands for the day was cold, And the damp, green wood gave little heat: There was something in him that matched the sleet And washed its hands in a rainy dream, Till the stirrup-strap and the horses’ steam And Shepley and Bristol behind his back, Playing piquet with a dog-eared pack And the hiss of the sap in the smoky wood Mixed for a moment in something good, Something outside of peace or war Or a fair girl wearing a silver star, Something hardly as vain as pride And gaunt as the men he rode beside. It made no comments but it was there, Real as the color of Lucy’s hair Or the taste of Henry Weatherby’s wine. He thought “These people are friends of mine. And we certainly fooled the Yanks last week, When we caught those wagons at Boiling Creek, I guess we’re not such a bad patrol If we never get straight with the muster-roll, I guess, next Spring, we can do it again—” Bristol threw down a flyspecked ten, “Theah,” he said, in the soft, sweet drawl That could turn as hard as a Minie-ball, “This heah day is my lucky day, And Shepley nevah could play piquet.” He stretched his arms in a giant yawn, “Gentlemen, when are we movin’ on? I have no desire for a soldier’s end, While I still have winnin’s that I can spend And they’s certain appointments with certain ladies Which I’d miss right smart if I went to Hades, Especially one little black-eyed charmer Whose virtue, one hopes, is her only armor, So if Sergeant Wingate’s mended his saddle I suggest that we all of us now skedaddle, To employ a term that the Yankees favor—” He tasted his words, for he liked the flavor. “And yet, one dreads to be back,” said he, “One knows how tippled one well may be If one meets with the oppor-tun-ity. And even the charmers can likewise raise Unpleasant doubts that may last for days— And as one,” he sighed, “of our martial lads, I’d rather be chargin’ Columbiads, Than actin’ sweet to some old smooth-bore When he tells me how he could win the War By burnin’ the next Yank crossroads-store. The Yanks aren’t always too blame polite, But they fight like sin when they’ve got to fight, And after they’ve almost nailed your hide To your stinkin’ saddle in some ole ride, It makes you mad when some nice home-guard Tells you they nevah could combat hard. I have no desire to complain or trouble But I’d find this conflict as comfortable As a big green pond for a duck to swim in, If it wasn’t for leave, and the lovin’ women.” * * * * * The snow lay hard on the hills. You could burn your eyes By too-long-looking into the cold ice-lens Of infinite, pure, glittering, winter air. It was as cold as that, as sparkling as that, Where the crystal trees stood up like strange, brittle toys After the sleet storm passed, till the setting sun Hung the glass boughs with rainbows frozen to gems And the long blue shadows pooled in the still hill-hollows. The white and the purple lilacs of New England Are frozen long, they will not bloom till the rains, But when you look from the window, you see them there, A great field of white lilacs. A gathered sheaf Of palest blossoms of lilac, stained with the purple evening. Jack Ellyat turned away from the window now, The frosty sleighbell of winter was in his ears, He saw the new year, a child in a buffalo-robe, Dragged in a sleigh whose runners were polished steel Up the long hill of February, into chill light. The child slept in the robe like a reindeer-colt, Nuzzled under the winter. The bright bells rang. He warmed his hands at the stove and shivered a little Hearing that ice-sweet chime. He was better now, But his blood felt thin when he thought of skating along Over black agate floors in the bonfire light Or beating a girl’s red mittens free of the snow, And he slept badly at times, when his flesh recalled Certain smells and sights that were prison. He stared at the clock where Phaëton’s horses lunged With a queer nod of recognition. The rest had altered, People and winter and nightmares and Ellen Baker, Or stayed in a good dimension that he had lost, But Phaëton was the same. He said to himself, “I have met you twice, old, drunken charioteer, Once in the woods, and once in a dirty shack Where Death was a coin of spittle left on the floor. I suppose we will meet again before there’s an end, Well, let it happen. It must have been cold last year At Fredericksburg. I’m glad I wasn’t in that. Melora, what’s happened to you?” He saw Melora Walking down from the woods in the low spring light. His body hurt for a minute, but then it stopped. He was getting well. He’d have to go back pretty soon. He grinned, a little dryly, thinking of chance, Father had seen the congressman after all, Just before Shiloh. So now, nearly ten months later, The curious wheels that are moved by such congressmen Were sending him back to the Army of the Potomac, Back with the old company, back with the Eastern voices, Henry Fairfield limping along with his sticks, Shot through both hips at Antietam. He didn’t care, Except for losing Bailey, which made it tough. He tried to puzzle out the change in his world But gave it up. Things and people looked just the same, You could love or like or detest them just the same way, But whenever you tried to talk of your new dimension It didn’t sound right, except to creatures like Bailey. “I have met you twice, old, drunken charioteer, The third time you may teach me how to be cool.” Ned, asleep by the stove, woke up and yawned, “Hello Ned,” said his master, with a half-smile, “I told a girl about you, back in a wood, You’d like that girl. She’d rub the back of your ears. And Bailey’d like you too. I wish Bailey was here. Want to go to war, Ned?” Ned yawned largely again. Ellyat laughed. “You’re right, old fella,” he said, “You get too mixed up in a war. You better stay here. God, I’d like to sleep by a stove for a million years, Turn into a dog and remember how to stand cold.” The clock struck five. Jack Ellyat jumped at the sound Then he sank back. “No, fooled you that time,” he said, As if the strokes had been bullets. Then he turned To see his mother, coming in with a lamp, And taste the strange tastes of supper and quietness. * * * * * John Vilas heard the beating of another Sleet at another and a rougher wall While his hands knotted together and then unknotted. Each time she had to moan, his hands shut down, And now the moans were coming close together, Close as bright streaks of hail. The younger children Slept the uneasy sleep of innocent dogs Who know there’s something strange about the house, Stranger than storms, and yet they have to sleep, And someone has to watch them sleeping now. “Harriet’s right and Harriet’s upstairs, And Harriet cried like this when she gave birth, Eighteen years back, in that chintz-curtained room, And her long cry ran like an icicle Into my veins. I can remember yet The terrible old woman with the shawl Who sat beside me, like deserted Fate, Cursing me with those eyes each time she cried, Although she must, one time, have cried like that And been the object of as wild a cry, And so far back,—and on—and always that, The linked, the agonizing chain of cries Brighter than steel, because earth will be earth And the sun strike it, and the seed have force. And yet no cry has touched me like this cry. Harriet’s right and Harriet’s upstairs And Harriet would have kept her from today, And now today has come, I look at it, Under the icicle, and wish it gone, Because it hurts me to be sitting here, Biting my fingers at my daughter’s cry And knowing Harriet has the harder task As she has had for nearly twenty years. And yet, what I have sought that I have sought And cannot disavouch for my own pang, Or be another father to the girl Than he who let her run the woods alone Looking for stones that have no business there. For Harriet sees a dozen kinds of pain. And some are blessed, being legitimate, And some are cursed, being outside a law: But she and I see only pain itself And are hard-hearted with our epitaphs, And yet I wish I could not hear that cry. I know that it will pass because all things Pass but the search that only ends with breath, And, even after that, my daughter and I May still get up from bondage, being such Smoke as no chain of steel-bright cries can chain To walk like Indian Summer through the woods And be the solitaries of the wind Till we are sleepy as old clouds at last. She has a lover and will have a child And I’m alone. I had forgotten that, Though you’d not think it easy to forget. No, we’ll not go together. The cries beat Like hail upon the cold panes of my heart Faster and faster, till they crack the glass And I can know at last how old I am. That is my punishment and my defence, My ecstasy and my deep-seated bane. I prayed to life for life once, in my youth, Between the rain and a long stroke of cloud Till my soaked limbs felt common with the sky And the black stone of heaven swung aside, With a last clap of water, to reveal Lonely and timid, after all that wrath, The small, cold, perfect flower of the new moon And now, perhaps, I’ll pray again tonight, Still to the life that used me as a man Uses and wears a strong and riotous horse, Still to the vagrants of no fortunate word. Men who go looking for the wilderness-stone, Eaters of life who run away from bread And are not satisfied with lucky days! Robbers of airy gold, skin-changing men Who find odd brothers when the moon is full, Stray alchemics who entertain an imp And feed it plums within a hollow tree Until its little belly is sufficed, Men who have seen the bronze male-partridge beat His drum of feathers not ten feet away, Men who have listened to wild geese at night Until your hearts were hollowed with that sound, Moth-light and owl-light and first-dayspring men, Seekers and seldom-finders of the woods, But always seekers till your eyes are shut; I have an elder daughter that I love And, having loved from childhood, would not tame Because I once was tamed. If you’re my friends, Then she’s your friend. I do not ask for her Refusal or compunction or the safe Road between little houses and old gates Where Death lies sleepy as a dog in the sun And the slow cows come home with evening bells Into the tired peace that’s good for pain. Those who are never tired of eating life Must immolate themselves against a star Sooner or late, as she turns crucified Now, on that flagellating wheel of light Which will not miss one revolution’s turn For any anguish we can bring to it, Because it is our master and our stone, Body of pain, body of sharpened fire, Body of quenchless life, itself, itself, That safety cannot buy or peddlers sell Or the rich cowards leave their silly sons. But, oh, She’s tired out, she’s broken, she’s athirst. Wrap her in twilights now, she is so torn, And mask again the cold, sweat-runnelled mask With the deep silence of a leafy wood So cool and dim its birds are all asleep And will not fret her. Wipe her straining hands With the soft, gleaming cobwebs April spins Out of bright silver tears and spider silk Till they are finer than the handkerchiefs Of a young, wild, spear-bearing fairy-queen. Soothe her and comfort her and let her hear No harshness but the mumbling peaceful sound The fed bee grumbles to his honey-bags In the red foxglove’s throat. Oh, if you are Anything but lost shadows, go to her!” Melora did not make such words for herself, Being unable, and too much in pain. If wood-things were beside her, she did not see them, But only a lamp, and hands. The pains came hard now, A fist that hardly opened before it shut, A red stair mounting into an ultimate Flurry of misty conflict, when it seemed As if she fought against the earth itself For mere breath and something other than mere breath. She heard the roar of the tunnel, drowned in earth. Earth and its expulsive waters, tearing her, being born. Then it was yellow silence and a weak crying. After the child was washed, they showed her the child, Breakable, crumpled, breathing, swathed and indignant, With all its nails and hands that moved of themselves— A queer thing to come out of that, but then it was there. “Looks healthy enough,” said her mother in a tired voice. Melora stared. “He’s got blue eyes,” she said finally. Her mother sniffed. “A lot of ’em start out blue.” She looked at the child as if she wanted to tell it, “You aren’t respectable. What are you doing here?” But the child began wailing. She rocked it mechanically. The rain kept on through the night but nobody listened. The parents talked for a while, then they fell asleep. Even the new child slept with its fists tight shut. Melora heard the rain for a single moment And then deep, beautiful nothing. “Over,” she thought. She slept, handfasted to the wilderness-stone. * * * * * Now the earth begins to roll its wheel toward the sun, The deep mud-gullies are drying. The sluggish armies That have slept the bear-months through in their winter-camps, Begin to stir and be restless. They’re tired enough Of leaky huts and the rain and punishment-drill. They haven’t forgotten what it was like last time, But next time we’ll lick ’em, next time it won’t be so bad, Somehow we won’t get killed, we won’t march so hard. “These huts looked pretty good when we first hit camp But they look sort of lousy now—we might as well git— Fight the Rebs—and the Yanks—and finish it up.” So they think in the bored, skin-itching months While the roads are drying. “We’re sick of this crummy place, We might as well git, it doesn’t much matter where.” But when they git, they are cross at leaving the huts, “We fixed up ours first rate. We had regular lamps. We knew the girls at the Depot. It wasn’t so bad. Why the hell do we have to git when we just got fixed? Oh, well, we might as well travel.” So they go on, The huts drop behind, the dry road opens ahead. . . . Fighting Joe Hooker feels good when he looks at his men. A blue-eyed, uncomplex man with a gift for phrase. “The finest army on the planet,” he says. The phrase is to turn against him with other phrases When he is beaten—but now he is confident. Tall, sandy, active, sentimental and tart, His horseman’s shoulder is not yet bowed by the weight Of knowing the dice are his and the cast of them, The weight of command, the weight of Lee’s ghostly name. He rides, preparing his fate. In the other camps, Lee writes letters, is glad to get buttermilk, Wrings food and shoes and clothes from his commissariat, Trusts in God and whets a knife on a stone. Jackson plays with his new-born daughter, waiting for Spring, His rare laugh clangs as he talks to his wife and child. He is looking well. War always agrees with him, And this, perhaps, is the happiest time of his life. He has three months of it left. By the swollen flood Of the Mississippi, stumpy Grant is a mole Gnawing at Vicksburg. He has been blocked four times But he will carry that beaver-dam at last. There is no brilliant lamp in that dogged mind And no conceit of brilliance to shake the hand, But hand and mind can use the tools that they get This long way out of Galena. Sherman is there And Sherman loves him and finds him hard to make out, In Sherman’s impatient fashion—the quick, sharp man Seeing ten thousand things where the slow sees one And yet with a sort of younger brother awe At the infinite persistence of that slow will —They make a good pair of hunting dogs, Grant and Sherman, The nervous, explosive, passionate, slashing hound And the quiet, equable, deadly holder-on, Faded-brown as a cinnamon-bear in Spring— See them like that, the brown dog and the white dog, Calling them back and forth through the scrubby woods After the little white scut of Victory, Or see them as elder brother and younger brother, But remember this. In their time they were famous men And yet they were not jealous, one of the other. When the gold has peeled from the man on the gilded horse, Riding Fifth Avenue, and the palm-girl’s blind; When the big round tomb gapes empty under the sky, Vacant with summer air, when it’s all forgotten, When nobody reads the books, when the flags are moth-dust, Write up that. You won’t have to write it so often. It will do as well as the railway-station tombs. So with the troops and the leaders of the bear-armies, The front-page-newspaper-things. Tall Lincoln reviews Endless columns crunching across new snow. They pass uncheering at the marching-salute. Lincoln sits on his horse with his farmer’s seat, Watching the eyes go by and the eyes come on. The gaunt, long body is dressed in its Sunday black, The gaunt face, strange as an omen, sad and foreboding. The eyes look at him, he looks back at the eyes; They pass and pass. They go back to their camps at last. “So that was him,” they say. “So that’s the old man. I’m glad we saw him. He isn’t so much on looks But he looks like people you know. He looks sad all right, I never saw nobody look quite as sad as that Without it made you feel foolish. He don’t do that. He makes you feel—I dunno—I’m glad we could see him. He was glad to see us but you could tell all the same This war’s plumb killin’ him. You can tell by his face. I never saw such a look on any man’s face. I guess it’s tough for him. Well, we saw him, for once.” That day in Richmond, a mob of angry women Swarm in the streets and riot for bread or peace. They loot some shops, a few for the bread they need, A few for thieving, most because they are moved By discontent and hunger to do as the rest. The troops are called out. The troops are about to fire, But Davis gets on a wagon and calms the crowd Before the tumbled bodies clutter the street. He never did a better thing with his voice And it should be told. Next day they riot again, But this time the fire is weaker. They are dispersed, A few arrested. Bread grows dearer than ever. The housewives still go out with their market-baskets, But coffee’s four dollars a pound and tea eleven. They come back with a scraping of this and a scrap of that And try to remember old lazy, lagnappe days, The slew-foot negro chanting his devilled crabs Along the street, and the market-women piling The wicker baskets with everything good and fresh; Topping it off with a great green fist of parsley That you used to pretty the sides of the serving-dish And never bothered to eat. They improvise dishes, “Blockade pudding” . . . “Confederate fricassee,” Serve hominy grits on the Royal Derby china And laugh or weep in their cups of willow-bark tea. Davis goes back from the riot, his shoulders stooped, The glow of speech has left him and he feels cold. He eats a scant meal quickly and turns to the endless Papers piled on his desk, the squabbles and plans. A haggard dictator, fretting the men he rules And being fretted by them. He dreams, perhaps, Of old days, riding wild horses beside his wife Back in his youth, on a Mississippi road. That was a good time. It is past. He drowns in his papers. The curtain is going up on that battlesmoked, Crowded third act which is to decide this war And yet not end it for years. Turn your eyes away From these chiefs and captains, put them back in their books. Let the armies sleep like bears in a hollow cave. War is an iron screen in front of a time, With pictures smoked upon it in red and black, Some gallant enough, some deadly, but all intense. We look at the pictures, thinking we know the time, We only know the screen. Look behind it now At the great parti-colored quilt of these patchwork States. This part and that is vexed by a battle-worm, But the ploughs go ahead, the factory chimneys smoke, A new age curdles and boils in a hot steel caldron And pours into rails and wheels and fingers of steel, Steel is being born like a white-hot rose In the dark smoke-cradle of Pittsburg— a man with a crude Eye of metal and crystal looks at a smear On a thin glass plate and wonders— a shawled old woman Sits on a curbstone calling the evening news. War, to her, is a good day when papers sell Or a bad day when papers don’t. War is fat black type. Anything’s realer than war. By Omaha The valleys and gorges are white with the covered wagons Moving out toward the West and the new, free land. All through the war they go on. Five thousand teams Pass Laramie in a month in the last war-year, Draft-evaders, homesteaders, pioneers, Old soldiers, Southern emigrants, sunburnt children. . . . Men are founding colleges, finding gold, Selling bad beef to the army and making fortunes, Ploughing the stone-cropped field that their fathers ploughed. (Anything’s realer than war.) A moth of a woman, Shut in a garden, lives on scraps of Eternity With a dog, a procession of sunsets and certain poems She scribbles on bits of paper. Such poems may be Ice-crystals, rubies cracked with refracted light, Or all vast death like a wide field in ten short lines. She writes to the tough, swart-minded Higginson Minding his negro troops in a lost bayou, “War feels to me like an oblique place.” A man Dreams of a sky machine that will match the birds And another, dusting the shelves of a country store, Saves his pennies until they turn into dimes. (Anything’s realer than war.) A dozen men Charter a railroad to go all across the Plains And link two seas with a whistling iron horse. A whiskered doctor stubbornly tries to find The causes of childbed-fever—and, doing so, Will save more lives than all these war-months have spent, And never inhabit a railway-station tomb. All this through the war, all this behind the flat screen. . . . I heard the song of breath Go up from city and country, The even breath of the sleeper, The tired breath of the sick, The dry cough in the throat Of the man with the death-sweat on him, And the quiet monotone We breathe but do not hear. The harsh gasp of the runner, The long sigh of power Heaving the weight aloft, The grey breath of the old. Men at the end of strength With their lungs turned lead and fire, Panting like thirsty dogs; A child’s breath, blowing a flame. The breath that is the voice, The silver, the woodwinds speaking, The dear voice of your lover, The hard voice of your foe, And the vast breath of wind, Mysterious over mountains, Caught in pines like a bird Or filling all hammered heaven. I heard the song of breath, Like a great strand of music, Blown between void and void, Uncorporal as the light. The breath of nations asleep, And the piled hills they sleep in, The word that never was flesh And yet is nothing but life. What are you, bodiless sibyl, Unseen except as the frost-cloud Puffed from a silver mouth When the hard winter’s cold? We cannot live without breath, And yet we breathe without knowledge, And the vast strand of sound Goes on, eternally sighing, Without dimension or space, Without beginning or end. I heard the song of breath And lost it in all sharp voices, Even my own voice lost Like a thread in that huge strand, Lost like a skein of air, And with it, continents lost In the great throat of Death. I trembled, asking in vain, Whence come you, whither art gone? The continents flow and melt Like wax in the naked candle, Burnt by the wick of time— Where is the breath of the Chaldees, The dark, Minoan breath? I said to myself in hate, Hearing that mighty rushing, Though you raise a new Adam up And blow fresh fire in his visage, He has only a loan of air, And gets but a breathing-space. But then I was quieted. I heard the song of breath, The gulf hollow with voices, Fused into one slow voice That never paused or was faint. Man, breathing his life, And with him all life breathing, The young horse and the snake, Beetle, lion and dove, Solemn harps of the fir, Trumpets of sea and whirlwind And the vast, tiny grass Blown by a breath and speaking. I heard these things. I heard The multitudinous river. When I came back to my life, My voice was numb in my ears, I wondered that I still breathed. * * * * * Sophy, scared chambermaid in Pollet’s Hotel, Turned the cornhusk mattress and plumped the pillow With slipshod hands. Then she picked the pillow up And sniffed it greedily. Something in it smelt sweet. The bright, gold lady had slept there the night before— Oh, her lovely, lovely clothes! and the little green bottle That breathed out flowers when you crept into the room And pulled out the silver stopper just far enough To get the sweetness, not far enough to be caught If anyone came. It made her thin elbows ache To think how fine and golden the lady was And how sweet she smelled, how sweet she looked at the men, How they looked at her. “I’d like to smell sweet,” she thought, “Smell like a lady.” She put the hard pillow back. The lady and the green bottle had gone away. —If only you had clever hands—after the next sleeper— —You could steal green bottles—the room would smell stale again— Hide it somewhere under your dress—as it always did— Stale cigars and tired bodies—or even say When they reached to give you the tip, “Don’t give me a tip, Just give me”—unwashed men with their six-weeks’ beards, Trying to hold you back when—“that little green bottle, I want it so.”—but the lady would never do it. Ladies named Lucy. Lucy was a good name, Flower-smelling. Sophy was just a name. She took up her broom and swept ineffectively, Thinking dim thoughts. The ladies named Lucy came, Sometimes in the winter, and then all the men got shaved And you could look through the door at the people dancing. But when battles drew near, the ladies went home to stay. It was right they should. War wasn’t a thing for ladies. War was an endless procession of dirty boots. Filling pitchers and emptying out the slops, And making the cornhusk beds for the unshaved men Who came in tired—but never too tired to wonder— Look in the eyes—and hands—and suppose you didn’t, They didn’t like it—and if you did, it was nothing— But they always—and rough sometimes—and drunk now and then— And a couple of nice ones—well, it didn’t mean nothing. It was merely hard to carry the heavy pails When you didn’t get fed enough and got up so soon. But, now the army was moving, there wouldn’t be So many men or beds or slops for a while And that meant something. She sighed and dabbed with her broom. Shippy, the little man with the sharp rat-eyes, Came behind her and put his hands on her waist. She let him turn her around. He held her awhile While his eyes tried to look at her and over his shoulder At once and couldn’t. She felt his poor body shake But she didn’t think much about it. He murmured something. She shook her head with the air of a frightened doll And he let her go. “Well, I got to go anyway,” He said, in a gloomy voice. “I’m late as it is, But I thought that maybe—” He let the sentence trail off. “What do you want, next time I come back?” he said. Her face was sharper. “You bring me a bottle, Charley, The kind that lady had, with the Richmond scent. Hers has got a big silver stopper.” He pursed his mouth. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll try. I’d like to all right. You be a good girl now, Soph. Do you love me, Sophy?” “Uh-huh,” she said, in a tired voice, thinking of pitchers. “Well, I—you’re a good girl, Soph.” He held her again. “I’m late,” he muttered. She looked at him and felt mean. He was skimpy like her. They ought to be nice to each other. She didn’t like him much but she sort of loved him. “You be a good girl till Charley comes back,” he mumbled Kissing her nervously. “I’ll bring you the scent.” “It’s got a name called French Lilies,” she said. “Oh, Charley!” They clung together a moment like mournful shadows. He was crying a little, the wet tears fell on her chin, She cried herself when he’d gone, she didn’t know why, But when she thought of the scent with the silver stopper She felt more happy. She went to make the next bed. * * * * * Luke Breckinridge, washing his shirt in a muddy pool, Chewed on a sour thought. Only yesterday He had seen the team creak by toward Pollet’s Hotel With that damn little rat-eyed peddler driving his mules As if he was God Almighty. He conjured up A shadow-Shippy before him to hate and bruise As he beat his shirt with a stone. “If we-uns was home, I could just lay for him and shoot him out of the bresh, Goin’ to see my girl with his lousy mules. Tryin’ to steal my girl with his peddler’s talk!” But here, in the war, you could only shoot at the Yanks, If you shot other folks, they found out about it and shot you, Just like you was a spyer or something mean Instead of a soldier. There wasn’t no sense to it. “Teach him to steal my girl—if I had him home, Back in the mountains—I told her straight the last time, You be a good girl, Soph, and I’ll buy you a dress— We can fix the cabin up fine—and if we have kids We’ll get ourselves married. Couldn’t talk fairer than that, And she’s a good girl—but women’s easy to change— God-damn peddler, givin’ her Richmond trash, And we-uns movin’ away to scrimmage the Yanks Before I git a chance to see her agin And find out if she’s been good—He’ll come back this way, Drivin’ his mules—plumb easy to lay for him, But they’d catch me, shore.” His mouth had a bitter twist, His slow mind grubbed for a plan to settle his doubts. At last he dropped his stone with a joyous whoop. “Hey, Billy,” he called to his neighbor. “Got your shirt dry? Well, lend it here for a piece until mine’s wrung out, I got to go see the Captain.” Billy demurred. “I got friends enough in this shirt,” he said with a drawl. “I ain’t hankerin’ after no visitors out of yours. I’m a modest man and my crawlies is sort of shy, They don’t mix well with strangers. They’s Piedmont crawlies. Besides, this shirt, she’s still got more shirt than hole, Yours ain’t a shirt—it’s a doughnut.” They swore for a while But finally Luke went off with the precious shirt, Whistling the tuneless snatch of a mountain jig, “Gawd help you, peddler,” he thought, as he looked for the Captain. Shippy drove his rattletrap cart along Through the dusty evening, worried and ill at ease. He ought to have taken the other road by the creek But he’d wasted too much time at Pollet’s Hotel Looking for Sophy—and hardly seen her at that— And now she wanted a bottle of scent. His soul Shivered with fear like a thin dog in the cold, Raging in vain at the terrible thing called Life. —There must be a corner somewhere where you could creep, Curl up soft and be warm—but he’d never found it. The big boys always stole his lunch at the school And rubbed his nose in the dirt—and when he grew up It was just the same. There was something under his face, Something that said, “Come, bully me—I won’t bite.” He couldn’t see it himself, but it must be there. He was always going places and thinking, “This time, They won’t find out.” But they always did find out After a while. It had been that way at the store, That way in the army, that way now as a spy. Behind his eyes he built up a super-Shippy Who ordered people around, loved glittering girls, Threw out his chest and died for a bloody flag And then revived to be thanked by gilt generals, A schoolboy Shippy, eating the big boys’ lunch. It was his totem. He visioned that Shippy now, Reckless Shippy with papers sewed in his boots, Slyly carrying fate through the Rebel lines To some bright place where— The off mule stumbled and brayed. He cursed it whimperingly and jerked at the reins, While his heart jerked, too. The super-Shippy was gone. He was alone and scared and late on the road. My God, but he was scared of being a spy And the mute-faced woman in Richmond and war and life! He had some papers sewn in his boots all right And they’d look at the papers while he stood sweating before them, Crumple them up and bully him with cross speech, “Couldn’t you even find out where Heth’s men are? Can’t you draw a map? You don’t know about Stonewall Jackson? Why don’t you know it? What’s this ford by the church? My God, man, what do you think you are out there for? You’ll have to do better next time, I can tell you that. We’ll send you over Route 7. We had a man there, But he’s been reported killed—” He shuddered in vain, Seeing a rope and a tree and a dangling weight And the mute-faced woman sending a paper off In somebody’s else’s boots, and somebody saying In an ice-cream voice to another scared little man. “Next time, you’ll try Route 7. We had a man there, But he’s been reported killed—” Oh, there is a hole Somewhere deep in the ground where the rabbits hide, But I’ve never found it— They stuck up signs and a flag And it was war and you went and got scared to death By the roar and the yells and the people trying to kill you Till anything else seemed better—and there you were, Driving mules with papers sewn in your boots, But people still wanting to kill you—and no way out. If you deserted, the mute-faced woman would know And that would be the worst—and if you went back, It would be Bull Run and yelling and all that blood When it made you sick to your stomach. Even at school You always had to fight. There was no way out. Sophy was sweet and Sophy was a good girl And Sophy was the warm earth where the rabbits hide Away from danger, letting their hearts go slow, But you couldn’t stay with Sophy, you couldn’t stay, And she’d say she’d be a good girl— but, in spite of himself, He saw a big boy tearing a cardboard box Apart, with greedy hands, in a bare school-yard, Where a Shippy whimpered— “Oh, Soph, I’ll get you the scent, Honest I will! Oh God, just let me get through, Just this one time—and I’ll pray—I’ll be good—oh God, Make these papers something they want!” He clucked to his mules. Another mile and he’d be out on the pike And pretty safe for a while. His spirit returned To building the super-Shippy from dust again. His head began to nod with the sway of the cart. . . . Half a dozen men rode out from a little clearing And casually blocked the road. He pulled up his mules, Staring around. He saw a face that he knew, Now queer with triumph—Sophy filling a pail And that gangling fellow lounging against the pump, Hungry-eyed— It happened too fast to be scary. You got stopped such a lot. It was only some new patrol. “All the boys know me,” he said. “Yes, I got my pass.” They took the pass but they did not give it back. There was a waver shaking the dusty air, The feel of a cord grown tauter. How dry his throat was! He’d be driving on in a minute. “Well boys?” he said, “Well, fellers?” They didn’t answer or look at him. “I tell you that’s the man,” said the mountaineer. The sergeant-feller looked dubiously at the rest, Gentlemanly he looked like, a nice young feller With his little black moustache and his thin, brown face, He wouldn’t do anything mean. It would be all right. Another man was paring his nails with a knife, His face was merry and reckless—nice feller, too, Feller to stand you a drink and talk gay with the girls, Not anybody to hurt you or twist your wrist. They were all nice fellers except for the mountaineer. They were searching him now, but they didn’t do it mean. He babbled to them all through it. “Now boys, now boys, You’re making a big mistake, boys. They all know me, They all know Charley the peddler.” The sergeant looked Disgusted now—wonder why. Go ahead and look, You’ll never find it—Sophy—bottle of scent— A horrible voice was saying, “Pull off his boots,” He fought like a frightened rat then, weeping and biting, But they got him down and found the papers all right. Luke Breckinridge observed them with startled eyes, “Christ,” he thought, “so the skunk’s a spy after all. Well, I told ’em so—but I didn’t reckon he was. Little feist of a peddler, chasin’ my girl, Wanted to scare him off so he wouldn’t come back— Hell, they ought to make me a corporal now.” He was pleased. Clay Wingate looked at the writhing man, “Get up!” he said, in a hard voice, feeling sick. But they had to drag it up before it would stand And even then it still babbled. His throat was dry But that was all right—it was going to be all right— He was alive—he was Shippy—he knew a girl— He was going to buy her a bottle of first-class scent. It couldn’t all stop. He wasn’t ready to die. He was willing enough to be friends and call it a joke. Let them take the mules and the cart and hurt him a lot Only not that—it was other spies who were hung, Not himself, not Shippy, not the body he knew With the live blood running through it, making it warm. He was real. He wore clothes. He could make all this go away If he shut his eyes. They’d turn him loose in a minute. They were all nice fellers. They wouldn’t treat a man mean. They couldn’t be going to hang him. But they were. * * * * * Lucy Weatherby spread out gowns on a bed And wondered which she could wear to the next levee. The blue was faded, the rose brocade had a tear, She’d worn the flowered satin a dozen times, The apricot had never gone with her hair, And somebody had to look nice at the evening parties. But it was hard. The blockade runners of course— But so few of them had space for gowns any more And, really, they charged such prices! Of course it is The war, and, of course, when one thinks of our dear, brave boys— But, nevertheless, they like a girl to look fresh When they come back from their fighting. When one goes up To the winter-camps, it doesn’t matter so much, Any old rag will do for that sort of thing. But here, in Richmond . . . She pondered, mentally stitching, Cutting and shaping, lost in a pleasant dream. Fighting at Chancellorsville and Hooker beaten And nobody killed that you knew so terribly well Except Jo Frear’s second brother—though it was sad Our splendid general Jackson’s lost his arm, Such an odd man but so religious. She hummed a moment “That’s Stonewall Jackson’s way” in her clear cool voice. “I really should have trained for nursing,” she thought. She heard a voice say. “Yes, the General’s very ill, But that lovely new nurse will save him if anyone can. She came out from Richmond on purpose.” The voice stopped speaking. She thought of last month and the boys and the Black Horse Troop, And the haggard little room in Pollet’s Hotel Whose slipshod chambermaid had such scared, round eyes. She was just as glad they were fighting now, after all, Huger had been so jealous and Clay so wild, It was quite a strain to be engaged to them both Especially when Jim Merrihew kept on writing And that nice Alabama major— She heard the bells Ring for a wedding—but who was the man beside her? He had a face made up of too many faces. And yet, a young girl must marry— You may dance, Play in the sun and wear bright gowns to levees, But soon or late, the hands unlike to your hands But rough and seeking, will catch your lightness at last And with strange passion force you. What is this passion, This injury that women must bear for gowns? It does not move me or stir me. I will not bear it. There are women enough to bear it. If I have sweetness, It is for another service. It is my own. I will not share it. I’ll play in the heat of the sun. And yet, young girls must marry—what am I thinking? She stepped from her hoops to try on the rose brocade, But let it lie for a moment, while she stood up To look at the bright ghost-girl in the long dark mirror, Adoringly. “Oh, you honey,” she thought. “You honey! You look so pretty—and nobody knows but me. Nobody knows.” She kissed her little white shoulders, With fierce and pitying love for their shining whiteness, So soft, so smooth, so untarnished, so honey-sweet. Her eyes were veiled. She swayed in front of the mirror. “Honey, I love you,” she whispered, “I love you, honey. Nobody loves you like I do, do they, sugar? Nobody knows but Lucy how sweet you are. You mustn’t get married, honey. You mustn’t leave me. We’ll be pretty and sweet to all of them, won’t we, honey? We’ll always have beaus to dance with and tunes to dance to, But you mustn’t leave me, honey. I couldn’t bear it. You mustn’t ever leave me for any man.” * * * * * In the dense heart of the thicketed Wilderness, Stonewall Jackson lies dying for four long days. They have cut off his arm, they have tried such arts as they know, But no arts now can save him. When he was hit By the blind chance bullet-spatter from his own lines, In the night, in the darkness, they stole him off from the field To keep the men from knowing, but the men knew. The dogs in the house will know when there’s something wrong. You do not have to tell them. He marched his men That grim first day across the whole Union front To strike a sleepy right wing with a sudden stone And roll it up—it was his old trick of war That Lee and he could play like finger and thumb! It was the last time they played so. When the blue-coated Unprepared ranks of Howard saw that storm, Heralded by wild rabbits and frightened deer, Burst on them yelling, out of the whispering woods, They could not face it. Some men died where they stood, The storm passed over the rest. It was Jackson’s storm, It was his old trick of war, for the last time played. He must have known it. He loosed it and drove it on, Hearing the long yell shake like an Indian cry Through the dense black oaks, the clumps of second-growth pine, And the red flags reel ahead through the underbrush. It was the hour he did not stop to taste, Being himself. He saw it and found it good, But night was falling, the Union centre still held, Another attack would end it. He pressed ahead Through the dusk, pushing Little Sorrel, as if the horse Were iron, and he were iron, and all his men Not men but iron, the stalks of an iron broom Sweeping a dire floor clean—and yet, as he rode, A canny captain, planning a ruthless chess Skilfully as night fell. The night fell too soon. It is hard to tell your friend from your enemy In such a night. So he rode too far in advance And, turning back toward his lines, unrecognized, Was fired upon in the night, in the stumbling darkness, By his own men. He had ridden such rides before Often enough and taken the chance of them, But this chance was his bane. He lay on the bed After the arm had been lopped from him, grim and silent, Refusing importunate Death with terrible eyes. Death was a servant and Death was a sulky dog And Death crouched down by the Lord in the Lord’s own time, But he still had work to finish that Death would spoil. He would live in spite of that servant. Now and then He spoke, with the old curt justice that never once Denied himself or his foe or any other The rigid due they deserved, as he saw that due. He spoke of himself and his storm. “A successful movement. I think the most successful I ever made.” —He had heard that long yell shake like an Indian cry Through the ragged woods and seen his flags go ahead. Later on, they brought him a stately letter from Lee That said in Lee’s gracious way, “You have only lost Your left arm, I my right.” The dour mouth opened. “Better ten Jacksons should fall than one Lee,” it said And closed again, while the heart went on with its task Of beating off foolish, unnecessary Death. The slow time wore. They had to tell him at last That he must die. The doctors were brave enough, No doubt, but they looked awhile at the man on the bed And summoned his wife to do it. So she told him. He would not believe at first. Then he lay awhile Silent, while some slow, vast reversal of skies Went on in the dying brain. At last he spoke. “All right,” he said. She opened the Bible and read. It was Spring outside the window, the air was warm, The rough, plank house was full enough of the Spring. They had had a good life together, those two middle-aged Calm people, one reading aloud now, the other silent. They had passed hard schools. They were in love with each other And had been for many years. Now that tale was told. They had been poor and odd, found each other trusty, Begotten children, prayed, disliked to be parted, Had family-jokes, known weather and other matters, Planned for an age: they were famous now, he was dying. The clock moved on, the delirium began. The watchers listened, trying to catch the words; Some awed, one broken-hearted, a few, no doubt, Not glad to be there precisely, but in a way Glad that, if it must happen, they could be there. It is a human emotion. The dying man Went back at first to his battles, as soldiers do. He was pushing a new advance With the old impatience and skill, over tangled ground, A cloudy drive that did not move as he willed Though he had it clear in his mind. They were slow today. “Tell A. P. Hill to push them—push the attack— Get up the guns!” The cloudy assault dispersed. There were no more cannon. The ground was plain enough now. He lay silent, seeing it so, while the watchers listened. He had been dying once, but that was a dream. The ground was plain enough now. He roused himself and spoke in a different voice. “Let us cross the river,” he said, “and rest under the shade of the trees.” BOOK SEVEN They came on to fish-hook Gettysburg in this way, after this fashion. Over hot pikes heavy with pollen, past fields where the wheat was high. Peaches grew in the orchards; it was a fertile country, Full of red barns and fresh springs and dun, deep-uddered kine. A farmer lived with a clear stream that ran through his very house-room, They cooled the butter in it and the milk, in their wide, stone jars; A dusty Georgian came there, to eat and go on to battle; They dipped the milk from the jars, it was cold and sweet in his mouth. He heard the clear stream’s music as the German housewife served him, Remembering the Shenandoah and a stream poured from a rock; He ate and drank and went on to the gunwheels crushing the harvest. It was a thing he remembered as long as any guns. Country of broad-backed horses, stone houses and long, green meadows, Where Getty came with his ox-team to found a steady town And the little trains of my boyhood puffed solemnly up the Valley Past the market-squares and the lindens and the Quaker meeting-house. Penn stood under his oak with a painted sachem beside him, The market-women sold scrapple when the first red maples turned; When the buckeyes slipped from their sheaths, you could gather a pile of buckeyes, Red-brown as old polished boots, good to touch and hold in the hand. The ice-cream parlor was papered with scenes from _Paul and Virginia_, The pigs were fat all year, you could stand a spoon in the cream. —Penn stood under his oak with a feathered pipe in his fingers, His eyes were quiet with God, but his wits and his bargain sharp. So I remember it all, and the light sound of buckeyes falling On the worn rose-bricks of the pavement, herring-boned, trodden for years; The great yellow shocks of wheat and the dust-white road through Summer, And, in Fall, the green walnut shells, and the stain they left for a while. So I remember you, ripe country of broad-backed horses, Valley of cold, sweet springs and dairies with limestone-floors; And so they found you that year, when they scared your cows with their cannon, And the strange South moved against you, lean marchers lost in the corn. * * * * * Two months have passed since Jackson died in the woods And they brought his body back to the Richmond State House To lie there, heaped with flowers, while the bells tolled, Two months of feints and waiting. And now, at length, The South goes north again in the second raid, In the last cast for fortune. A two-edged chance And yet a chance that may burnish a failing star; For now, on the wide expanse of the Western board, Strong pieces that fought for the South have been swept away Or penned up in hollow Vicksburg. One cool Spring night Porter’s ironclads run the shore-batteries Through a velvet stabbed with hot flashes. Grant lands his men. Drives the relieving force of Johnston away And sits at last in front of the hollow town Like a huge brown bear on its haunches, terribly waiting. His guns begin to peck at the pillared porches, The sleepy, sun-spattered streets. His siege has begun. Forty-eight days that siege and those guns go on Like a slow hand closing around a hungry throat, Ever more hungry. The hunger of hollow towns, The hunger of sieges, the hunger of lost hope. As day goes by after day and the shells still whine Till the town is a great mole-burrow of pits and caves Where the thin women hide their children, where the tired men Burrow away from the death that falls from the air And the common sky turned hostile—and still no hope, Still no sight in the sky when the morning breaks But the brown bear there on his haunches, steadfastly waiting, Waiting like Time for the honey-tree to fall. The news creeps back to the watchers oversea. They ponder on it, aloof and irresolute. The balance they watch is dipping against the South. It will take great strokes to redress that balance again. There will be one more moment of shaken scales When the Laird rams almost alter the scheme of things, But it is distant. The watchers stare at the board Waiting a surer omen than Chancellorsville Or any battle won on a Southern ground. Lee sees that dip of the balance and so prepares His cast for the surer omen and his last stroke At the steel-bossed Northern shield. Once before he tried That spear-rush North and was halted. It was a chance. This is a chance. He weighs the chance in his hand Like a stone, reflecting. Four years from Harper’s Ferry— Two years since the First Manassas—and this last year Stroke after stroke successful—but still no end. He is a man with a knotty club in his hand Beating off bulls from the breaks in a pasture fence And he has beaten them back at each fresh assault, McClellan—Burnside—Hooker at Chancellorsville— Pope at the Second Manassas—Banks in the Valley— But the pasture is trampled; his army needs new pasture. An army moves like a locust, eating the grain, And this grain is well-nigh eaten. He cannot mend The breaks in his fence with famine or starving hands, And if he waits the wheel of another year The bulls will come back full-fed, shaking sharper horns While he faces them empty, armed with a hunger-cracked Unmagic stick. There is only this thing to do, To strike at the shield with the strength that he still can use Hoping to burst it asunder with one stiff blow And carry the war up North, to the untouched fields Where his tattered men can feed on the bulls’ own grain, Get shoes and clothes, take Washington if they can, Hold the fighting-gauge in any event. He weighs The chance in his hand. I think that he weighed it well And felt a high tide risen up in his heart And in his men a high tide. They were veterans, They had never been beaten wholly and blocked but once, He had driven four Union armies within a year And broken three blue commanders from their command. Even now they were fresh from triumph. He cast his stone Clanging at fortune, and set his fate on the odds. * * * * * Lincoln hears the rumor in Washington. They are moving North. The Pennsylvania cities Hear it and shake, they are loose, they are moving North. Call up your shotgun-militia, bury your silver, Shoulder a gun or run away from the State, They are loose, they are moving. Fighting Joe Hooker has heard it. He swings his army back across the Potomac, Rapidly planning, while Lee still visions him South. Stuart’s horse should have brought the news of that move But Stuart is off on a last and luckless raid Far to the East, and the grey host moves without eyes Through crucial days. They are in the Cumberland now, Taking minor towns, feeding fat for a little while, Pressing horses and shoes, paying out Confederate bills To slow Dutch storekeepers who groan at the money. They are loose, they are in the North, they are here and there. Halleck rubs his elbows and wonders where, Lincoln is sleepless, the telegraph-sounders click In the War Office day and night. There are lies and rumors, They are only a mile from Philadelphia now, They are burning York—they are marching on Baltimore— Meanwhile, Lee rides through the heart of the Cumberland. A great hot sunset colors the marching men, Colors the horse and the sword and the bearded face But cannot change that face from its strong repose. And—miles away—Joe Hooker, by telegraph Calls for the garrison left at Harper’s Ferry To join him. Elbow-rubbing Halleck refuses. Hooker resigns command—and fades from the East To travel West, fight keenly at Lookout Mountain, Follow Sherman’s march as far as Atlanta, Be ranked by Howard, and tartly resign once more Before the end and the fame and the Grand Review, To die a slow death, in bed, with his fire gone out, A campfire quenched and forgotten. He deserved A better and brusquer end that marched with his nickname, This disappointed, hot-tempered, most human man Who had such faith in himself except for once, And the once, being Chancellorsville, wiped out the rest. He was often touchy and life was touchy with him, But the last revenge was a trifle out of proportion. Such things will happen—Jackson went in his strength, Stuart was riding his horse when the bullet took him, And Custer died to the trumpet—Dutch Longstreet lived To quarrel and fight dead battles. Lee passed in silence. McClellan talked on forever in word and print. Grant lived to be President. Thomas died sick at heart. So Hooker goes from our picture—and a spent aide Reaches Meade’s hut at three o’clock in the morning To wake him with unexpected news of command. The thin Pennsylvanian puts on his spectacles To read the order. Tall, sad-faced and austere, He has the sharp, long nose of a fighting-bird, A prudent mouth and a cool, considering mind. An iron-grey man with none of Hooker’s panache, But resolute and able, well skilled in war; They call him “the damned old goggle-eyed snapping-turtle” At times, and he does not call out the idol-shout When he rides his lines, but his prudence is a hard prudence, And can last out storms that break the men with panache, Though it summons no counter-storm when the storm is done. His sombre schoolmaster-eyes read the order well. It is three days before the battle. He thinks at first Of a grand review, gives it up, and begins to act. That morning a spy brings news to Lee in his tent That the Union army has moved and is on the march. Lee calls back Ewell and Early from their forays And summons his host together by the cross-roads Where Getty came with his ox-cart. So now we see These two crab-armies fumbling for each other, As if through a fog of rumor and false report, These last two days of sleepy, hay-harvest June. Hot June lying asleep on a shock of wheat Where the pollen-wind blows over the burnt-gold stubble And the thirsty men march past, stirring thick grey dust From the trodden pikes—till at last, the crab-claws touch At Getty’s town, and clutch, and the peaches fall Cut by the bullets, splashing under the trees. That meeting was not willed by a human mind, When we come to sift it. You say a fate rode a horse Ahead of those lumbering hosts, and in either hand He carried a skein of omen. And when, at last, He came to a certain umbrella-copse of trees That never had heard a cannon or seen dead men, He knotted the skeins together and flung them down With a sound like metal. Perhaps. It may have been so. All that we know is—Meade intended to fight Some fifteen miles away on the Pipe Creek Line And where Lee meant to fight him, if forced to fight, We do not know, but it was not there where they fought. Yet the riding fate, Blind and deaf and a doom on a lunging horse, Threw down his skeins and gathered the battle there. * * * * * The buttercup-meadows Are very yellow. A child comes there To fill her hands. The gold she gathers Is soft and precious As sweet new butter Fresh from the churn. She fills her frock With the yellow flowers, The butter she gathers Is smooth as gold, Little bright cups Of new-churned sunshine For a well-behaved Hoop-skirted doll. Her frock’s full And her hands are mothy With yellow pollen But she keeps on. Down by the fence They are even thicker. She runs, bowed down with Buttercup-gold. She sees a road And she sees a rider. His face is grey With a different dust. He talks loud. He rattles like tinware. He has a long sword To kill little girls. He shouts at her now, But she does not answer. “_Where is the town?_” But she will not hear. There are other riders Jangling behind him. “_We won’t hurt you, youngster!_” But they have swords. The buttercups fall Like spilt butter. She runs away. She runs to her house. She hides her face In her mother’s apron And tries to tell her How dreadful it was. * * * * * Buford came to Gettysburg late that night Riding West with his brigades of blue horse, While Pettigrew and his North Carolinians Were moving East toward the town with a wagon-train, Hoping to capture shoes. The two came in touch. Pettigrew halted and waited for men and orders. Buford threw out his pickets beyond the town. The next morning was July first. It was hot and calm. On the grey side, Heth’s division was ready to march And drive the blue pickets in. There was still no thought Of a planned and decisive battle on either side Though Buford had seen the strength of those two hill-ridges Soon enough to be famous, and marked one down As a place to rally if he should be driven back. He talks with his staff in front of a tavern now. An officer rides up from the near First Corps. “What are you doing here, sir?” The officer Explains. He, too, has come there to look for shoes. —Fabulous shoes of Gettysburg, dead men’s shoes, Did anyone ever wear you, when it was done, When the men were gone, when the farms were spoiled with the bones, What became of your nails and leather? The swords went home, The swords went into museums and neat glass cases, The swords look well there. They are clean from the war. You wouldn’t put old shoes in a neat glass case, Still stuck with the mud of marching. And yet, a man With a taste for such straws and fables, blown by the wind, Might hide a pair in a labelled case sometime Just to see how the leather looked, set down by the swords. The officer is hardly through with his tale When Buford orders him back to his command. “Why, what is the matter, general?” As he speaks The far-off hollow slam of a single gun Breaks the warm stillness. The horses prick up their ears. “That’s the matter,” says Buford and gallops away. * * * * * Jake Diefer, the barrel-chested Pennsylvanian, Marched toward Getty’s town past orderly fences, Thinking of harvest. The boy was growing up strong And the corn-haired woman was smart at managing things But it was a shame what you had to pay hired men now Though they’d had good crops last year and good prices too. The crops looked pretty this summer. He stared at the long Gold of the wheat reflectively, weighing it all, Turning it into money and cows and taxes, A new horse-reaper, some first-class paint for the barn, Maybe a dress for the woman. His thoughts were few, But this one tasted rough and good in his mouth Like a spear of rough, raw grain. He crunched at it now. —And yet, that wasn’t all, the paint and the cash, They were the wheat but the wheat was—he didn’t know— But it made you feel good to see some good wheat again And see it grown up proper. He wasn’t a man To cut a slice of poetry from a farm. He liked the kind of manure that he knew about And seldom burst into tears when his horses died Or found a beautiful thought in a bumble-bee, But now, as he tramped along like a laden steer, The tall wheat, rustling, filled his heart with its sound. Look at that column well, as it passes by, Remembering Bull Run and the cocksfeather hats, The congressmen, the raw militia brigades Who went to war with a flag and a haircloth trunk In bright red pants and ideals and ignorance, Ready to fight like picture-postcard boys While fighting still had banners and a sword And just as ready to run in blind mob-panic. . . . These men were once those men. These men are the soldiers, Good thieves, good fighters, excellent foragers, The grumbling men who dislike to be killed in war And yet will hold when the raw militia break And live where the raw militia needlessly die, Having been schooled to that end. The school is not A pretty school. They wear no cocksfeather hats. Some men march in their drawers and their stocking feet. They have handkerchiefs round their heads, they are footsore and chafed, Their faces are sweaty leather. And when they pass The little towns where the people wish them godspeed, A few are touched by the cheers and the crying women But most have seen a number of crying women, And heard a number of cheers. The ruder yell back To the sincere citizens cool in their own front yards, “Aw, get a gun and fight for your home yourself!” They grin and fall silent. Nevertheless they go on. Jake Diefer, the barrel-chested Pennsylvanian, The steer-thewed, fist-plank-splitter from Cumberland, Came through the heat and the dust and the mounting roar That could not drown the rustle of the tall wheat Making its growing sound, its windrustled sound, In his heart that sound, that brief and abiding sound, To a fork and a road he knew. And then he heard That mixed, indocile noise of combat indeed And as if it were strange to him when it was not strange. —He never took much account of the roads they went, They were always going somewhere and roads were roads. But he knew this road. He knew its turns and its hills, And what ploughlands lay beyond it, beyond the town, On the way to Chambersburg. He saw with wild eyes Not the road before him or anything real at all But grey men in an unreal wheatfield, tramping it down, Filling their tattered hats with the ripe, rough grain While a shell burst over a barn. “Grasshoppers!” he said Through stiff dry lips to himself as he tried to gauge That mounting roar and its distance. “The Johnnies is there! The Johnnies and us is fighting in Gettysburg, There must be Johnnies back by the farm already, By Jesus, those damn Johnnies is on my farm!” * * * * * That battle of the first day was a minor battle As such are counted. That is, it killed many men. Killed more than died at Bull Run, left thousands stricken With wounds that time might heal for a little while Or never heal till the breath was out of the flesh. The First Corps lost half its number in killed and wounded. The pale-faced women, huddled behind drawn blinds Back in the town, or in apple-cellars, hiding, Thought it the end of the world, no doubt. And yet, As the books remark, it was only a minor battle. There were only two corps engaged on the Union side, Longstreet had not yet come up, nor Ewell’s whole force, Hill’s corps lacked a division till evening fell. It was only a minor battle. When the first shot Clanged out, it was fired from a clump of Union vedettes Holding a farm in the woods beyond the town. The farmer was there to hear it—and then to see The troopers scramble back on their restless horses And go off, firing, as a grey mass came on. He must have been a peaceable man, that farmer. It is said that he died of what he had heard and seen In that one brief moment, although no bullet came near him And the storm passed by and did not burst on his farm. No doubt he was easily frightened. He should have reflected That even minor battles are hardly the place For peaceable men—but he died instead, it is said. There were other deaths that day, as of Smiths and Clancys, Otises, Boyds, Virginia and Pennsylvania, New York, Carolina, Wisconsin, the gathered West, The tattered Southern marchers dead on the wheat-shocks. Among these deaths a few famous. Reynolds is dead, The model soldier, gallant and courteous, Shot from his saddle in the first of the fight. He was Doubleday’s friend, but Doubleday has no time To grieve him, the Union right being driven in And Heth’s Confederates pressing on toward the town. He holds the onrush back till Howard comes up And takes command for a while. The fighting is grim. Meade has heard the news. He sends Hancock up to the field. Hancock takes command in mid-combat. The grey comes on. Five color-bearers are killed at one Union color, The last man, dying, still holds up the sagging flag. The pale-faced women creeping out of their houses, Plead with retreating bluecoats, “Don’t leave us boys, Stay with us—hold the town.” Their faces are thin, Their words come tumbling out of a frightened mouth. In a field, far off, a peaceable farmer puts His hands to his ears, still hearing that one sharp shot That he will hear and hear till he dies of it. It is Hill and Ewell now against Hancock and Howard And a confused, wild clamor—and the high keen Of the Rebel yell—and the shrill-edged bullet song Beating down men and grain, while the sweaty fighters Grunt as they ram their charges with blackened hands. Till Hancock and Howard are beaten away at last, Outnumbered and outflanked, clean out of the town, Retreating as best they can to a fish-hook ridge, And the clamor dies and the sun is going down And the tired men think about food. The dust-bitten staff Of Ewell, riding along through the captured streets, Hear the thud of a bullet striking their general. Flesh or bone? Death-wound or rub of the game? “The general’s hurt!” They gasp and volley their questions. Ewell turns his head like a bird, “No, I’m not hurt, sir, But, supposing the ball had struck you, General Gordon, We’d have the trouble of carrying you from the field. You can see how much better fixed for a fight I am. It don’t hurt a mite to be shot in your wooden leg.” So it ends. Lee comes on the field in time to see The village taken, the Union wave in retreat. Meade will not reach the ground till one the next morning. * * * * * So it ends, this lesser battle of the first day, Starkly disputed and piecemeal won and lost By corps-commanders who carried no magic plans Stowed in their sleeves, but fought and held as they could. It is past. The board is staked for the greater game Which is to follow—The beaten Union brigades Recoil from the cross-roads town that they tried to hold. And so recoiling, rest on a destined ground. Who chose that ground? There are claimants enough in the books. Howard thanked by Congress for choosing it As doubtless, they would have thanked him as well had he Chosen another, once the battle was won, And there are a dozen ifs on the Southern side, How, in that first day’s evening, if one had known, If Lee had been there in time, if Jackson had lived, The heights that cost so much blood in the vain attempt To take days later, could have been taken then. And the ifs and the thanks and the rest are all true enough But we can only say, when we look at the board, “There it happened. There is the way of the land. There was the fate, and there the blind swords were crossed.” * * * * * You took a carriage to that battlefield. Now, I suppose, you take a motor-bus, But then, it was a carriage—and you ate Fried chicken out of wrappings of waxed paper, While the slow guide buzzed on about the war And the enormous, curdled summer clouds Piled up like giant cream puffs in the blue. The carriage smelt of axle-grease and leather And the old horse nodded a sleepy head Adorned with a straw hat. His ears stuck through it. It was the middle of hay-fever summer And it was hot. And you could stand and look All the way down from Cemetery Ridge, Much as it was, except for monuments And startling groups of monumental men Bursting in bronze and marble from the ground, And all the curious names upon the gravestones. . . . So peaceable it was, so calm and hot, So tidy and great-skied. No men had fought There but enormous, monumental men Who bled neat streams of uncorrupting bronze, Even at the Round Tops, even by Pickett’s boulder, Where the bronze, open book could still be read By visitors and sparrows and the wind: And the wind came, the wind moved in the grass, Saying . . . while the long light . . . and all so calm . . . “Pickett came And the South came And the end came, And the grass comes And the wind blows On the bronze book On the bronze men On the grown grass, And the wind says ‘Long ago Long Ago.’” Then it was time to buy a paperweight With flags upon it in decalcomania And hope you wouldn’t break it, driving home. * * * * * Draw a clumsy fish-hook now on a piece of paper, To the left of the shank, by the bend of the curving hook, Draw a Maltese cross with the top block cut away. The cross is the town. Nine roads star out from it East, West, South, North. And now, still more to the left Of the lopped-off cross, on the other side of the town, Draw a long, slightly-wavy line of ridges and hills Roughly parallel to the fish-hook shank. (The hook of the fish-hook is turned away from the cross And the wavy line.) There your ground and your ridges lie. The fish-hook is Cemetery Ridge and the North Waiting to be assaulted—the wavy line Seminary Ridge whence the Southern assault will come. The valley between is more than a mile in breadth. It is some three miles from the lowest jut of the cross To the button at the far end of the fish-hook shank, Big Round Top, with Little Round Top not far away. Both ridges are strong and rocky, well made for war. But the Northern one is the stronger shorter one. Lee’s army must spread out like an uncoiled snake Lying along a fence-rail, while Meade’s can coil Or halfway coil, like a snake part clung to a stone. Meade has the more men and the easier shifts to make, Lee the old prestige of triumph and his tried skill. His task is—to coil his snake round the other snake Halfway clung to the stone, and shatter it so, Or to break some point in the shank of the fish-hook line And so cut the snake in two. Meade’s task is to hold. That is the chess and the scheme of the wooden blocks Set down on the contour map. Having learned so much, Forget it now, while the ripple-lines of the map Arise into bouldered ridges, tree-grown, bird-visited, Where the gnats buzz, and the wren builds a hollow nest And the rocks are grey in the sun and black in the rain, And the jacks-in-the-pulpit grow in the cool, damp hollows. See no names of leaders painted upon the blocks Such as “Hill,” or “Hancock,” or “Pender”— but see instead Three miles of living men—three long double miles Of men and guns and horses and fires and wagons, Teamsters, surgeons, generals, orderlies, A hundred and sixty thousand living men Asleep or eating or thinking or writing brief Notes in the thought of death, shooting dice or swearing, Groaning in hospital wagons, standing guard While the slow stars walk through heaven in silver mail, Hearing a stream or a joke or a horse cropping grass Or hearing nothing, being too tired to hear. All night till the round sun comes and the morning breaks, Three double miles of live men. Listen to them, their breath goes up through the night In a great chord of life, in the sighing murmur Of wind-stirred wheat. A hundred and sixty thousand Breathing men, at night, on two hostile ridges set down. * * * * * Jack Ellyat slept that night on the rocky ground Of Cemetery Hill while the cold stars marched, And if his bed was harder than Jacob’s stone Yet he could sleep on it now and be glad for sleep. He had been through Chancellorsville and the whistling wood, He had been through this last day. It is well to sleep After such days. He had seen, in the last four months, Many roads, much weather and death, and two men fey Before they died with the prescience of death to come, John Haberdeen and the corporal from Millerstown. Such things are often remembered even in sleep. He thought to himself, before he lay on the ground, “We got it hot today in that red-brick town But we’ll get it hotter tomorrow.” And when he woke And saw the round sun risen in the clear sky, He could feel that thought steam up from the rocky ground And touch each man. One man looked down from the hill, “That must be their whole damn army,” he said and whistled, “It’ll be a picnic today, boys. Yes, it’ll be A regular basket-picnic.” He whistled again. “Shut your trap about picnics, Ace,” said another man, “You make me too damn hungry!” He sighed out loud. “We had enough of a picnic at Chancellorsville,” He said. “I ain’t felt right in my stummick since. Can you make ’em out?” “Sure,” said Ace, “but they’re pretty far.” “Wonder who we’ll get? That bunch we got yesterday Was a mean-shootin’ bunch.” “Now don’t you worry,” said Ace, “We’ll get plenty.” The other man sighed again. “Did you see that darky woman selling hot pies, Two days ago, on the road?” he said, licking his lips, “Blackberry pies. The boys ahead got a lot And Jake and me clubbed together for three. And then Just as we were ready to make the sneak, Who comes up with a roar but the provost-guard? Did we get any pies? I guess you know if we did. I couldn’t spit for an hour, I felt so mad. Next war I’m goin’ to be provost-guard or bust.” A thin voice said abruptly, “They’re moving—lookit— They’re moving. I tell you—lookit—” They all looked then. A little crackling noise as of burning thornsticks Began far away—ceased wholly—began again— “We won’t get it awhile,” thought Ellyat. “They’re trying the left. We won’t get it awhile, but we’ll get it soon. I feel funny today. I don’t think I’m going to be killed But I feel funny. That’s their whole army all right. I wonder if those other two felt like this, John Haberdeen and the corporal from Millerstown? What’s it like to see your name on a bullet? It must feel queer. This is going to be a big one. The Johnnies know it. That house looks pretty down there. _Phaëton, charioteer in your drunken car,_ _What have you got for a man that carries my name?_ We’re a damn good company now, if we say it ourselves, And the Old Man knows it—but this one’s bound to be tough. I wonder what they’re feeling like over there. _Charioteer, you were driving yesterday,_ _No doubt, but I did not see you. I see you now._ _What have you got today for a man with my name?_” * * * * * The firing began that morning at nine o’clock, But it was three before the attacks were launched. There were two attacks, one a drive on the Union left To take the Round Tops, the other one on the right. Lee had planned them to strike together and, striking so, Cut the Union snake in three pieces. It did not happen. On the left, Dutch Longstreet, slow, pugnacious and stubborn, Hard to beat and just as hard to convince, Has his own ideas of the battle and does not move For hours after the hour that Lee had planned, Though, when he does, he moves with pugnacious strength. Facing him, in the valley before the Round Tops, Sickles thrusts out blue troops in a weak right angle, Some distance from the Ridge, by the Emmettsburg pike. There is a peach orchard there, a field of ripe wheat And other peaceable things soon not to be peaceful. They say the bluecoats, marching through the ripe wheat, Made a blue-and-yellow picture that men remember Even now in their age, in their crack-voiced age. They say the noise was incessant as the sound Of all wolves howling, when that attack came on. They say, when the guns all spoke, that the solid ground Of the rocky ridges trembled like a sick child. _We have made the sick earth tremble with other shakings_ _In our time, in our time, in our time, but it has not taught us_ _To leave the grain in the field._ So the storm came on Yelling against the angle. The men who fought there Were the tried fighters, the hammered, the weather-beaten, The very hard-dying men. They came and died And came again and died and stood there and died, Till at last the angle was crumpled and broken in, Sickles shot down, Willard, Barlow and Semmes shot down, Wheatfield and orchard bloody and trampled and taken, And Hood’s tall Texans sweeping on toward the Round Tops As Hood fell wounded. On Little Round Top’s height Stands a lonely figure, seeing that rush come on— Greek-mouthed Warren, Meade’s chief of engineers. —Sometimes, and in battle even, a moment comes When a man with eyes can see a dip in the scales And, so seeing, reverse a fortune. Warren has eyes And such a moment comes to him now. He turns —In a clear flash seeing the crests of the Round Tops taken, The grey artillery there and the battle lost— And rides off hell-for-leather to gather troops And bring them up in the very nick of time, While the grey rush still advances, keening its cry. The crest is three times taken and then retaken In fierce wolf-flurries of combat, in gasping Iliads Too rapid to note or remember, too obscure to freeze in a song. But at last, when the round sun drops, when the nun-footed night, Dark-veiled walker, holding the first weak stars Like children against her breast, spreads her pure cloths there, The Union still holds the Round Tops and the two hard keys of war. Night falls. The blood drips in the rocks of the Devil’s Den. The murmur begins to rise from the thirsty ground Where the twenty thousand dead and wounded lie. Such was Longstreet’s war, and such the Union defence, The deaths and the woundings, the victory and defeat At the end of the fish-hook shank. And so Longstreet failed Ere Ewell and Early struck the fish-hook itself At Culp’s Hill and the Ridge and at Cemetery Hill, With better fortune, though not with fortune enough To plant hard triumph deep on the sharp-edged rocks And break the scales of the snake. When that last attack Came, with its cry, Jack Ellyat saw it come on. * * * * * They had been waiting for hours on that hard hill, Sometimes under fire, sometimes untroubled by shells. A man chewed a stick of grass and hummed to himself. Another played mumbledeypeg with a worn black knife. Two men were talking girls till they got too mad And the sergeant stopped them. Then they waited again. Jack Ellyat waited, hearing that other roar Rise and fall, be distant and then approach. Now and then he turned on his side and looked at the sky As if to build a house of peace from that blue, But could find no house of peace there. Only the roar, The slow sun sinking, the fey touch at his mind. . . . He was lying behind a tree and a chunk of rock On thick, coarse grass. Farther down the slope of the hill There were houses, a rough stone wall, and blue loungy men. Behind them lay the batteries on the crest. He wondered if there were people still in the houses. One house had a long, slant roof. He followed the slant Of the roof with his finger, idly, pleased with the line. The shelling burst out from the Southern guns again. Their own batteries answered behind them. He looked at his house While the shells came down. I’d like to live in that house. Now the shelling lessened. The man with the old black knife Shut up the knife and began to baby his rifle. They’re coming, Jack thought. This is it. There was an abrupt Slight stiffening in the bodies of other men, A few chopped ends of words scattered back and forth, Eyes looking, hands busy in swift, well-accustomed gestures. This is it. He felt his own hands moving like theirs Though he was not telling them to. This is it. He felt The old familiar tightness around his chest. The man with the grass chewed his stalk a little too hard And then suddenly spat it out. Jack Ellyat saw Through the falling night, that slight, grey fringe that was war Coming against them, not as it came in pictures With a ruler-edge, but a crinkled and smudgy line Like a child’s vague scrawl in soft crayon, but moving on But with its little red handkerchiefs of flags Sagging up and down, here and there. It was still quite far, It was still like a toy attack—it was swallowed now By a wood and came out larger with larger flags. Their own guns on the crest were trying to break it up —Smoking sand thrown into an ant-legged line— But it still kept on—one fringe and another fringe And another and— He lost them all for a moment In a dip of ground. This is it, he thought with a parched Mind. It’s a big one. They must be yelling all right Though you can’t hear them. They’re going to do it this time. Do it or bust—you can tell from the way they come— I hope to Christ that the batteries do their job When they get out of that dip. Hell, they’ve lost ’em now, And they’re still coming. He heard a thin gnat-shrieking “Hold your fire till they’re close enough, men!” The new lieutenant. The new lieutenant looked thin. “Aw, go home,” he muttered, “We’re no militia—What do you think we are?” Then suddenly, down by his house, the low stone wall Flashed and was instantly huge with a wall of smoke. He was yelling now. He saw a red battleflag Push through smoke like a prow and be blotted out By smoke and flash. His heart knocked hard in his chest. “Do it or bust,” he mumbled, holding his fire While the rags of smoke blew off. He heard a thick chunk Beside him, turned his head for a flicker of time. The man who had chewed on the grass was injuredly trying To rise on his knees, his face annoyed by a smile. Then the blood poured over the smile and he crumpled up. Ellyat stretched out a hand to touch him and felt the hand Rasped by a file. He jerked back the hand and sucked it. “Bastards,” he said in a minor and even voice. All this had occurred, it seemed, in no time at all, But when he turned back, the smoky slope of the hill Was grey—and a staggering red advancing flag And those same shouting strangers he knew so well, No longer ants—but there—and stumblingly running— And that high, shrill, hated keen piercing all the flat thunder. His lips went back. He felt something swell in his chest Like a huge, indocile bubble. “By God,” he said, Loading and firing, “You’re not going to get this hill, You’re not going to get this hill. By God, but you’re not!” He saw one grey man spin like a crazy dancer And another fall at his heels—but the hill kept growing them. Something made him look toward his left. A yellow-fanged face Was aiming a pistol over a chunk of rock. He fired and the face went down like a broken pipe While something hit him sharply and took his breath. “Get back, you suckers,” he croaked, “Get back there, you suckers!” He wouldn’t have time to load now—they were too near. He was up and screaming. He swung his gun like a club Through a twilight full of bright stabbings, and felt it crash On a thing that broke. He had no breath any more. He had no thoughts. Then the blunt fist hit him again. He was down in the grass and the black sheep of night ran over him . . . * * * * * That day, Melora Vilas sat by the spring With her child in her arms and felt the warm wind blow Ruffling the little pool that had shown two faces Apart and then clung together for a brief while As if the mouths had been silver and so fused there. . . . The wind blew at the child’s shut fists but it could not open them. The child slept well. The child was a strong, young child. “Wind, you have blown the green leaf and the brown leaf And in and out of my restless heart you blow, Wakening me again. I had thought for a while My heart was a child and could sleep like any child, But now that the wind is warm, I remember my lover, Must you blow all summer, warm wind?” “Divide anew this once-divided flesh Into twelve shares of mercy and on each Bestow a fair and succourable child, Yet, in full summer, when the ripened stalks Bow in the wind like golden-headed men, Under the sun, the shares will reunite Into unmerciful and childless love.” She thought again, “No, it’s not that, it’s not that, I love my child with an ‘L’ because he’s little, I love my child with an ‘S’ because he’s strong. With an ‘M’ because he’s mine. But I’m restless now. We cut the heart on the tree but the bark’s grown back there. I’ve got my half of the dime but I want his. The winter-sleep is over.” The shadows were longer now. The child waked and cried. She rocked and hushed it, feeling the warm wind blow. “I’ve got to find him,” she said. About that time, the men rode up to the house From the other way. Their horses were rough and wild. There were a dozen of them and they came fast. Bent should have been out in the woods but he had come down To mend a split wagon-wheel. He was caught in the barn. They couldn’t warn him in time, though John Vilas tried, But they held John Vilas and started to search the place While the younger children scuttled around like mice Squeaking “It’s drafters, Mom—it’s the drafters again!” Even then, if Bent had hidden under the hay They might not have found him, being much pressed for time, But perhaps he was tired of hiding. At any rate When Melora reached the edge of the little clearing, She saw them there and Bent there, up on a horse, Her mother rigid as wood and her father dumb And the head man saying, gently enough on the whole, “Don’t you worry, ma’am—he’ll make a good soldier yet If he acts proper.” That was how they got Bent. * * * * * On the crest of the hill, the sweaty cannoneers, The blackened Pennsylvanians, picked up their rammers And fought the charge with handspikes and clubs and stones, Biting and howling. It is said that they cried Wildly, “Death on the soil of our native state Rather than lose our guns.” A general says so. He was not there. I do not know what they cried But that they fought, there was witness—and that the grey Wave that came on them fought, there was witness too. For an instant that wheel of combat—and for an instant A brief, hard-breathing hush. Then came the hard sound Of a column tramping—blue reinforcements at last, A doomsday sound to the grey. The hard column came Over the battered crest and went in with a yell. The grey charge bent and gave ground, the grey charge was broken. The sweaty gunners fell to their guns again And began to scatter the shells in the ebbing wave. Thus ended the second day of the locked bull-horns And the wounding or slaying of the twenty thousand. And thus night came to cover it. So the field Was alive all night with whispers and words and sighs, So the slow blood dripped in the rocks of the Devil’s Den. Lincoln, back in his White House, asks for news. The War Department has little. There are reports Of heavy firing near Gettysburg—that is all. Davis, in Richmond, knows as little as he. In hollow Vicksburg, the shells come down and come down And the end is but two days off. On the field itself Meade calls a council and considers retreat. His left has held and the Round Tops still are his. But his right has been shaken, his centre pierced for a time, The enemy holds part of his works on Culp’s Hill, His losses have been most stark. He thinks of these things And decides at last to fight it out where he stands. * * * * * Ellyat lay upon Cemetery Hill. His wounds had begun to burn. He was rising up Through cold and vacant darknesses into faint light, The yellow, watery light of a misty moon. He stirred a little and groaned. There was something cool On his face and hands. It was dew. He lay on his back And stared at a blowing cloud and a moist, dark sky. “Old charioteer,” he thought. He remembered dully The charge. The charge had come. They had beaten the charge. Now it was moist dark sky and the dew and his pain. He tried to get his canteen but he couldn’t reach it. That made him afraid. “I want some water,” he said. He turned his head through stiff ages. Two feet away A man was lying quietly, fast asleep, A bearded man in an enemy uniform. He had a canteen. Ellyat wet his lips with his tongue. “Hey Johnnie, got some water?” he whispered weakly. Then he saw that the Johnnie had only half a head, And frowned because such men could not lend canteens. He was half-delirious now, and it seemed to him As if he had two bodies, one that was pain And one that lay beyond pain, on a couch of dew, And stared at the other with sober wondering eyes. “Everyone’s dead around here but me,” he thought, “And as long as I don’t sing out, they’ll think that I’m dead And those stretcher-bearers won’t find me—there goes their lantern No, it’s the moon—Sing out and tell ’em you’re here.” The hot body cried and groaned. The cool watched it idly. The yellow moon burst open like a ripe fruit And from it rolled on a dark, streaked shelf of sky A car and horses, bearing the brazen ball Of the unbearable sun, that halted above him In full rush forward, yet frozen, a motion congealed, Heavy with light. Toy death above Gettysburg. He saw it so and cried out in a weak, thin voice While something jagged fitted into his heart And the cool body watched idly. And then it was A lantern, bobbing along through the clumped dead men, That halted now for an instant. He cried again. A voice said, “Listen, Jerry, you’re hearing things, I’ve passed that feller twice and he’s dead all right, I’ll bet you money.” Ellyat heard himself piping, “I’m alive, God damn you! Can’t you hear I’m alive?” Something laughed, quite close now. “All right, Bub,” said a cloud, “We’ll take your word for it. My, but the boy’s got language! Go ahead and cuss while we get you up on the stretcher— It helps some—easy there, Joe.” Jack Ellyat fell Out of his bodies into a whispering blackness Through which, now and then, he could hear certain talking clouds Cough or remark. One said. “That’s two and a half You owe me, Joe. You’re pickin’ ’em wrong tonight.” “Well, poor suckers,” said Joseph. “But all the same, If this one doesn’t last till the dressing station The bet’s off—take it slower, Jerry—it hurts him.” * * * * * Another clear dawn breaks over Gettysburg, Promising heat and fair weather—and with the dawn The guns are crashing again. It is the third day. The morning wears with a stubborn fight at Culp’s Hill That ends at last in Confederate repulse And that barb-end of the fish-hook cleared of the grey. Lee has tried his strokes on the right and left of the line. The centre remains—that centre yesterday pierced For a brief, wild moment in Wilcox’s attack, But since then trenched, reinforced and alive with guns. It is a chance. All war is a chance like that. Lee considers the chance and the force he has left to spend And states his will. Dutch Longstreet, the independent, Demurs, as he has demurred since the fight began. He had disapproved of this battle from the first And that disapproval has added and is to add Another weight in the balance against the grey. It is not our task to try him for sense or folly, Such men are the men they are—but an hour comes Sometimes, to fix such men in most fateful parts, As now with Longstreet who, if he had his orders As they were given, neither obeyed them quite Nor quite refused them, but acted as he thought best, So did the half-thing, failed as he thought he would, Felt justified and wrote all of his reasons down Later in controversy. We do not need Such controversies to see that pugnacious man Talking to Lee, a stubborn line in his brow And that unseen fate between them. Lee hears him out Unmoved, unchanging. “The enemy is there And I am going to strike him,” says Lee, inflexibly. * * * * * Wingate cursed with an equal stress The guns in the sky and his weariness, The nightmare riding of yesterday When they slept in the saddle by whole platoons And the Pennsylvania farmer’s grey With hocks as puffy as toy balloons, A graceless horse, without gaits or speed, But all he had for his time of need. “I’d as soon be riding a Jersey cow.” But the Black Horse Troop was piebald now And the Black Horse Troop was worn to the blade With the dull fatigue of this last, long raid. Huger Shepley rode in a tense Gloom of the spirit that found offence In all things under the summer skies And the recklessness in Bristol’s eyes Had lost its color of merriment. Horses and men, they were well-nigh spent. Wingate grinned as he heard the “Mount,” “Reckon we look sort of no-account, But we’re here at last for somebody’s fight.” They rode toward the curve of the Union right. * * * * * At one o’clock the first signal-gun was fired And the solid ground began to be sick anew. For two hours then that sickness, the unhushed roar Of two hundred and fifty cannon firing like one. By Philadelphia, eighty-odd miles away, An old man stooped and put his ear to the ground And heard that roar, it is said, like the vague sea-clash In a hollow conch-shell, there, in his flowerbeds. He had planted trumpet-flowers for fifteen years But now the flowers were blowing an iron noise Through earth itself. He wiped his face on his sleeve And tottered back to his house with fear in his eyes. The caissons began to blow up in the Union batteries. . . . * * * * * The cannonade fell still. All along the fish-hook line, The tired men stared at the smoke and waited for it to clear; The men in the centre waited, their rifles gripped in their hands. By the trees of the riding fate, and the low stone wall, and the guns. These were Hancock’s men, the men of the Second Corps, Eleven States were mixed there, where Minnesota stood In battle-order with Maine, and Rhode Island beside New York, The metals of all the North, cooled into an axe of war. The strong sticks of the North, bound into a fasces-shape, The hard winters of snow, the wind with the cutting edge, And against them came that summer that does not die with the year, Magnolia and honeysuckle and the blue Virginia flag. Tall Pickett went up to Longstreet—his handsome face was drawn. George Pickett, old friend of Lincoln’s in days gone by with the blast, When he was a courteous youth and Lincoln the strange shawled man Who would talk in a Springfield street with a boy who dreamt of a sword. Dreamt of a martial sword, as swords are martial in dreams, And the courtesy to use it, in the old bright way of the tales. Those days are gone with the blast. He has his sword in his hand. And he will use it today, and remember that using long. He came to Longstreet for orders, but Longstreet would not speak. He saw Old Peter’s mouth and the thought in Old Peter’s mind. He knew the task that was set and the men that he had to lead And a pride came into his face while Longstreet stood there dumb. “I shall go forward, sir,” he said and turned to his men. The commands went down the line. The grey ranks started to move. Slowly at first, then faster, in order, stepping like deer, The Virginians, the fifteen thousand, the seventh wave of the tide. There was a death-torn mile of broken ground to cross, And a low stone wall at the end, and behind it the Second Corps, And behind that force another, fresh men who had not yet fought. They started to cross that ground. The guns began to tear them. From the hill they say that it seemed more like a sea than a wave, A sea continually torn by stones flung out of the sky, And yet, as it came, still closing, closing and rolling on, As the moving sea closes over the flaws and rips of the tide. You could mark the path that they took by the dead that they left behind, Spilled from that deadly march as a cart spills meal on a road, And yet they came on unceasing, the fifteen thousand no more, And the blue Virginia flag did not fall, did not fall, did not fall. They halted but once to fire as they came. Then the smoke closed down And you could not see them, and then, as it cleared again for a breath, They were coming still but divided, gnawed at by blue attacks, One flank half-severed and halted, but the centre still like a tide. Cushing ran down the last of his guns to the battle-line. The rest had been smashed to scrap by Lee’s artillery fire. He held his guts in his hand as the charge came up the wall And his gun spoke out for him once before he fell to the ground. Armistead leapt the wall and laid his hand on the gun, The last of the three brigadiers who ordered Pickett’s brigades, He waved his hat on his sword and “Give ’em the steel!” he cried, A few men followed him over. The rest were beaten or dead. A few men followed him over. There had been fifteen thousand When that sea began its march toward the fish-hook ridge and the wall. So they came on in strength, light-footed, stepping like deer, So they died or were taken. So the iron entered their flesh. Lee, a mile away, in the shade of a little wood, Stared, with his mouth shut down, and saw them go and be slain, And then saw for a single moment, the blue Virginia flag Planted beyond the wall, by that other flag that he knew. The two flags planted together, one instant, like hostile flowers. Then the smoke wrapped both in a mantle—and when it had blown away, Armistead lay in his blood, and the rest were dead or down, And the valley grey with the fallen and the wreck of the broken wave. Pickett gazed around him, the boy who had dreamt of a sword And talked with a man named Lincoln. The sword was still in his hand. He had gone out with fifteen thousand. He came back to his lines with five. He fought well till the war was over, but a thing was cracked in his heart. * * * * * Wingate, waiting the sultry sound That would pour the troop over hostile ground, Petted his grey like a loving son And wondered whether the brute would run When it came to fighting, or merely shy There was a look in the rolling eye That he knew too well to criticize Having seen it sometimes in other eyes. “Poor old Fatty,” he said, “Don’t fret, It’s tough, but it hasn’t happened yet And we may get through it if you behave, Though it looks just now like a right close shave. There’s something funny about this fight—” He thought of Lucy in candlelight, White and gold as the evening star, Giving bright ribbons to men at war. But the face grew dimmer and ever dimmer, The gold was there but the gold was fainter, And a slow brush streaked it with something grimmer Than the proper tint of a lady’s painter Till the shadow she cast was a ruddy shadow. He rubbed his eyes and stared at the meadow. . . . “There was a girl I used to go with, Long ago, when the skies were cooler, There was a tree we used to grow with Marking our heights with a stolen ruler. There was a cave where we hid and fought once. There was a pool where the wind kept writing. There was a possum-child we caught once. Caged it awhile, for all its biting. There was a gap in a fence to see there, Down where the sparrows were always wrangling. There was a girl who used to be there, Dark and thin, with her long braids dangling. Dark and thin in her scuffed brown slippers With a boy’s sling stuck in her apron-pocket, With a sting in her tongue like a gallinipper’s And the eyes of a ghost in a silver locket. White and gold, white and gold, You cannot be cold as she was cold, Cold of the air and the running stream And cold of the ice-tempered dream. Gold and white, gold and white, You burn with the heat of candlelight. But what if I set you down alone Beside the burning meteor-stone? Blow North, blow South, blow hot, blow cold, My body is pledged to white and gold, My honor given to kith and kin, And my doom-clothes ready to wrap me in For the shut heart and the open hand As long as Wingate Hall shall stand And the fire burn and the water cool And a fool beget another fool— But now, in the hour before this fight, I have forgotten gold and white. I will remember lost delight. She has the Appleton mouth, it seems, And the Appleton way of riding, But if she quarrels or when she gleams, Something comes out from hiding. She can sew all day on an Appleton hem And look like a saint in plaster, But when the fiddles begin to play, And her feet beat fast but her heart beats faster, An alien grace is alive in them And she looks like her father, the dancing-master, The scapegrace elegant, ‘French Dupré.’” Then the word came and the bugle sang And he was part of the running clang, The rush and the shock and the sabres licking And the fallen horses screaming and kicking. His grey was tired and his arm unsteady And he whirled like a leaf in a shrieking eddy Where every man was fighting his neighbor And there was no room for the tricks of sabre But only a wild and nightmare sickling. His head felt burnt—there was something trickling Into his eyes—then the new charge broke The eddy apart like scattered smoke; The cut on his head half made him blind. If he had a mind, he had lost that mind. He came to himself in a battered place, Staring at Wainscott Bristol’s face, The dried blood made it a ferret’s mask. “What happened?” he croaked. “Well, you can ask,” Said Bristol, drawling, “But don’t ask me, For any facts of the jamboree. I reckon we’ve been to an Irish wake Or maybe cuttin’ a johnny-cake With most of the Union cavalry-corps. I don’t know yet, but it was a war. Are you crazy still? You were for a piece. You yelled you were Destiny’s long-lost niece And wanted to charge the whole Yank line Because they’d stolen your valentine. You fought like a fool but you talked right wild. You got a bad bump, too.” Wingate smiled “I reckon I did, but I don’t know when. Did we win or what?” “And I say again,” Said Bristol, heavily, “don’t ask me. Inquire of General Robert Lee. I know we’re in for a long night ride And they say we got whipped on the other side. What’s left of the Troop are down by the road. We lost John Leicester and Harry Spode And the Lawley boys and Ballantyne. The Major’s all right—but there’s Jim Divine And Francis Carroll and Judson White— I wish I had some liquor tonight.” Wingate touched the cut on his head. It burned, but it no longer bled. “I wish I could sleep ten years,” he said. * * * * * The night of the third day falls. The battle is done. Lee entrenches that night upon Seminary Ridge. All next day the battered armies still face each other Like enchanted beasts. Lee thinks he may be attacked, Hopes for it, perhaps, is not, and prepares his retreat. Vicksburg has fallen, hollow Vicksburg has fallen, The cavedwellers creep from their caves and blink at the sun. The pan of the Southern balance goes down and down. The cotton is withering. Army of Northern Virginia, haggard and tattered, Tramping back on the pikes, through the dust-white summer, With your wounds still fresh, your burden of prisoners, Your burden of sick and wounded, “One long groan of human anguish six miles long.” You reach the swollen Potomac at long last, A foe behind, a risen river in front, And fording that swollen river, in the dim starlight, In the yellow and early dawn, Still have heart enough for the tall, long-striding soldiers To mock the short, half swept away by the stream. “Better change our name to Lee’s Waders, boys!” “Come on you shorty—get a ride on my back.” “Aw, it’s just we ain’t had a bath in seven years And General Lee, he knows we need a good bath.” So you splash and slip through the water and come at last Safe, to the Southern side, while Meade does not strike; Safe to take other roads, safe to march upon roads you know For two long years. And yet—each road that you take, Each dusty road leads to Appomattox now. BOOK EIGHT It was over with John Brown when the sun rose up To show him the town in arms and he did not flee, Yet men were killed after that, before it was over, And he did not die until November was cool —Yellow leaves falling through a blue-grey dusk, The first winds of November whirl and scatter them— So now, the Confederacy, Sick with its mortal sickness, yet lives on For twenty-one falling months of pride and despair, Half-hopes blown out in the lighting, heroic strokes That come to nothing, and death piled hard upon death. Follow that agony if you must and can By the brushwood names, by the bloody prints in the woods, Cold Harbor and Spottsylvania and Yellow Tavern And all the lost court-houses and country stores In the Wilderness, where the bitter fighting passed, (No fighting bitterer)—follow the rabbit-runs Through the tangled wilds where the hair of the wounded men Caught fire from the burning trees, where they lay in the swamps Like half-charred logs—find the place they called “Hell’s Half Acre.” Follow the Indian names in the Indian West, Chickamauga and Chattanooga and all the words That are sewn on flags or cut in an armory wall. My cyclorama is not the shape of the world Nor even the shape of this war from first to last, But like a totem carved, like a totem stained With certain beasts and skies and faces of men That would not let me be too quiet at night Till they were figured. Therefore now, through the storm, The war, the rumor, the grinding of the machine, Let certain sounds, let certain voices be heard. A Richmond lady sits in a Richmond square Beside a working-girl. They talk of the war, They talk of the food and the prices in low-pitched voices With hunger fretting them both. Then they go their ways. But, before she departs, the lady has asked a question— The working-girl pulls up the sleeve of her dress And shows the lady the sorry bone of her arm. Grant has come East to take up his last command And the grand command of the armies. It is five years Since he sat, with a glass, by the stove in a country store, A stumpy, mute man in a faded Army overcoat, The eldest-born of the Grants but the family-failure, Now, for a week, he shines in the full array Of gold cord and black-feathered hat and superb blue coat, As he talks with the trim, well-tailored Eastern men. It is his only moment of such parade. When the fighting starts, he is chewing a dead cigar With only the battered stars to show the rank On the shoulderstraps of the private’s uniform. It is sullen Cold Harbor. The Union attack has failed, Repulsed with a ghastly slaughter. The twilight falls. The word goes round the attack will be made again Though all know now that it cannot be made and win. An anxious officer walks through his lines that night. There has been no mutiny yet, throughout all these years, But he wonders now. What are the men doing now? He sees them there. They are silently writing their names On bits of rag and sewing the scraps of cloth To their jackets while they can, before the attack. When they die, next morning, somebody may read the names. Pickett’s son is born on a night of mid-July While the two armies face each other, and Pickett’s men Light bonfires of celebration along his lines. The fire is seen from the tents of the other camp. The news goes back to Grant and his chief of staff. “Haven’t we any wood for the little Pickett?” says Grant, And the Union bonfires are lighted for Pickett’s son. —All night those two lines of brush-fire, facing each other— Next day they send the baby a silver service. Next week or so they move upon Pickett’s works. On a muddy river, little toy boats go out. The soldiers are swapping coffee for rank tobacco, A Northern badge for a Southern souvenir, A piece of white-flour bread for a hunk of corn-pone. A Northern lieutenant swims the river at night To go to a Southern dance at a backwoods store, Joke with the girls, swim back, and fight the next day With his hosts of the night before. On disputed ground, A grey-clad private worms his way like a snake, The Union sentries see him and start to fire. “Aw, shut up, Yank,” he calls in a weary voice, “I just skun out to salvage the chaplain’s hat, It’s the only one he’s got and it just blew off.” The firing stops. “All right, Johnny,” the sentries call, “Get your hat, but be quick about it. We won’t hurt you But you better be back by the time our relief gets here.” A Southern sharpshooter crouched in a blue-gum tree Drills a tiny blue-coated figure between the eyes With a pea-ball fired from a smooth-bore squirrel-rifle. The dead man’s brother waits three days for his shot, Then the sharpshooter crashes down through the breaking boughs Like a lumpy bird, spread-eagled out of his nest. The desolate siege of Petersburg begins. The grain goes first, then the cats and the squeaking mice, The thin cats stagger starving about the streets, Die or are eaten. There are no more cats In Petersburg—and in Charleston the creeping grass Grows over the wharves where the ships of the world came in. The grass and the moss grow over the stones of the wharves. A Georgia belle eats sherbet near Andersonville Where the Union prisoners rot. Another is weeping The death of her brother, killed in a Union raid. In the North, the factory chimneys smoke and fume; The minstrels have raised their prices, but every night Bones and Tambo play to a crowded house. The hotels are full. The German Opera is here. The ladies at Newport drive in their four-in-hands. The old woman sells her papers about the war The country widows stitch on a rusty black. In the Shenandoah Valley, the millwheels rot. (Sheridan has been there.) Where the houses stood, Strong houses, built for weather, lasting it out, The chimneys stand alone. The chimneys are blackened. (Sheridan has been there.) This Valley has been The granary of Lee’s army for years and years. Sheridan makes his report on his finished work. “If a crow intends to fly over the Valley now He’ll have to carry his own provisions,” says Sheridan. The lonely man with the chin like John Calhoun’s Knows it is over, will not know it is over. Many hands are turning against him in these last years. He makes mistakes. He is stubborn and sick at heart. He is inflexible with fate and men. It is over. It cannot be. He fights to the end, Clinging to one last dream—of somehow, somewhere, A last, miraculous battle where he can lead One wing of the Southern army and Lee the other And so wrench victory out of the failing odds. Why is it a dream? He has studied grand strategy, He was thought a competent soldier in Mexico, He was Secretary of War once— He is the rigid Scholar we know and have seen in another place, Lacking that scholar’s largeness, but with the same Tight mouth, the same intentness on one concept, The same ideal that must bend all life to its will Or break to pieces—and that is the best of him. The pettiness is the pettiness of a girl More than a man’s—a brilliant and shrewish girl, Never too well in body yet living long. He has that unforgiveness of women in him And women will always know him better than men Except for a few, in spite of Mexican wars, In spite of this last, most desolate, warlike dream. Give him the tasks that other scholar assumed, He would not have borne them as greatly or with such skill And yet—one can find a likeness. So now he dreams Hopelessly of a fight he will never fight And if worst comes to worst, perhaps, of a last Plutarch-death on a shield. It is not to be. He will snatch up a cloak of his wife’s by accident In the moment before his capture, and so be seen, The proud man turned into farce, into sorry farce Before the ignorant gapers. He shades his eyes To rest them a moment, turns to his work again. The gaunt man, Abraham Lincoln, lives his days. For a while the sky above him is very dark. There are fifty thousand dead in these last, bleak months And Richmond is still untaken. The papers rail, Grant is a butcher, the war will never be done. The gaunt man’s term of office draws to an end, His best friends muse and are doubtful. He thinks himself For a while that when the time of election comes He will not be re-elected. He does not flinch. He draws up a paper and seals it with his own hand. His cabinet signs it, unread. Such writing might be A long historic excuse for defeated strength. This is very short and strict with its commonsense. “It seems we may not rule this nation again. If so, we must do our best, while we still have time, To plan with the new rulers who are to come How best to save the Union before they come, For they will have been elected upon such grounds That they cannot possibly save it, once in our place.” The cloud lifts, after all. They bring him the news. He is sure of being President four years more. He thinks about it. He says, “Well, I guess they thought They’d better not swap horses, crossing a stream.” The deserters begin to leave the Confederate armies. . . . * * * * * Luke Breckinridge woke up one sunshiny morning Alone, in a roadside ditch, to be hungry again, Though he was used to being hungry by now. He looked at his rifle and thought, “Well, I ought to clean it.” He looked at his feet and he thought, “Well, I ought to get Another bunch of rags if we-uns is goin’ To march much more—these rags is down to my hide.” He looked at his ribs through the tears in his dirty shirt And he thought, “Well, I sure am thin as a razorback. Well, that’s the way it is. Well, I ought to do somethin’. I ought to catch up with the boys. I wish I remembered When I had to quit marchin’ last night. Well, if I start now, I reckon I’m bound to catch ’em.” But when he rose He looked at the road and saw where the march had passed —Feet going on through the dust and the sallow mud, Feet going on forever— He saw that track. He was suddenly very tired. He had been tired after fighting often enough But this was another weariness. He rubbed his head in his hands for a minute or so, As if to rub some slow thought out of his mind But it would not be rubbed away. “I’m near it,” he thought, “The hotel ain’t a mile from here if Sophy’s still there. Well, they wouldn’t give me a furlough when I ast. Well, it’s been a long time.” On the way to the plank hotel He still kept mumbling, “I can catch up to the boys.” But another thought too vague to be called a thought Washed over the mumble, drowning it, forcing it down. The grey front door was open. No one was there. He stood for a moment silent, watching the sun Fall through the open door and pool in the dust. “Sophy!” he called. He waited. Then he went in. The flies were buzzing over the dirty plates In the dining room and nobody there at all. It made him feel tired. He started to climb the stairs. “Hey, Sophy!” he called and listened. There was a creak From somewhere, a little noise like a dusty rat Running across a dusty, sun-splattered board. His hands felt stronger. He was on the second floor Slamming the doors of empty room after room And calling “Sophy!” At last he found the locked door. He broke it down with his shoulder in a loud noise. She was lying in bed with the covers up to her chin And her thin hands clutching the covers. “Well, Soph,” he said. “Well, it’s you,” she said. They stared at each other awhile. “The rest of ’em’s gone,” she said. “They went off last night. We haven’t had no business. The nigger said The Yanks were coming. They didn’t have room in the cart. They said I could stay for a while and take care of things Or walk if I wanted. I guess Mr. Pollet’s crazy. He was talking things to himself all the time they went. I never slept in a bed like this before. I didn’t know you could sleep so soft in a bed.” “Did they leave any shoes?” said Luke. She shook her head. “I reckon you could maybe tear up a quilt. I reckon they wouldn’t mind.” Luke grinned like a wolf. “I reckon they hadn’t better,” he said. “Not much. Got anything to eat? I’m hungry as hell.” They ate what food she could find and she washed his feet And bound them up in fresh rags. He looked at the rags. “Do for a while,” he said. “Well, come along, Soph. We got a long way to go.” Her eyes were big at him. “The Yanks were comin’,” she said. “You mean the war’s over?” He said, “I ain’t had shoes for God knows how long.” He said, “If it was all Kelceys, you wouldn’t mind. Now I’m goin’ to get me some shoes and raise me a crop, And when we get back home, we’ll butcher a hog. There’s allus hogs in the mountains.” “Well,” she said. “Well, you get your duds,” he said. She didn’t have much. They went along two days without being stopped. She walked pretty well for a thin sort of girl like that. He told her she’d get fatter when they were home. The third day, they were tramping along toward dusk, On a lonely stretch of road, when she heard the horse-hoofs. Luke had heard them before and shifted his rifle then. The officer came in sight. He was young and drawn. His eyes were old in their sockets. He reined his horse. “You’re goin’ the wrong way, soldier. What’s your regiment?” Luke’s eyes grew little. “—th Virginia,” he drawled, “But I’m on furlough.” “H’m,” said the officer, “Where are your furlough-papers?” Luke’s hand slid down By his trigger guard. “This here’s my furlough,” he said, Resting the piece in the palm of the other hand. The officer seemed to debate a thing in his mind For a long instant. Then he rode on, in silence. Luke watched him out of sight. When he was quite gone, The hand slid back, the rifle was shouldered again. * * * * * The night had fallen on the narrow tent. —Deep night of Virginia summer when the stars Are burning wax in the near, languid sky And the soft flowers hardly close all night But bathe in darkness, as a woman bathes In a warm, fragrant water and distill Their perfume still, without the fire of the sun. The army was asleep as armies sleep. War lying on a casual sheaf of peace For a brief moment, and yet with armor on, And yet in the child’s deep sleep, and yet so still. Even the sentries seemed to walk their posts With a ghost-footfall that could match that night. The aide-de-camp knew certain lines of Greek And other such unnecessary things As birds and music, that are good for peace But are not deemed so serviceable for war. He was a youth with an inquisitive mind And doubtless had a failing for romance, But then he was not twenty, and such faults May sometimes be excused in younger men Even when such creatures die, as they have done At one time or another, for some cause Which we are careful to point out to them Much later, was no cause worth dying for, But cannot reach them with our arguments Because they are uneconomic dust. So, when the aide-de-camp came toward the tent, He knew that he was sleepy as a dog, And yet the starlight and the gathered scents Moved in his heart—like the unnecessary Themes of a music fallen from a cloud In light, upon a dark water. And though he had Some bitterness of mind to chew upon, As well as messages that he must give Before he slept, he halted in his tracks. He saw, imprinted on the yellow light That made the tent a hollow jack-o’-lantern, The sharp, black shadow of a seated man, The profile like the profile on a bust. Lee in his tent, alone. He had some shadow-papers in his hand, But you could see he was not reading them, And, if he thought, you could not read his thoughts, Even as shadows, by any light that shines. “You’d know that face among a million faces,” Thought the still watcher, “and yet, his hair and beard Have quite turned white, white as the dogwood-bloom That blossomed on the way to Chancellorsville When Jackson was alive and we were young And we were winning and the end was near. And now, I guess, the end is near enough In spite of everything that we can do, And he’s alone tonight and Jackson’s dead. I saw him in the Wilderness that day When he began to lead the charge himself And the men wouldn’t let him. Gordon spoke And then the men themselves began to yell “Lee to the rear—General Lee to the rear!” I’ll hear that all my life. I’ll see those paws Grabbing at Traveller and the bridle-rein And forcing the calm image back from death. Reckon that’s what we think of you, Marse Robert, Reckon that’s what we think, what’s left of us, The poor old devils that are left of us. I wonder what he thinks about it all. He isn’t staring, he’s just sitting there. I never knew a man could look so still And yet look so alive in his repose. It doesn’t seem as if a cause could lose When it’s believed in by a man like that. And yet we’re losing. And he knows it all. No, he won’t ever say it. But he knows. I’d feel more comfortable if he’d move. We had a chance at Spottsylvania, We had some chances in the Wilderness. We always hurt them more than we were hurt And yet we’re here—and they keep coming on. What keeps us going on? I wish I knew. Perhaps you see a man like that go on And then you have to follow. There can’t be So many men that men have followed so. And yet, what is it for? What is it for? What does he think? His hands are lying there Quiet as stones or shadows in his lap. His beard is whiter than the dogwood bloom, But there is nothing ruined in his face, And nothing beaten in those steady eyes. If he’s grown old, it isn’t like a man, It’s more the way a river might grow old. My mother knew him at old dances once. She said he liked to joke and he was dark then, Dark and as straight as he can stand today. If he would only move, I could go forward. You see the faces of spear-handling kings In the old books they taught us from at school; Big Agamemnon with his curly beard, Achilles in the cruelty of his youth, And Œdipus before he tore his eyes. I’d like to see him in that chariot-rank, With Traveller pulling at the leader-pole. I don’t think when the winged claws come down They’ll get a groan from him. So we go on. Under the claws. And he goes on ahead. The sharp-cut profile moved a fraction now, The aide-de-camp went forward on his errand. * * * * * The years ride out from the world like couriers gone to a throne That is too far for treaty, or, as it may be, too proud; The years marked with a star, the years that are skin and bone. The years ride into the night like envoys sent to a cloud. Perhaps they dismount at last, by some iron ring in the skies, Dismount and tie their stallions and walk with an armored tread Where an outlaw queen of the air receives strange embassies Under a tree of wisdom, between the quick and the dead. Perhaps they are merely gone, as the white foam flies from the bit, But the sparkling noise of their riding is ever in our ears.— The men who came to the maze without foreknowledge of it, The losers and the finders, under the riding years. They pass, and the finders lose, the losers find for a space. There are love and hate and delusion and all the tricks of the maze. There are always losers and finders. There is no abiding-place And the years are unreturning. But, here and there, there were days. Days when the sun so shone that the statue gave its cry And a bird shook wings or a woman walked with a certain mirth, When the staff struck out a spring from the stones that had long been dry, And the plough moved on from the hilltop, but its share had opened the earth. So the bird is caught for an instant, and so the bird escapes. The years are not halted by it. The losers and finders wait. The years move on toward the sunset, the tall, far-trafficking shapes, Each with a bag of news to lay at a ghostly gate. Riders shaking the heart with the hoofs that will not cease, Will you never lie stretched in marble, the hands crossed over the breast, Some with hounds at your feet to show that you passed in peace, And some with your feet on lions? It is time that you were at rest. * * * * * John Vilas clucked to the scurvy rack of bones Between the shafts. The rickety cart moved on Like a tired insect, creaking through the dust. There was another day behind them now And any number of such days ahead Unrolling like a long block-printed cloth Pattered with field and stream and snake-rail fence, And now and then, a flash of cavalry Fording a backwoods creek; a big, slow star Mounting in silver over lonely woods While the fire smelled of pine and a cougar cried; A warm barn, full of the sweet milky breath Of cows; a lank-haired preacher on a mule; A red-cheeked woman who rushed after them Armed with a hot and smoking apple-pie And would not take a penny from the old man Who held the mended reins as if they were The vast, slow-sweeping scythe of Time himself —Old Time and the last children of his age, Drawn in a rattling cart, too poor to thieve, By a gaunt horse, too ancient to die, Over a rutted road, day after day, Returning to the East from whence he came. It was a portent in the little towns. The time had bred odd voyagers enough; Disbanded soldiers, tramping toward the West In faded army blouses, singing strange songs, Heroes and chickenthieves, true men and liars, Some with old wounds that galled them in the rains And some who sold the wounds they never had Seven times over in each new saloon; Queer, rootless families, plucked up by war To blow along the roads like tumbleweed, Who fed their wild-haired children God knows how But always kept a fierce and cringing cur, Famished for scraps, to run below the cart; Horsedealers, draft-evaders, gipsymen; Crooked creatures of a thousand dubious trades That breed like gnats from the débris of war; Half-cracked herb-doctor, patent-medicine man With his accordeon and his inked silk hat; Sellers of snake-oil balm and lucky rings And the old, crazy hatless wanderer Who painted “God is Love” upon the barns And on the rocks, “Prepare to Meet Thy God” Lost tribes and maverick nations of the road— The shiftless people, who are never still But blow before the wind unquietly And will so blow, until the last starved cur Yaps at the last fat farmer, and lies down With buckshot tearing at his ravening heart, For the slow years to pick his carcass clean And turn the little chapel of his bones Into a dust so sifted by the wind No winds that blow can sift it any more. There were unquiet people on the road, There were outlandish strays and travellers, Drifting the little towns from day to day, Stopping to mend a wheel or patch a shoe, Beg, steal or sleep or write God’s judgments out And then pass on. And yet, when these three came, John Vilas and his daughter and her child, Like snail-drawn Time, along the dusty track, The story had gone on ahead of them. And there was something in the rickety cart Or the gaunt horse or in his driver’s eyes That made a fable of their journeying, Until you heard John Vilas was that same Lost Jew that wanders after every war But cannot die in any, being curst. He was the skipper, who first brought the slaves. He was John Brown, arisen from his stone. He was the drummer who had lost his way At Valley Forge and frozen in the snow, To rove forevermore, a dread old man Beating a phantom drum across the wind. He was a dozen such uncanny fetches, And, while one must not talk with him too long, There was no luck at all in crossing him, Because, and in the end, the man was Time; White-headed Time, stoop-shouldered on his scythe, Driving a daughter and a daughter’s son Beyond the war, to some wrought-iron gate Where they would drop their heavy load at last —Load of all war and all misfortune’s load— On the green grass of a New England grave Set on the sea-cliffs, looking toward the sea. While, for the other tale, the woman’s tale, The heart-faced girl with the enormous eyes, Roving from little town to little town Still looking for her soldier—it became Mixed with each story of such fortune told Behind drawn blinds, by women, in the dusk, Until she too grew fabulous as a song Sung to a beechwood fiddle, and all the old Barely-recorded chants that are the land And no one poet’s or musician’s —“Old Dan Tucker,” “The Belle of Albany,” The girl who died for love in the high woods And cruel Barbara Allen in her pride. So she became a concertina tune Played in plank taverns by a blind, old man, A jew’s-harp strain, a comb-and-banjo song, The music of a soapbox violin Shrilled out against the tree-toads and the crickets Through the hot nights of June. So, though she passed Unknowing, yet she left the legend-touch Bright as a splash of sumach still behind Wherever the gaunt horse pulled on his load. Till, later, those who knew no more of her Living, than they might know of such removed And singable creations as “Lord Randall,” “Colombo,” “Little Musgrave,” or “Jay Gould’s Daughter” Yet knew enough of her to sing about And fit her name, Melora, to the same Slow-dropping minor of the water and earth— The minor of the country barber-shops That keens above the grave of Jesse James And the lone prairie where the cowboy died, The desolate minor of the jail-bird’s song, Luscious with sorrow, and the minor notes That tell about the tragic end of such As loved too well to have such cruel fathers But were so loving, even in the dust, A red-rose brier grew out of their dead hearts And twined together in a lover’s knot For all the county people to admire, And every lost, waif ballad we have made And, making, scorned because it smelt of the earth, And now would seek, but cannot make again— So she became a legend and a name, John Vilas, moving always toward the East, Upon his last adventure, felt the sun Strike at his bones and warm them like the last Heat of the wood so long within the fire That long ago the brightness ate its heart And yet it lies and burns upon the iron Unready still to crumble and be cool The white, transmuted log of purest ash Still glowing with a late and borrowed flame. “This is the sun of age,” he thought, “and so We enter our last journeys with that sun Which we have watched sink down ten thousand times Knowing he would arise like Dedalus On the first wings of morning, and exult Like our own youth, fresh-risen from its bed And inexhaustible of space and light. But now the vessel which could not be filled By violence or desire or the great storm, Runs over with its weight of little days And when this sun sinks now, we’ll sink with him And not get up again. I find it fit That I, who spent the years of my desire In the lost forest, seeking the lost stone, With little care for Harriet or the rest, With little trust in safety or the world, Should now retrace at last, and in my age, The exact highway of my youth’s escape From everything that galled it and take on, Like an old snake resuming his cast skins, The East I fled, the little towns I mocked, The dust I thought was shaken from my shoes, The sleepiness from which I ran away. Harriet’s right and Harriet is just And Harriet’s back in that chintz-curtained room From which I took her, twenty years ago, With all the children who were always hers Because I gave them nothing but my seed And hardly heard their laughter or their tears And hardly knew their faces or their names, Because I listened for the wind in the bough, Because my daughters were the shooting-stars, Because my sons were the forgotten streams And the wild silvers of the wilderness. Men who go looking for the wilderness-stone And find it, should not marry or beget, For, if they do so, they may work a wrong Deeper than any mere intent of pain. And yet, what I have sought that I have sought And cannot disavouch, although it is The double knife that cuts the giver’s hand And the unwilling taker’s. So I took My wife, long since, from that chintz-curtained room And so she has gone back to it again After these years, with children of those years, And, being kind, she will not teach them there To curse me, as I think, though if she did She could find reason in her neighbor’s eyes, And, being Harriet, she will bring them up As all such children should and must be reared In all such houses, till the end of time, As if she had not been away at all. And so, at last, she’ll get the peace she should. And yet, some time, a child may run away. We have had sons and daughters, she and I, And, of them all, one daughter and one son In whom our strange bloods married with the true Marriage that is not merely sheath and sword. The rest are hers. Those two were partly mine. I taught my son to wander in the woods Till he could step the hidden paths with me Light as a whisper, indolent as Spring. I would not tame his sister when I might, I let her follow patterans of leaves, Looking for stones rejected by the wise. I kept them by me jealously and long. And yet, the day they took him, when he sat There on his horse, before they all rode off, It was his mother who looked out of him And it was to his mother that he looked. That is my punishment and my offence And that is how it was. And he is dead. Dead of a fever, buried in the South, Dead in this war I thought a whirligig For iron fools to play with and to kill Other men’s sons, not mine. He’s buried deep. I kept him by me jealously and long. Well, he walked well, alive. He was my son. I’ll not make tags of him. We got the news. She could not stay beside me after that. I see so clearly why she could not stay. So I retrace the hard steps of my youth Now with this daughter, in a rattling cart Drawn by a horse as lean as famine’s self, And am an omen in the little towns— Because this daughter has too much of me To be content with bread made out of wheat. To be in love and give it up for rest, To live serene without a knife at heart. Such is the manner and the bound escape Of those a disproportion drives unfed From the world’s table, without meat or grace, Though both are wholesome, but who seek instead Their solitary victual like the fox. And who at last return as I return In the ironic wagon of the years, Back to the pasture that they found too green, Broken of every knowledge but the last Knowledge of how escape is not a door But a slow-winding road whose hundred coils Return upon each other, soon or late —And how and when and under what cold stars The old wound bleeds beneath the armored mind. And yet, this journey is not desolate Nor am I desolate in it, as we crawl Slowly from little town to little town Always against the sun, and the horse nods, And there’s my daughter talking, and her child Sleeping or waking, and we stop awhile And then go on awhile, and I can feel The slow sun creeping through me summerlong. Until, at times, I fall into a doze Awake, a daydream without apparitions And, falling so, inhabit for a space A second childhood, calmer than the first, But wise in the same fashion, and so touch For a long, drowsy hour of afternoon, The ripened thing, the autumn at the heart, The one full star of evening that is age. Yes, I must be a second child sometimes, For as we pass and as they watch us pass, It seems to me their eyes make stories of us And I can hear those stories murmuring Like pigeons in a loft when I’m asleep, Till sometimes I must wonder for a while If I’ve not changed myself for someone else Or grown a story without knowing it, And, with no intermediary death, Stepped out of flesh and taken on a ghost. For at such times, it almost seems to me As if I were no longer what I am But the deluded shade of Peter Rugg Still looking for his Boston through the storm, Or the strange spook of Johnny Appleseed, Crept out of heaven on a windless night To see if his wild orchards prosper still And leave a heap of Baldwins and sweet russets —Moonglittered, scrubbed with rags of silver cloud And Indian magic—by the lucky doors Of such good people as take care of them— While for my daughter, though I know she’s real, She and her story, yet, in the waking dream She mixes with that song I used to know About the Spanish lady of old days Who loved the Englishman and sought for him All through green England in her scarlet shoes, Knowing no word of English but his name. I hear her voice, where the guitar is mixed With the sweet, jangling mule-bells of Castile, I see her face under its high shell-comb —And then it is my daughter’s—and I wake— And yet know, even in waking, that we are Somewhere between a story and a dream. And so, you see, I find a kind of peace In this last foray, will not rail at the sun, Eat, drink and sleep, in spite of what is past, Talk with my daughter, watch the turning skies. The Spanish lady found her Englishman. Well, we may find this boy I’ve half-forgot, Although our story is another story. So life works in us for a little while And then the ferment’s quiet. So we do Wrongs much beyond intent, and suffer them. So we go looking for the wilderness-stone. I shall smell lilac in Connecticut No doubt, before I die, and see the clean White, reticent, small churches of my youth, The gardens full of phlox and mignonette, The pasture-bars I broke to run away. It was my thought to lie in an uncropped And savage field no plough had ever scored, Between a bee-tree and a cast deer-horn. It was my thought to lie beside a stream Too secret for the very deer to find, Too solitary for remembrance. It was a dream. It does not matter now. Bury me where the soldiers of retreat Are buried, underneath the faded star, Bury me where the courtiers of escape Fall down, confronted with their earth again. Bury me where the fences hold the land And the sun sinks beyond the pasture-bars Never to fall upon the wilderness-stone. And yet I have escaped, in spite of all.” * * * * * Lucy Weatherby smoothed out clothes in a trunk With a stab at her heart. The trunk was packed to the lid. There wasn’t an empty corner anywhere, Pack as she would—but the blue dress wouldn’t go in. Of course she’d be getting a lot of new dresses soon And the blue was old—but she couldn’t leave it behind. If only Henry wasn’t so selfish, at times! But Henry was like all brothers and like all men, Expecting a lady to travel to Canada With just one trunk and the boxes! It was too bad. He had a trunk of his own for razors and shirts, And yet she couldn’t take two—and there were the hoops; He kept on fussing because she wouldn’t leave them When she knew he was hoping to take all those silly books, As if you couldn’t buy books wherever you went! She pinched her cheek and stared at the trunk again. The green could come out, of course, and the blue go in, But she couldn’t bear the idea of leaving the green. The war, of course, and one thinks so much of the war, And those terrible Yankees actually at our gates, In spite of our fine, brave boys and poor Mr. Davis, In spite of wearing old dresses for two whole years And sending the servants out to work at the forts, In spite of the cheers and the songs and the cause and the right. Only, one must not be selfish. One must be brave. One must think about Henry’s health and be sensible, And Henry actually thinks we can get away. . . . The blue or the green? She couldn’t decide it yet, And there were all those letters to write tonight. She’d simply have to write to Clay and Huger About Henry’s health—and how it just breaks my heart, But one cannot leave one’s sick brother—and afterwards, One can always send one’s address—and I’m sure if they do We’ll give them a real, old-fashioned Richmond welcome, Though they say that the British leftenants are simply sweet And every Southern girl is an absolute belle. They play the “Bonnie Blue Flag” at the dances there, And Sara Kenefick is engaged to an earl. She saw herself, for an instant, walking the safe Street of a calm and British-looking town. She had on a new dress. Her shoes and her hat were new. A white-haired, dim-faced man in a British coat Walked beside her and looked and was listening, While she told him all about it, and hearing the guns, And how they’d actually lived without butcher’s meat For weeks and weeks—and the wounded—and General Lee— And only Henry’s health had forced them at last To leave the dear South. She choked. He patted her hand. He hoped they would stay in Canada for a while. The blue or the green? It was dreadfully hard to choose, And with all the letters to write—and Jim Merrihew And that nice Alabama Major— She heard the bells Ring for a wedding, but this was a different groom, This was a white-haired man with stars on his coat, This was an Order wrapped in an English voice. Honey, sugar-lump honey I love so dearly, You have eluded the long pursuit that sought you, You have eluded the hands that would so enclose you And with strange passion force you. What was this passion? We do not know, you and I, but we would not bear it And are gone free. So at last, if fair girls must marry, As young girls should, it is after another fashion And not with youth but wisely. So we are ransomed, And I am yours forever and you are mine, Honey, sugar-lump honey. So we attain, The white-haired bridegrooms with the stars on their coats And yet have the beaus to dance with, for we like dancing, So all the world finds our wifely devotion charming, So we play all day in the heat of the sun. She held the blue dress under her chin once more And smoothed it with one white hand. Then she put it down Smiling a little. No, it couldn’t go in, But she would see if she couldn’t help Henry pack, And if she did, the blue could go with his shirts. It hardly mattered, leaving some shirts behind. * * * * * Sherman’s buzzin’ along to de sea, Jubili, Jubilo! Sherman’s buzzin’ along to de sea, Like Moses ridin’ on a bumblebee, Settin’ de prisoned and de humble free! Hit’s de year of Jubilo! Massa was de whale wid de big inside, Jubili, Jubilo! Massa was de lion and de lion’s hide. But de Lord God smacked him in his hardheart pride, And de whale unswallered, and de lion died! Hit’s de year of Jubilo! Oh, hit don’t matter if you’s black or tan, Jubili, Jubilo! Hit don’t matter if you’s black or tan, When you hear de noise of de freedom-ban’ You’s snatched baldheaded to de Promise Lan’, Hit’s de year of Jubilo! Oh, hit don’t matter if you pine or ail, Jubili, Jubilo! Hit don’t matter if you pine or ail, Hit don’t matter if you’s been in jail, De Lord’s got mercy for your mumblin’ tale! Hit’s de year of Jubilo! Every nigger’s gwine to own a mule, Jubili, Jubilo! Every nigger’s gwine to own a mule, An’ live like Adam in de Golden Rule, An’ send his chillun to de white-folks’ school! In de year of Jubilo! Fall down on your knees and bless de Lord, Jubili, Jubilo! Fall down on your knees and bless de Lord, Dat chased old Pharaoh wid a lightnin’-sword, And rose up Izzul fum de withered gourd, Hit’s de year of Jubilo! Shout thanksgivin’ and shout it loud! Jubili, Jubilo! Shout thanksgivin’ and shout it loud, We was dead and buried in de Lazrus-shroud, But de Lord came down in a glory-cloud, An’ He gave us Jubilo! * * * * * So Sherman goes from Atlanta to the sea Through the red-earth heart of the land, through the pine-smoke haze Of the warm, last months of the year. In the evenings The skies are green as the thin, clear ice on the pools That melts to water again in the heat of noon. A few black trees are solemn against those skies. The soldiers feel the winter touching the air With a little ice. But when the sun has come up, When they halt at noonday, mopping their sweaty brows, The skies are blue and soft and without a cloud. Strange march, half-war, half trooping picnic-parade, Cutting a ruinous swathe through the red-earth land; March of the hardy bummers and coffee-coolers Who, having been told to forage, loot as they can And leave a wound that rankles for sixty years. March of the honest, who did not loot when they could And so are not remembered in Southern legend. Rough-bearded Sherman riding the red-earth roads, Writing home that his rascals are fat and happy, Saying or else not saying that war is hell, Saying he almost trembles himself to think Of what will happen when Charleston falls in the hands Of those same rascals—and yet, when we read that march Hardly the smoking dragon he has been called, But the mere rough-handed man who rode with a hard Bit through the land, unanxious to spare his foe Nor grimly anxious to torture for torture’s sake, Smashing this and that,—and yet, in the end, Giving such terms to the foe struck down at last That the men in Washington disavow them and him For over-kindness. So now, through the pine-smoke Fall, The long worm of his army creeps toward Savannah Leaving its swathe behind. In the ruined gardens The buried silver lies well hid in the ground. A looter pocks bullet-marks in an old oil-portrait. A woman wails and rages against the thieves Who carry her dead child’s clothes on their drunken bayonets. A looter swings from a pine tree for thefts too crude. A fresh-faced boy gets scars he will carry long Hauling a crippled girl from a burning house, But gets no thanks but hate from the thing he saved, And everywhere, A black earth stirs, a wind blows over black earth, A wind blows into black faces, into old hands Knotted with long rheumatics, cramped on the hoe, Into old backs bent double over the cotton, The wind of freedom, the wind of the jubilo. They stray from the lost plantations like children strayed, Grinning and singing, following the blue soldiers, They steal from the lonesome cabins like runaways Laden with sticks and bundles and conjur-charms; A huge black mother carries her sucking child Wrapped in a quilt, a slim brown girl and her lover Wander November woods like Adam and Eve, Living on roots and rabbits and liberty, An old grey field hand dimly plods through the mud, Looking for some vague place he has heard about Where Linkum sits at a desk in his gold silk hat With a bag of silver dollars in either hand For every old grey field hand that comes to him, All God’s chillun got shoes there and fine new clothes, All God’s chillun got peace there and roastin’-ears, Hills of barbecue, rivers of pot-licker, Nobody’s got to work there, never no more. His feet are sore with the road but he stumbles on, A hundred, a thousand others stumble as he, Chanting, dizzied, drunken with a strange fever, A child’s delight, a brightness too huge to grasp, The hidden nation, untaught, unrecognized, Free at last, but not yet free with the free, Ignorant, joyful, wronged, child-minded and searching, Searching the army’s road for this new wild thing That means so much but can’t be held in the hand, That must be there, that yet is so hard to find, This dream, this pentecost changing, this liberty. Some wander away to strange death or stranger life, Some wander awhile and starve and come back at last, Some stay by the old plantation but will not work To the great disgust of masters and mistresses, Sing idly, gamble, sleep through the lazy hours, Waiting for friendly heaven to rain them down The mule and the forty acres of their desire. Some, faithful beyond the bond that they never signed, Hold to that bond in ruin as in the sun, Steal food for a hungry mistress, keep her alive, Keep the house alive, try to pick the weeds from the path, Gather the wood and chop it and make the fire, With pitying scorn for the runaway sheep of freedom, Freedom’s a ghost and freedom’s a foolish talk, What counts is making the fire as it should be made. . . . Oh, blackskinned epic, epic with the black spear, I cannot sing you, having too white a heart, And yet, some day, a poet will rise to sing you And sing you with such truth and mellowness, —Deep mellow of the husky, golden voice Crying dark heaven through the spirituals, Soft mellow of the levee roustabouts, Singing at night against the banjo-moon— That you will be a match for any song Sung by old, populous nations in the past, And stand like hills against the American sky, And lay your black spear down by Roland’s horn. Meanwhile, in Georgia, the scythe of the march mows on, The Southern papers discount it as best they can. Lincoln is anxious, Davis more anxious still. The war is in its last winter of strife and pain. * * * * * Cudjo buried the silverware On a graveyard night of sultry air While the turned sods smelled of the winter damp And Mary Lou Wingate held the lamp. They worked with a will. They did not speak. The light was yellow. The light was weak. A tomb-light casting a last, brief flame Over the grave of Wingate fame. The silver bowl of the Wingate toasts, The spoons worn hollow by Wingate ghosts, Sconce and ladle and bead-rimmed plate With the English mark and the English weight, The round old porringer, dented so By the first milk-teeth of the long ago, And the candlesticks of Elspeth Mackay That she brought with her youth on her wedding-day To light the living of Wingate Hall While the mornings break and the twilights fall And the night and the river have memories. . . . There was a spook in Cudjo’s eyes As he lowered the chests where they must lie And patted the earth back cunningly. He knew each chest and its diverse freight As a blind man knows his own front gate And, decade by decade and piece by piece, With paste and shammy and elbow-grease, He had made them his, by the pursed-up lips And the tireless, polishing fingertips, Till now as he buried them, each and all, What he buried was Wingate Hall, Himself and the moon and the toddy-sippers, The river mist and the dancing-slippers, Old Marse Billy and Mary Lou And every bit of the world he knew, Master and lady and house and slave, All smoothed down in a single grave. He was finished at length. He shook his head. “Mistis, reckon we’s done,” he said. They looked at each other, black and white, For a slow-paced moment across the light. Then he took the lamp and she smoothed her shawl And he lit her back to the plundered Hall, To pray, with her old serene observance For the mercy of God upon faithful servants And a justice striking all Yankees dead On her cold, worn knees by the great carved bed, Where she had lain by a gentleman’s side, Wife and mother and new-come bride, Sick with the carrying, torn with the borning, Waked by the laughter on Christmas morning, Through love and temper and joy and grief, And the years gone by like the blowing leaf. She finished her prayer with Louisa’s child, And, when she had risen, she almost smiled. She struck her hand on the bedstead head, “They won’t drive me from my house,” she said, As the wood rang under her wedding-ring. Then she stood for a moment, listening, As if for a step, or a gentleman’s name, But only the gnats and the echoes came. Cudjo, being less fortified, Covered his ears with his hands and tried To shut the noise of the risen wind Out of the trouble of his mind. He thought, “Ain’t right for dat wind to blow. She wasn’t blowing awhile ago. Jus’ riz up fum de earth somewhere When we buried dat orphan silver dere. Got to hide it, and so we tried, But silver like dat don’t like to hide, Silver’s ust to be passed aroun’ Don’t like lyin’ in lonesome groun’, Wants to come back to de Hall, all right. Silver, I always shone you bright, You could see yo’self in de shine— Silver, it wasn’t no fix of mine! Don’t you come projeckin’ after me!” His eyes were shut but he still could see The slow chests rising out of the ground With an ominous clatter of silver sound, The locks undoing, the bags unfastening, And every knife and platter and spoon Clinking out of the grave and hastening Back to the Hall, in the witches’ moon; And the wind in the chimney played such tricks That it was no wind, be it soft or loud, But Elspeth seeking her candlesticks All night long in her ruffled shroud, The deep voice haunting the ocean-shell To give her judgment and weave her spell, “_Thrift and love for the house and the chief_ _And a scone on the hob for the son of grief,_ _But a knife in the ribs for the pleasant thief._” Cudjo heard it, and Cudjo shook, And Cudjo felt for the Holy Book, And the wind blew on without peace or rest, Blowing the straws from the dried-up nest. * * * * * Bailey, tramping along with Sherman’s bummers, Grumbled and found life pleasant and hummed his tune. He was well, the blood ran in him, he ate for ten, He and the gang had salvaged a wall-eyed nig To fix their victuals—and if the captain was on, The captain had a blind eye. Last night it was turkey, The night before it was duck—well, you couldn’t expect Such things to keep on forever, but while they did It was pretty soft—it was war like it ought to be. The Old Man marched ’em hard, but that was all right, The Old Man knew his job and the nig was a buster And the gang was as good a gang as you’d hope to find, None of your coffee-coolers and straggle-tails But a regular gang that ran like an eight-day clock. Oh it was gravy, it was the real duck soup, Marchin’ into Atlanta after the fight And then this marchin’—well, they were due for it, And he was a sergeant now. And up in his pack Were souvenirs for the red-haired widow in Cairo, Some of ’em bought and some just sort of picked up But not a damn one stolen, to call it stealin’. He wasn’t a coffee-cooler or a slick Susio. Poor little kid—she’d had a pretty tough time— Cry like a fool when she gets a squint at that brooch— They said you couldn’t tell about widows much, But what the hell—he wasn’t a barnyard virgin— He liked a woman who’d been over the bumps And kept her get-up-and-git and her sassiness. Spitfire-sweetie, you’re my valentine now, Bet the kids have red hair—well you can’t help that— But they’ll all look like Poppa or he’ll know why. He mused a moment, thinking of Ellyat now. There was another kid and a crazy kid, Sort of missed him, hope he’s gettin’ it soft, Must have got a banger at Gettysburg, Wrote me a letter a couple of months ago, Maybe six, I dunno, I sort of forget. Ought to give him his old spread-eagle now, Darn good kid, but done enough for his pay. Hope he finds that girl he was talkin’ about, Sounds like a pretty good piece for a storm-and-strife, Skinny, though—we like ’em more of a weight, Don’t we, Carrots? Well, it’s all in a life. Ought to write him sometime if we get a chance, Wish we was West—we’d have him out to the weddin’, Me and Bessie, show him the Cairo girls, Hand him the fireman’s grip and give him a time. His heart was overflowing with charity, But his throat was dry as the bottom of his canteen. There was a big, white house, some way from the road. . . . He found his captain, saluted and put his question. The captain’s eyes were satiric but not displeased. “All right, Sergeant, take your detail and forage, We’re running low on bacon, it seems to me, And if you happen to find a pigeon or two Remember the Colonel’s penchant for pigeon-pie. But don’t waste time and don’t put your hopes too high, The Nth Corps must have gone by there hours ago And they’re the biggest thieves in this whole, wide army. You’ll be back, in ranks, all sober, in just two hours Or you won’t have stripes. And if I find one more man Trying to take a pet with him on this march, I don’t care if it’s only a treetoad, I’ll skin him alive.” So Bailey came to the door of Wingate Hall, With the high wind blowing against him and gave his orders “Make it quick now, boys—don’t cut any monkeyshines, But be sure and get the pigeons if they’re around. Clark, you and Ellis stay with me by the door, I’m going to talk to the house if there’s anyone left.” He knocked and called. There was a long, heavy silence. “Hey you, the house!” The silence made him feel queer. He cursed impatiently and pushed at the door. It swung wide open. He turned to Ellis and Clark. “I’m goin’ in,” he said. “If you hear me yell Come in bilin’.” They watched him with mocking eyes. “Wish to hell they’d make me a sergeant, Clark,” “A three-stripe souvenir sergeant.” “Aw, hell,” said Clark, “Bailey’s all right. He’ll let us in on the juice If there’s any lawful juice that a man could get.” “Sure he’s all right. Who says that he ain’t all right!” “But all the same, he’s a sergeant.” Bailey, meanwhile Was roving like a lost soul through great, empty rooms And staring at various objects that caught his eye. Funny old boy with a wig, hung up on the wall, Queer sort of chairs, made your hands feel dirty to touch ’em Though they were faded. Everything faded and old And quiet—and the wind blowin’—he moved as on tiptoe Though he couldn’t say why he did. Old workbasket there. He opened it idly—most of the things were gone But there was a pair of little, gold-mounted scissors Made like a bird, with the blades the beak of the bird. He picked it up and opened and shut the blades. Hadn’t rusted—sort of handsome and queer— Bessie would certainly like it— He held it a minute. Wouldn’t take up any room. Then he frowned at the thing. “Aw hell,” he said, “I got enough souvenirs. I ain’t no damn coffee-cooler.” He started to put the scissors back in the case And turned to face a slight grey-headed old woman Dressed in black, with eyes that burned through his skin And a voice that cut at his mind like a rawhide whip, Calling him fifty different kinds of a thief And Yankee devil and liar and God knows what, Tearing the throat of her dress with her thin old hands And telling him he could shoot her down like a dog But he’d steal her children’s things over her dead body. My God, as if you went around shootin’ old women For fun, my God! He couldn’t even explain. She was like all of ’em, made him sick in his lunch. “Oh hell,” he yelled. “Shut up about your damn scissors, This is a war, old lady!” “That’s right,” she said, “Curse a helpless female, you big, brave soldier.” Well, what was a man to do? He got out of the house, Sore and angry, mean as a man could feel, But her voice still followed, reviling, making him burn. Now, where in hell was that detail? He saw them now, All except Clark and Ellis, gathered around A white-polled nigger wringing his hands and weeping. One man had a neck-wrung pigeon stuffed in his blouse. Well, that was something. He laid his hand on the nigger. “Hey, Uncle, where’s the well? You folks got a well?” But the nigger just kept on crying like an old fool. “He thinks we’re goin’ to scalp him,” said one of the men, “I told him twict that he’s free but the shine won’t listen. I give him some money, too, but he let it drop. The rest of ’em run away when the army came.” “Well, tell him he’s safe and make him rustle some water, I’m dry as a preacher’s tongue. Where’s Ellis and Clark?” He found Clark solemnly prodding the hard dirt floor Of a negro cabin, while Ellis lighted the task With a splinter of burning pine. His rage exploded In boiling lava. They listened respectfully. “And next time, I give you an order,” he ended up, “Why you —— —— ——” Clark wiped his face with his sleeve. “Sorry, Sergeant,” he said in an awed, low voice. “Well you better be! What the hell do you think you’re at, Playin’ tit-tat-toe or buryin’ somebody’s dog?” “Well, Sergeant,” said Ellis, humbly, “I allus heard They buried stuff, sometimes, under these here cabins. Well, I thought we could take a look—well—” “Huh?” said Bailey. He seized the torch and looked at the trodden floor For an instant. Then his pride and his rage returned. “Hell’s fire!” he said, and threw the splinter aside, “That’s just about what you would think, you and Clark! Come out of there on the double! Yes, I said you!” They were halfway down the driveway when Ellis spoke. “Sergeant,” he said. “There’s somethin’ on fire back there.” Bailey stopped—looked back—a smoke-puff climbed in the sky And the wind was high. He hesitated a moment. The cabin must have caught from the burning splinter. Then he set his jaw. Well, suppose the cabin had caught? —Damned old woman in black who called him a thief. Serve her right if all her cabins burnt up. The house wouldn’t catch—and here they were, losing time— “Oh well,” he said. “That nigger’ll put it out. It ain’t our detail—mosey along with it there— The Cap won’t mind if we run it on him a little, Now we got the Colonel’s squab, but we better step.” They hurried along. The smoke rose higher behind them. The wind blew the burning flakes on Wingate Hall. * * * * * Sally Dupré stared out of her bedroom window As she had stared many times at that clump of trees. And saw the smoke rise out of it, thick and dark. They hadn’t had much trouble at Appleton. It was too far off the main road—and, as for the slaves, Those who straggled after the troops were better away. The aunts complained, of course—well, the aunts complained. They were old, and, at least, they had a man in the house, Even if the man were but crippled old Uncle Paul. It was the end of the world for him and the aunts. It wasn’t for her. The years had worn on her youth, Much had worn, but not the crook from her smile Nor the hidden lightness out of her narrow feet. She looked at the smoke again, and her eyes were grey And then they were black as that smoke. She felt the fire Run on her flesh. “It’s Wingate Hall and it’s burning? House that married my lover before he saw me, You are burning, burning away in a little smoke, Burning the wall between us with your fierce burning, Burning the strife between us in your black flame, Burning down.” She trod for an instant there A light glass floor of omen, brighter than sleet Over a hurtless fire. Then she caught her breath. The flesh was cool, the blackness died from her eyes. “We’ll have to get the slaves if the slaves will go. I know Ned will. I’m not sure about Bob or Jim. Uncle Paul must give me his pistol. I’ll have to start them. They won’t go without me. The aunts won’t be any use. Why wouldn’t she come over here when we all first heard? I know why she wouldn’t. I never liked her so much. Hurry, Sally!” She ran downstairs like the wind. They worked at the Hall that night till the dawn came up, Two smoke-stained women, Cudjo and Bob and Ned, But when the dawn had risen, the Hall was gone And Elspeth’s candles would not light it again. * * * * * Wingate wearily tried to goad A bag of bones on a muddy road Under the grey and April sky While Bristol hummed in his irony “If you want a good time, jine the cavalry! Well, we jined it, and here we go, The last event in the circus-show, The bareback boys in the burnin’ hoop Mounted on cases of chicken-croup, The rovin’ remains of the Black Horse Troop! Though the only horse you could call real black Is the horsefly sittin’ on Shepley’s back, But, women and children, do not fear, They’ll feed the lions and us, next year. And, women and children, dry your eyes, The Southern gentleman never dies. He just lives on by his strength of will Like a damn ole rooster too tough to kill Or a brand-new government dollar-bill That you can use for a trousers-patch Or lightin’ a fire, if you’ve got a match, Or makin’ a bunny a paper collar, Or anythin’ else—except a dollar. Old folks, young folks, never you care, The Yanks are here and the Yanks are there, But no Southern gentleman knows despair. He just goes on in his usual way, Eatin’ a meal every fifteenth day And showin’ such skill in his change of base That he never gets time to wash his face While he fights with a fury you’d seldom find Except in a Home for the Crippled Blind, And can whip five Yanks with a palmleaf hat, Only the Yanks won’t fight like that. Ladies and gentlemen, here we go! The last event in the minstrel show! Georgia’s genuine gamboliers, (Ladies and gentlemen, dry those tears!) See the sergeant, eatin’ the hay Of his faithful horse, in a lifelike way! See the general, out for blood, And try to tell the man from the mud! See the platoon in its savage lair, A half-grown boy on a wheezy mare. Ladies and gentlemen, pass the hat! We’ve got one trick that you won’t forget, ‘The Vanishin’ Commissariat’ And nobody’s found the answer yet! Here we go, here we go, The last parade of the circus-show, Longstreet’s orphans, Lee’s everlastin’s Half cast-iron and half corn-pone, And if gettin’ to heaven means prayer and fastin’s We ought to get there on the fasts alone. Here we go with our weddin’ bells, Mr. Davis’s immortelles, Mr. Lincoln’s Thanksgivin’ turkey, Run right ragged but actin’ perky, Chased right handsome, but still not carved, —We had fleas, but the fleas all starved. We had rations and new recruits, Uniforms and cavalry-boots, Must have mislaid, for we can’t find ’em. They all went home with their tails behind ’em. Here we are, like the old man’s mutton, Pretty well sheared, but not past buttin’, Lee’s last invalids, heart and hand, All wropped up in a woolen band, Oh, Dixie land. . . . oh, Dixie land! . . .” He tossed his hat and caught it again And Wingate recalled, without grief or pain Or any quietus but memory Lucy, under another sky, White and gold as a lily bed, Giving toy ribbons to all her dead. She had been pretty and she was gone, But the dead were here—and the dead rode on, Over a road of mud and stones, Each one horsed on a bag of bones. Lucy, you carried a golden head, But I am free of you, being dead. Father’s back in that cluttered hall Where the beds are solid from wall to wall And the scrubbed old floor has a rusty stain. He’ll never ride with the dogs again, Call Bathsheba or Planter’s Child In the old, high quaver that drives them wild —Rocketing hounds on a red-hot scent— After such wounds, men do not ride. I think that his heart was innocent. I know he rode by the riverside, Calling Blue Ruin or Georgia Lad With the huntsman’s crotchet that sets them mad. His face was ruddy—his face is white— I wonder if Father died last night? That cloud in the sky is a thunderhead. The world I knew is a long time dead. Shepley looks like a knife on guard, Reckon he’s taking it mighty hard, Reckon he loved her and no mistake, Glad it isn’t my wedding cake, Wainscott oughtn’t to plague him so, Means all right but he doesn’t know. “Here we go, here we go, The last events of the minstrel-show!” Shepley suddenly turned his head. “Mr. Bristol’s funny,” he said. The voice was flat with an injury. Bristol stared at him, puzzledly. “What’s the matter with you, Huger? Lost your dog or your rosy cheeks? Haven’t been human for weeks and weeks. I’ll sing you a hymn, if you’re so inclined, But the rest of the boys don’t seem to mind. Are you feelin’ poorly or just unkind?” Shepley looked at him with the blind Eyes of a man too long at war And too long nursing a secret sore. “Mr. Bristol’s funny,” said he, In a level voice of enmity. Bristol laughed, but his face grew red. “Well, if you take it like that—” he said. “Here we go, here we go, The old Confederate minstrel-show!” His mouth was merry, he tossed his hat, “Belles skedaddled and left us flat—” Shepley leaned from his swaying hips And flicked him over the singing lips. “Will you take it?” he said, “or let it go? You never could sing for shucks, you know.” The color drained out of Bristol’s face. He bowed with an odd, old-fashioned grace. “Name your people and choose your land, I don’t take a slap from God’s own hand. Mr. Shepley, your servant, sir.” They stared at each other across a blur. The troop stared with them, halted and still. A rider lunged from the top of the hill, Dusty man with a bandaged hand Spilling his orders. “Who’s in command? Well, it doesn’t signify, more or less. You can hold the Yanks for a while, I guess. Make ’em think you’re the whole rear guard If you can do it—they’re pressin’ hard And somebody’s got to lose some hair. Keep ’em away from that bend down there As long as a horse or a man can stand. You might give ’em a charge, if you think you can, And we’ll meet sometime in the Promised Land, For I can’t spare you another man.” Bristol whistled, a shrill, sweet slur. “Beg to acknowledge the orders, sir. Boys, we’re booked for the shivaree. Give our regards to the infantry And tell Marse Robert, with fortitude, We stacked up pretty as hickory-wood. While might I ask, while bein’ polite, How many Yank armies we aim to fight?” “Well,” said the other, “about a corps. Roughly speakin’—there may be more.” “Thank you,” said Bristol, “that’s mighty sweet, You will not remain at the mourner’s seat? No sir? Well, I imagined not, For from this time hence it will be right hot.” He turned to Shepley with his punctilious Air of the devil turned supercilious When the damned display a vulgar nettlement. “Sir, I regret that our little settlement Must be postponed for a fitter season, But war and necessity know no reason, And should we survive in this comin’ fracas I’ll do you the honors—you damned old jackass!” Shepley grinned at his sometime friend. They took the cover they must defend. Wingate, fighting from tree to tree, Felt a red-hot skewer surgeon his knee And felt his shoulder hitting the ground. He rolled on his side and made a sound, Dimly seeing through failing sight The last brief passion of his last fight. One Cotter dying, the other dead With the brains run out of his shattered head. Stuart Cazenove trying to squirm His way to the road like a scythe-cut worm, Weakly humming “Cadet Rousselle”, Shot through the belly and half in hell, While Shepley croaked through a bloody spray, “Come on, you bastards, and get your pay. We’ve fought you mounted and fought you standin’ And I got a hole I could put my hand in— And they’re comin’, Wayne—and it hurts my head—” Bristol looked at him, lying dead. “Got the start of me, Shep,” he said. “Dirty welchers, killin’ Huger Before we could settle up properly.” He stooped to the body and took its pistol And Wingate saw, through a rising mist, The last, cold madness of Wainscott Bristol, Walking out like a duellist With his torn coat buttoned up at the throat As if it were still the broadcloth coat Duellists button to show no fleck Of telltale white at the wrists or neck. He stepped from his cover and dropped his hat. “Yanks, come get it!” he said and spat While his pistols cracked with a single crack, “Here we go on the red dog’s back! High, low, jack and the goddam game.” And then the answering volley came. Wingate waked from a bloodshot dream. They were touching his leg and he heard his scream. A blue-chinned man said a word or two. “Well now, Johnny, you ought to do Till the sawbones comes with his movin’-van, And you’re lucky you’re livin’, little man. But why the hell did you act so strict, Fightin’ like that when you know you’re licked, And where’s the rest of your damn brigade?” The voice died out as the ripples fade Into the flow of the running stream, And Wingate sank to the bloodshot dream. * * * * * Richmond is fallen—Lincoln walks in its streets, Alone, unguarded, stops at George Pickett’s house, Knocks at George Pickett’s door. George Pickett has gone But the strange, gaunt figure talks to George Pickett’s wife A moment—she thinks she is dreaming, seeing him there— “Just one of George Pickett’s old friends, m’am.” He turns away. She watches him down the street with wondering eyes. The red light falls upon him from the red sky. Houses are burning, strange shadows flee through the streets. A gang of loafers is broaching a liquor-barrel In a red-lit square. The liquor spills on the cobbles. They try to scoop it up in their dirty hands. A long, blue column tramps by, shouting “John Brown’s Body.” The loafers scatter like wasps from a half-sucked pear, Come back when the column is gone. A half-crazy slave Mounts on a stoop and starts to preach to the sky. A white-haired woman shoos him away with a broom. He mumbles and reels to the shadows. A general passes, His escort armed with drawn sabres. The sabres shine In the red, low light. Two doors away, down the street, A woman is sobbing the same long sob all night Beside a corpse with crossed hands. Lincoln passes on. On the way to Appomattox, the ghost of an army Staggers a muddy road for a week or so Through fights and weather, dwindling away each day. For a brief while Davis is with them and then he goes To be tracked by his private furies into the last Sad farce of his capture, and, later, to wear his chains. Benjamin is with them for some few days, Still sleek, still lively, still impeccably dressed, Taking adversity as he took success With the silk-ribbed fan of his slight, unchangeable smile. Behind that fan, his mind weighs war and defeat In an old balance. One day he is there and smiling. The next he is gone as if he had taken fernseed And walked invisible so through the Union lines. You will not find that smile in a Northern prison Though you seek from now till Doomsday. It is too wise. You will find the chief with the chin like John Calhoun’s, Gadfly-stung, tormented by hostile fate, You will find many gallant blockheads and tragic nobles But not the black-eyed man with life in his eyes. So this week, this death-march, these final, desperate strokes, These last blood-spots on the harvest—until, at length, The battered grey advance guard, hoping to break A last, miraculous hole through the closing net, Sees Ord’s whole corps as if risen out of the ground Before them, blocking all hope. The letters are written, The orders given, while stray fighting goes on And grey men and blue men die in odd clumps of ground Before the orders can reach them. An aide-de-camp Seeks a suitable house for the council from a chance farmer. The first one found is too dirty to please his mind, He picks another. The chiefs and the captains meet, Lee erect in his best dress uniform, His dress-sword hung at his side and his eyes unaltered. Chunky Grant in his mudsplashed private’s gear With the battered stars on his shoulders. They talk a while Of Mexico and old days. Then the terms are stated. Lee finds them generous, says so, makes a request. His men will need their horses for the spring-ploughing. Grant assents at once. There is no parade of bright swords Given or taken. Grant saw that there should not be. It is over, then. . . . Lee walks from the little room. His face is unchanged. It will not change when he dies. But as he steps on the porch and looks toward his lines He strikes his hands together once with a sound. . . . In the room he has left, the blue men stare at each other For a space of heartbeats, silent. The grey ride off. They are gone—it is over. . . . The room explodes like a bomb, they are laughing and shouting, Yelling strange words, dragging chairs and tables outdoors, Bearded generals waltzing with one another For a brief, wild moment, punching each others’ ribs, Everyone talking at once and nobody listening, “It’s over—it’s done—it’s finished!” Then, order again. The grey ghost-army falls in for the last time, Marching to stack its arms. As the ranks move forward The blue guns go to “Present.” Gordon sees the gesture. He sweeps his sabre down in the full salute. There are no cheers or words from blue lines or grey. Only the sound of feet. . . . It is over, now. . . . The arms are stacked from the war. A few bronzed, tattered grey men, weeping or silent, Tear some riddled bits of cloth from the color-staffs And try to hide them under their uniforms. * * * * * Jake Diefer, ploughing, a day of the early Spring, Smelt April steam from the ground as he turned it up And wondered how the new forty would do this year. The stump of his left arm ached in the living wind. It was not a new pain. When he got back to the house The woman would ease it some with her liniments But there wasn’t much you could do. The boy had been smart. The boy had fixed the jigger so he could plough. It wasn’t an arm you could show to company With a regular-looking hand, but it did the work. The woman still hankered after the varnished one They’d seen that day in the Philadelphia store —Well, he’d tried it on, and it was a handsome arm, And, if the new forty did well— Meanwhile, the huge Muscles of his right shoulder bulged with the strain As the plough sheared on. Sometimes, the blade of the plough Still turned up such odd harvest as bullets leave, A spoilt canteen, the brass of a cartridge-pouch, An eyeless skull, too white for the grin it wore. But these were rarer now. They had cleaned the well. They could drink from the well again. The earth was in plough. He turned his team and started the backward furrow. He was clumsy still, in some matters, but he could manage. This year he’d see his own wheat. He thought to himself: “You ain’t the feller you was but the ground looks good. It smells like good plantin’ weather. We cleaned the well. Maybe some time we’ll get you that varnished arm, For Sundays, maybe. It’d look good on Sundays.” He gazed ahead. By the end of the farther fence A ragamuffin-something leaned on the rail, Regarding him and his team. “Tramp feller,” he thought, “Colored man, too—well, he can’t hang around this farm, Him or no other tramps. I wish I could get An honest to God cheap hired man.” The team drew near. The negro did not move. Jake halted the team. They stared at each other. One saw a crippled ox, The other a scar-faced spectre with haunted eyes Still dressed in the rags of a shoddy uniform. “Well, feller?” said Jake. The negro said “’Scuse me, Sarjun.” He scratched his head with the wreck of a forage-cap. His eyes remembered a darkness. “Huh!” said Jake, Sharply, “Where did you get it?” The negro shrank. “I was in de Crater, boss,” he said with a dull Stain in his voice. “You mebbe heard about us. You mebbe heard of de Crater at Petersburg. I doan’ like thinkin’ about it. You need a fiel’-han’?” Jake thought for a moment. “Crater,” he said at last. “Yuh, I heard about that Crater.” The wind blew on, Hurting his arm. “I wasn’t to there,” he said. “I knew some boys that was there.” The negro said, “I’d work for my keep, boss, honest. I knows a team. I knows how to work. I got hurt bad in de Crater But I knows how to work a farm.” He coughed and was dumb. Jake looked at him as he might have looked at a horse, Measuringly. “I ain’t runnin’ a hospital,” He said, in an aggrieved voice. “You was to the Crater. I seen the way you colored folks farm down South. It ain’t no way to farm. You ought to be et. We’ll eat you up to the house when it’s mealin’-time. I don’t know where we’ll sleep you. How do I know You can work your keep?” The negro said nothing at all. His eyes had resumed their darkness. “Huddup!” said Jake, As the team swung round. “Dat’s ploughin’!” the negro said. Jake spat. “The woman’ll fix you a snack to eat If you holler the house.” The negro shook his head. “I’ll wait till you’s done furrowin’, boss,” he said. “Mebbe I kin help you unhitch when it’s time for dat.” “Well,” said Jake, “I ain’t payin’ a hired man much.” “Dey call me Spade,” said the negro. The plough went on. The negro watched it, cutting the furrow clean. * * * * * Jack Ellyat, an old cudgel in his fist, Walked from the town, one day of melting ice, Past fields still patched with old snow but warm in the sun, His heart and mind being something like those fields. . . . Behind him, in the town, the spangled flags Still fluttered or hung limp for fallen Richmond, And here or there, in corners, you could see The burst firecracker-cases, rotten with rain, The guttered stumps of torches flung away And other odds and ends of celebration Not yet swept up. The old cannon in the Square Still had a blackened mouth from its salutes, The little boys would not be good all week And everything wore airs of Monday morning. . . . Jack Ellyat, remembering it all, Was glad enough when he got past the houses And could see nothing but the road ahead Going up hills and down. “It’s over now. Finished for good. Well, I was part of it. Well, it is over.” When he reached the crest Of the Long Hill, he paused and felt the wind Blow on his face, and leaned upon his stick, Gazing at troubled Spring. He carried still Wounds of a sort, some healed into the scars And some that hardly would be healed awhile, Being in stuff few surgeries can reach, But he was well enough, although the wind Felt colder than it had in other Springs. “Oh, yes,” he thought, “I guess that I’m all right. I guess I’m lucky. I remember once Coming along this road with poor old Ned Before they fired on Sumter. Well, it’s over. I was a part of it.” He flipped a stone Down toward the hill and watched it strike and strike And then lie quiet, while his mind recalled The long, white, bloodless months of getting well And the strange feel of first civilian clothes. Well, that was over, too, and he was back, And everybody knew he’d settled down, Only he couldn’t stand it any more. He had a picture of Melora’s face, Dim with long looking-at, a carried image, He tried to see it now, but it was faint. He’d tried to find her but he couldn’t find her. Couldn’t get any news while he was sick, And then, at last, the news that they were gone— That and no more—and nobody knew where. He saw the clock upon the mantelpiece Back in the house, ticking its fettered time To fettered Phaëton. “I’ll settle down. I will forget. I’ll wear my riddled coat Fourth of Julys and have boys gape at me. I’ll drink and eat and sleep, marry a girl; Be a good lawyer, wear the hunger out. I hardly knew her. It was years ago. Why should the hunger stay? A dozen men Might find a dozen girls and lose them so And never once think of it, but perhaps As a dim fragrance, lost with their first youth, A seashell in a box of cedarwood, A silver mist that vanished with the day. It was such years ago. She must have changed. I know that I have changed. We find such things And lose them, and must live in spite of it. Only a fool goes looking for the wind That blew across his heartstrings yesterday, Or breaks his hands in the obscure attempt To dig the knotted roots of Time apart, Hoping to resurrect the golden mask Of the lost year inviolate from the ground. Only a fool drives horses in the sky.” And here he was, out walking on this road For no more reason than a crazy yarn Just heard, about some gipsy travellers Going through towns and looking for a soldier. And even and supposing it were she . . . He saw Melora walking down from the wood With the sun behind her, low in the western cloud. He saw the long shadow that her slight body made. The fetters fell like straws from the clock of time. The horses moved from the gate. This life, this burning, This fictive war that is over, this toy death, These were the pictures of Phaëton. This is Phaëton. He cast a final look down at the town, Another at the fields still patched with snow. The wind blew on his face. He moved away Out toward the crossroads, where the wagons pass, And when he got there, waited patiently Under a windbreak of three twisted elms Half-hidden from the road. “Find her,” he said. “I guess we’ll go back West then. Well, that’s that.” The wind burned at his flesh. He let it burn, Staring at a lost year. So he perceived A slow cart creaking up a slope of hill, Drawn by a horse as gaunt as poverty And driven by a woman with great eyes. * * * * * Edmund Ruffin, old Secessionist, Firer of the first gun that rang against Sumter, Walks in his garden now, in the evening-cool, With a red, barred flag slung stiffly over one arm And a silver-butted pistol in his right hand. He has just heard of Lee’s surrender and Richmond’s fall And his face is marble over his high black stock. For a moment he walks there, smelling the scents of Spring, A gentleman taking his ease, while the sun sinks down. Now it is well-nigh sunken. He smiles with the close, Dry smile of age. It is time. He unfolds the flag, Cloaks it around his shoulders with neat, swift hands, Cocks the pistol and points it straight at his heart. The hammer falls, the dead man slumps to the ground. The blood spurts out in the last light of the sun Staining the red of the flag with more transient red. * * * * * The gaunt man, Abraham Lincoln, woke one morning From a new dream that yet was an old dream For he had known it many times before And, usually, its coming prophesied Important news of some sort, good or bad, Though mostly good as he remembered it. He had been standing on the shadowy deck Of a black formless boat that moved away From a dim bank, into wide, gushing waters— River or sea, but huge—and as he stood, The boat rushed into darkness like an arrow, Gathering speed—and as it rushed, he woke. He found it odd enough to tell about That day to various people, half in jest And half in earnest—well, it passed the time And nearly everyone had some pet quirk, Knocking on wood or never spilling salt, Ladders or broken mirrors or a Friday, And so he thought he might be left his boat, Especially now, when he could breathe awhile With Lee surrendered and the war stamped out And the long work of binding up the wounds Not yet begun—although he had his plans For that long healing, and would work them out In spite of all the bitter-hearted fools Who only thought of punishing the South Now she was beaten. But this boat of his. He thought he had it. “Johnston has surrendered. It must be that, I guess—for that’s about The only news we’re waiting still to hear.” He smiled a little, spoke of other things. That afternoon he drove beside his wife And talked with her about the days to come With curious simplicity and peace. Well, they were getting on, and when the end Came to his term, he would not be distressed. They would go back to Springfield, find a house, Live peaceably and simply, see old friends, Take a few cases every now and then. Old Billy Herndon’s kept the practice up, I guess he’ll sort of like to have me back. We won’t be skimped, we’ll have enough to spend, Enough to do—we’ll have a quiet time, A sort of Indian summer of our age. He looked beyond the carriage, seeing it so, Peace at the last, and rest. They drove back to the White House, dressed and ate, Went to the theatre in their flag-draped box. The play was a good play, he liked the play, Laughed at the jokes, laughed at the funny man With the long, weeping whiskers. The time passed. The shot rang out. The crazy murderer Leaped from the box, mouthed out his Latin phrase, Brandished his foolish pistol and was gone. Lincoln lay stricken in the flag-draped box. Living but speechless. Now they lifted him And bore him off. He lay some hours so. Then the heart failed. The breath beat in the throat. The black, formless vessel carried him away. * * * * * Sally, waiting at Appleton On an autumn day of clear, bright sun, Felt her heart and body begin to burn As she hummed the lesson she had to learn. “Yellow cornmeal and a jackass colt And a door that swings on a broken bolt. Comfort the old and pity the wise And see your lover with open eyes. Mend the broken and patch the frayed And carry the sorrow undismayed When your lover limps in the falling rain, Never quite to be whole again. Clear the nettle and plant the corn And keep your body a hunting-horn. Succor your love at fire and frost When your lover remembers the blood he lost, And break your hands on the hard-moved wheel Till they are tougher than hands of steel, Till the new grass grows on the barren plain And the house is built from the dust again, With thrift and love for the house and the chief, A scone on the hob for the son of grief, A knife in the ribs for the pleasant thief, While the night and the river have memories . . .” She stared at the future with equal eyes. And yet, in her glance, there was something still Not to be ground by Wingate will Or under the honor of Elspeth’s name, A dancing flicker that went and came But did not falter for joy or grief Or the years gone by with the blowing leaf. —French Dupré with his alien grace Always turning the buried ace. French Dupré in his dancer’s pride, Leading a reel with his stolen bride— She smiled a little and turned to see A weed-grown path and a scarlet tree And Wingate coming there, painfully. * * * * * John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave. Spread over it the bloodstained flag of his song, For the sun to bleach, the wind and the birds to tear, The snow to cover over with a pure fleece And the New England cloud to work upon With the grey absolution of its slow, most lilac-smelling rain, Until there is nothing there That ever knew a master or a slave Or, brooding on the symbol of a wrong, Threw down the irons in the field of peace. John Brown is dead, he will not come again, A stray ghost-walker with a ghostly gun. Let the strong metal rust In the enclosing dust And the consuming coal That was the furious soul And still like iron groans, Anointed with the earth, Grow colder than the stones While the white roots of grass and little weeds Suck the last hollow wildfire from the singing bones. Bury the South together with this man, Bury the bygone South. Bury the minstrel with the honey-mouth, Bury the broadsword virtues of the clan, Bury the unmachined, the planters’ pride, The courtesy and the bitter arrogance, The pistol-hearted horsemen who could ride Like jolly centaurs under the hot stars. Bury the whip, bury the branding-bars, Bury the unjust thing That some tamed into mercy, being wise, But could not starve the tiger from its eyes Or make it feed where beasts of mercy feed. Bury the fiddle-music and the dance, The sick magnolias of the false romance And all the chivalry that went to seed Before its ripening. And with these things, bury the purple dream Of the America we have not been, The tropic empire, seeking the warm sea, The last foray of aristocracy Based not on dollars or initiative Or any blood for what that blood was worth But on a certain code, a manner of birth, A certain manner of knowing how to live, The pastoral rebellion of the earth Against machines, against the Age of Steam, The Hamiltonian extremes against the Franklin mean, The genius of the land Against the metal hand, The great, slave-driven bark, Full-oared upon the dark, With gilded figurehead, With fetters for the crew And spices for the few, The passion that is dead, The pomp we never knew, Bury this, too. Bury this destiny unmanifest, This system broken underneath the test, Beside John Brown and though he knows his enemy is there He is too full of sleep at last to care. He was a stone, this man who lies so still, A stone flung from a sling against a wall, A sacrificial instrument of kill, A cold prayer hardened to a musket-ball: And yet, he knew the uses of a hill, And he must have his justice, after all. He was a lover of certain pastoral things, He had the shepherd’s gift. When he walked at peace, when he drank from the watersprings, His eyes would lift To see God, robed in a glory, but sometimes, too, Merely the sky, Untroubled by wrath or angels, vacant and blue, Vacant and high. He knew not only doom but the shape of the land, Reaping and sowing. He could take a lump of any earth in his hand And feel the growing. He was a farmer, he didn’t think much of towns, The wheels, the vastness. He liked the wide fields, the yellows, the lonely browns, The black ewe’s fastness. Out of his body grows revolving steel, Out of his body grows the spinning wheel Made up of wheels, the new, mechanic birth, No longer bound by toil To the unsparing soil Or the old furrow-line, The great, metallic beast Expanding West and East, His heart a spinning coil, His juices burning oil, His body serpentine. Out of John Brown’s strong sinews the tall skyscrapers grow, Out of his heart the chanting buildings rise, Rivet and girder, motor and dynamo, Pillar of smoke by day and fire by night, The steel-faced cities reaching at the skies, The whole enormous and rotating cage Hung with hard jewels of electric light, Smoky with sorrow, black with splendor, dyed Whiter than damask for a crystal bride With metal suns, the engine-handed Age, The genie we have raised to rule the earth, Obsequious to our will But servant-master still, The tireless serf already half a god— Touch the familiar sod Once, then gaze at the air And see the portent there, With eyes for once washed clear Of worship and of fear: There is its hunger, there its living thirst, There is the beating of the tremendous heart You cannot read for omens. Stand apart From the loud crowd and look upon the flame Alone and steadfast, without praise or blame. This is the monster and the sleeping queen And both have roots struck deep in your own mind, This is reality that you have seen, This is reality that made you blind. So, when the crowd gives tongue And prophets, old or young, Bawl out their strange despair Or fall in worship there, Let them applaud the image or condemn But keep your distance and your soul from them. And, if the heart within your breast must burst Like a cracked crucible and pour its steel White-hot before the white heat of the wheel, Strive to recast once more That attar of the ore In the strong mold of pain Till it is whole again, And while the prophets shudder or adore Before the flame, hoping it will give ear, If you at last must have a word to say, Say neither, in their way, “It is a deadly magic and accursed,” Nor “It is blest,” but only “It is here.” [Illustration] _YOUNG ADVENTURE_ [Illustration] _Young Adventure_ * * * * * PORTRAIT OF A BOY After the whipping he crawled into bed, Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping. How funny uncle’s hat had looked striped red! He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweeping A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed, Flooding his bed with radiance. On the floor Fat motes danced. He sobbed, closed his eyes and dreamed. Warm sand flowed round him. Blurts of crimson light Splashed the white grains like blood. Past the cave’s mouth Shone with a large, fierce splendor, wildly bright, The crooked constellations of the South; Here the Cross swung; and there, affronting Mars, The Centaur stormed aside a froth of stars. Within, great casks, like wattled aldermen, Sighed of enormous feasts, and cloth of gold Glowed on the walls like hot desire. Again, Beside webbed purples from some galleon’s hold, A black chest bore the skull and bones in white Above a scrawled “Gunpowder!” By the flames, Decked out in crimson, gemmed with syenite, Hailing their fellows with outrageous names, The pirates sat and diced. Their eyes were moons. “Doubloons!” they said. The words crashed gold. “Doubloons!” PORTRAIT OF A BABY He lay within a warm, soft world Of motion. Colors bloomed and fled, Maroon and turquoise, saffron, red, Wave upon wave that broke and whirled To vanish in the grey-green gloom, Perspectiveless and shadowy. A bulging world that had no walls, A flowing world, most like the sea, Compassing all infinity Within a shapeless, ebbing room, An endless tide that swells and falls . . . He slept and woke and slept again. As a veil drops, Time dropped away; Space grew a toy for children’s play, Sleep bolted fast the gates of Sense— He lay in naked impotence; Like a drenched moth that creeps and crawls Heavily up brown, light-baked walls, To fall in wreck, her task undone, Yet somehow striving toward the sun. So, as he slept, his hands clenched tighter, Shut in the old way of the fighter, His feet curled up to grip the ground, His muscles tautened for a bound; And though he felt, and felt alone, Strange brightness stirred him to the bone, Cravings to rise—till deeper sleep Buried the hope, the call, the leap; A wind puffed out his mind’s faint spark. He was absorbed into the dark. He woke again and felt a surge Within him, a mysterious urge That grew one hungry flame of passion; The whole world altered shape and fashion. Deceived, befooled, bereft and torn, He scourged the heavens with his scorn, Lifting a bitter voice to cry Against the eternal treachery— Till, suddenly, he found the breast, And ceased, and all things were at rest, The earth grew one warm languid sea And he a wave. Joy, tingling, crept Throughout him. He was quenched and slept. So, while the moon made broad her ring, He slept and cried and was a king. So, worthily, he acted o’er The endless miracle once more. Facing immense adventures daily, He strove still onward, weeping, gayly, Conquered or fled from them, but grew As soil-starved, rough pine-saplings do. Till, one day, crawling seemed suspect. He gripped the air and stood erect And splendid. With immortal rage He entered on man’s heritage! PORTRAIT OF YOUNG LOVE If you were with me—as you’re not, of course, I’d taste the elegant tortures of Despair With a slow, languid, long-refining tongue; Puzzle for days on one particular stare, Or if you knew a word’s peculiar force, Or what you looked like when you were quite young. You’d lift me heaven-high—till a word grated. Dash me hell-deep—oh that luxurious Pit, Fatly and well encushioned with self-pity, Where Love’s an epicure not quickly sated! What mournful musics wander over it, Faint-blown from some long-lost celestial city! Such bitter joyousness I’d have, and action, Were you here—be no more the fool who broods On true Adventure till he wakes her scorning— But we’re too petty for such noble warning. And I find just as perfect satisfaction In analyzing these, and other moods! THE GENERAL PUBLIC “_Ah, did you once see Shelley plain?_”—BROWNING. “Shelley? Oh, yes, I saw him often then,” The old man said. A dry smile creased his face With many wrinkles. “That’s a great poem, now! That one of Browning’s! Shelley? Shelley plain? The time that I remember best is this— “A thin mire crept along the rutted ways, And all the trees were harried by cold rain That drove a moment fiercely and then ceased, Falling so slow it hung like a grey mist Over the school. The walks were like blurred glass. The buildings reeked with vapor, black and harsh Against the deepening darkness of the sky; And each lamp was a hazy yellow moon, Filling the space about with golden motes, And making all things larger than they were. One yellow halo hung above a door, That gave on a black passage. Round about Struggled a howling crowd of boys, pell-mell, Pushing and jostling like a stormy sea, With shouting faces, turned a pasty white By the strange light, for foam. They all had clods, Or slimy balls of mud. A few gripped stones. And there, his back against the battered door, His pile of books scattered about his feet, Stood Shelley while two others held him fast, And the clods beat upon him. ‘Shelley! Shelley!’ The high shouts rang through all the corridors, ‘Shelley! Mad Shelley! Come along and help!’ And all the crowd dug madly at the earth, Scratching and clawing at the streaming mud, And fouled each other and themselves. And still Shelley stood up. His eyes were like a flame Set in some white, still room; for all his face Was white, a whiteness like no human color, But white and dreadful as consuming fire. His hands shook now and then, like slender cords Which bear too heavy weights. He did not speak. So I saw Shelley plain.” “And you?” I said. “I? I threw straighter than the most of them, And had firm clods. I hit him—well, at least Thrice in the face. He made good sport that night.” YOUNG BLOOD _“But, sir,” I said, “they tell me the man is like to die!” The Canon shook his head, indulgently. “Young blood, Cousin,” he boomed. “Young blood! Youth will be served!”_ —D’HERMONVILLE’S FABLIAUX. He woke up with a sick taste in his mouth And lay there heavily, while dancing motes Whirled through his brain in endless, rippling streams, And a grey mist weighed down upon his eyes So that they could not open fully. Yet After some time his blurred mind stumbled back To its last ragged memory—a room; Air foul with wine; a shouting, reeling crowd Of friends who dragged him, dazed and blind with drink Out to the street; a crazy rout of cabs; The steady mutter of his neighbor’s voice, Mumbling out dull obscenity by rote; And then . . . well, they had brought him home it seemed, Since he awoke in bed—oh, damn the business! He had not wanted it—the silly jokes, “One last, great night of freedom ere you’re married!” “You’ll get no fun then!” “H-ssh, don’t tell that story, He’ll have a wife soon!”—God! the sitting down To drink till you were sodden! . . . Like great light She came into his thoughts. That was the worst. To wallow in the mud like this because His friends were fools. He was not fit to touch, To see, oh far, far off, that silver place Where God stood manifest to man in her. . . . Fouling himself. . . . One thing he brought to her, At least. He had been clean; had taken it A kind of point of honor from the first. Others might wallow but he didn’t care For those things. . . . Suddenly his vision cleared. And something seemed to grow within his mind. Something was wrong—the color of the wall— The queer shape of the bedposts—everything Was changed, somehow . . . his room. Was this his room? . . . He turned his head—and saw beside him there The sagging body’s slope, the paint-smeared face, And the loose, open mouth, lax and awry, The breasts, the bleached and brittle hair . . . these things. . . . As if all Hell were crushed to one bright line Of lightning for a moment. Then he sank, Prone beneath an intolerable weight. And bitter loathing crept up all his limbs. THE BREAKING POINT It was not when temptation came, Swiftly and blastingly as flame, And seared me white with burning scars; When I stood up for age-long wars And held the very Fiend at grips; When all my mutinous body rose To range itself beside my foes, And, like a greyhound in the slips, The beast that dwells within me roared, Lunging and straining at his cord. . . . For all the blusterings of Hell, It was not then I slipped and fell; For all the storm, for all the hate, I kept my soul inviolate. But when the fight was fought and won, And there was Peace as still as Death On everything beneath the sun. Just as I started to draw breath, And yawn, and stretch, and pat myself, —The grass began to whisper things— And every tree became an elf, That grinned and chuckled counselings: Birds, beasts, one thing alone they said, Beating and dinning at my head. I could not fly. I could not shun it. Slimily twisting, slow and blind, It crept and crept into my mind. Whispered and shouted, sneered and laughed, Screamed out until my brain was daft, One snaky word, “_What if you’d done it?_” And I began to think . . . Ah, well, What matter how I slipped and fell? Or you, you gutter-searcher, say! Tell where you found me yesterday! POOR DEVIL! Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk, The tiresome noises, all the common things I loved once, crushed me with an iron yoke. I longed for the cool quiet and the dark, Under the common sod where louts and kings Lie down, serene, unheeding, careless, stark, Never to rise or move or feel again, Filled with the ecstasy of being dead. . . . I put the shining pistol to my head And pulled the trigger hard—I felt no pain, No pain at all; the pistol had missed fire I thought; then, looking at the floor, I saw My huddled body lying there—and awe Swept over me. I trembled—and looked up. About me was—not that, my heart’s desire, That small and dark abode of death and peace— But all from which I sought a vain release! The sky, the people and the staring sun Glared at me as before. I was undone. My last state ten times worse than was my first. Helpless, I stood, befooled, betrayed, accursed, Fettered to Life forever, horribly; Caught in the meshes of Eternity, No further doors to break or bars to burst. THE GOLDEN CORPSE (_Eight Sonnets for Donald Malcolm Campbell_) Stripped country, shrunken as a beggar’s heart, Inviolate landscape, hardened into steel, Where the cold soil shatters under heel Day after day like armor cracked apart. Winter Connecticut, whose air is clean As a new icicle to cut the throat, Whose black and rigid trees will not demean Themselves to swagger in a crystal coat. I hate you as a bastard hates his name When your cramped hills are hostile with the white, But, every year, when March comes in the same, A frozen river rolling in the night, I must go back and hunt among your snow Something I lost there, much too long ago. 2 It was not innocence, it was not scorn, And yet it had these names and many more. It was a champion blowing on a horn, It was the running of a golden boar. It was a stallion, trampling the skies To rags of lightning with his glittering shoes, It was a childish god with lazy eyes, It was an indolent and reckless Muse. More than all these, it was a spirit apart, Purely of fire and air and the mind. No fear could eat the temper from its heart Nor any fleshly bandage make it blind. It was a silver dagger in the blast. It was the first of youth, and it has passed. 3 I left it in a bare and windy street Between two sets of bells whose casual chimes Answer each other, janglingly and sweet, Like the concord of long-repeated rhymes. I left it in a since-demolished bar, And underneath a rain-streaked paving-stone. And, men and things being what they are, The hidden ghost had better couch alone. I shall not rattle with an iron fist The relics, scattered into sticks of chalk, Of what was once the carcass of a hawk That sat like Wrath on an archangel’s wrist. Nor disinter, to make my house look smart, That thunder-broken and ferocious heart. 4 Men that dig up a mandrake know dis-ease. This body is committed to its bones Down where the taproots of New England trees Suck bare existence from the broken stones. All summer cannot quicken it with heat, Nor Spring perturb it with a budding bough, Nor all the glittering devils of the sleet In snowing Winter rack its quiet now. But, in October, when the apples fall, And leaves begin to rust before the cold, There may occur, by some unnoticed wall, A sigh, a whisper in the rotten gold. A breath that hardly can be called a breath From Death that will not yet acknowledge Death. 5 Unnoticed—for the years have hardier tasks Than listening to a whisper or a sigh. They creep among us with a bag of masks And fit them to our brows obsequiously. Some are of iron, to affront the gay, And some of bronze, to satirize the brave, But most are merely a compost of clay Cut in the sleepy features of a slave. With such astuteness do they counterfeit, We do not realize the masks are on Till, gaudy in our folly, bit by bit We notice that a neighbor’s face seems drawn. And then, with fingers turned to lumps of stone, Touch the inhuman cast that was our own. 6 There is no doubt such workmanship is sage. The bound and ordered skies could not abide A creature formed of elemental rage For longer than a moment of its pride. The hand that stooped to Adam from the cloud And touched his members with a fiery spine Designed as well the pattern of the shroud That should convince him he was not divine. And there are sorceries more excellent Than the first conflagration of the dust, But none are quite so single in intent Or unsophisticated with distrust. The ripened fruit is golden to the core But an enchantment fosters it no more. 7 Therefore, in neither anguish nor relief, I offer to the shadow in the air No image of a monumental grief To mock its transience from a stony chair, Nor any tablets edged in rusty black. Only a branch of maple, gathered high When the crisp air first tastes of applejack, And the blue smokes of Autumn stain the sky. A branch whose leaves cling to the withering staff Like precious toys of gilt and scarlet paint, An emblem Life and Death share half-and-half, A brittle sceptre for a dying saint. Unburning fire, an insubstantial Host, A violence dreamt, a beauty of the ghost. 8 So much in memory. For the future, this. The checkerboarded house of Day and Night Is but a cavern where a swallow flies To beat its wings an instant at the light And then depart, where the incessant storm Shepherds the planets like a drunken nurse. It does not need an everlasting form To dignify an ecstasy so terse. But while the swallow fluttered and was quick I have marked down its passage in the dark And charred its image on a broken stick With the brief flame of an uncertain spark. The fire can have it now, the rain can rain on it, And the ice harden like a god’s disdain on it. [Illustration] _MY FAIR LADY_ [Illustration] _My Fair Lady_ * * * * * TO ROSEMARY _If you were gone afar,_ _And lost the pattern_ _Of all your delightful ways,_ _And the web undone,_ _How would one make you anew,_ _From what dew and flowers,_ _What burning and mingled atoms,_ _Under the sun?_ _Not from too-satin roses,_ _Or those rare blossoms,_ _Orchids, scentless and precious_ _As precious stone._ _But out of lemon-verbena,_ _Rose-geranium,_ _These alone._ _Not with running horses,_ _Or Spanish cannon,_ _Organs, voiced like a lion,_ _Clamor and speed._ _But perhaps with old music-boxes,_ _Young, tawny kittens,_ _Wild-strawberry-seed._ _Even so, it were more_ _Than a god could compass_ _To fashion the body merely,_ _The lovely shroud._ _But then—ah, how to recapture_ _That evanescence,_ _The fire that cried in pure crystal_ _Out of its cloud!_ CHEMICAL ANALYSIS She’s slender hands and pretty lips, And seafoam and rosemary. Her ears are pointed at the tips, She stayed so long in Fairy. NOMENCLATURE Some people have names like pitchforks, some people have names like cakes, Names full of sizzling esses like a family quarrel of snakes, Names black as a cat, vermilion as the cockscomb-hat of a fool— But your name is a green, small garden, a rush asleep in a pool. When God looked at the diffident cherubs and dropped them out of the sky, He named them like Adam’s animals, while Mary and Eve stood by, The poor things huddled before him in scared little naked flocks —And he gave you a name like sunlight, and clover, and hollyhocks. For your mouth with its puzzled jesting, for your hair like a dark soft bird, Shy humor and dainty walking, sweet laughter and subtle word, As a fairy walks with a mushroom to keep the rain from its things You carry your name forever, like a scepter alive with wings. Neither change nor despair shall touch it nor the seasons make it uncouth, It will burn like an Autumn maple when your proud age talks to your youth, Wise child, clean friend, adoration, light arrow of God, white flame, I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name! DIFFERENCE My mind’s a map. A mad sea-captain drew it Under a flowing moon until he knew it; Winds with brass trumpets, puffy-cheeked as jugs, And states bright-patterned like Arabian rugs. “Here there be tygers.” “Here we buried Jim.” Here is the strait where eyeless fishes swim About their buried idol, drowned so cold He weeps away his eyes in salt and gold. A country like the dark side of the moon, A cider-apple country, harsh and boon, A country savage as a chestnut-rind, A land of hungry sorcerers. Your mind? —Your mind is water through an April night, A cherry-branch, plume-feathery with its white, A lavender as fragrant as your words, A room where Peace and Honor talk like birds, Sewing bright coins upon the tragic cloth Of heavy Fate, and Mockery, like a moth, Flutters and beats about those lovely things. You are the soul, enchanted with its wings, The single voice that raises up the dead To shake the pride of angels. I have said. A SAD SONG _Rosemary, Rosemary_, _There’s a Pig in your garden,_ _With silk bristles frizzy_ _And tushes of snow!_ But Rosemary was cautious, She said, “Beg your pardon! I’m really too busy To look down below.” _Rosemary, Rosemary,_ _There’s a Bird in your kitchen!_ _His voice is gold water,_ _He says, “Pretty Poll!”_ But Rosemary heard nothing, Putting stitch after stitch in The dress of a daughter, Her thirty-sixth doll. _Rosemary, Rosemary,_ _A silver-winged Rabbit!_ _He bridles and gentles_ _And wants you astride!_ “I prefer,” said Rosemary, “To ride a Good Habit.” She went buying black lentils— She did till she died. A NONSENSE SONG Rosemary, Rosemary, let down your hair! The cow’s in the hammock, the crow’s in the chair! I was making you songs out of sawdust and silk, But they came in to call and they spilt them like milk. The cat’s in the coffee, the wind’s in the east, He screams like a peacock and whines like a priest And the saw of his voice makes my blood turn to mice— So let down your long hair and shut off his advice! Pluck out the thin hairpins and let the waves stream, Brown-gold as brook-waters that dance through a dream, Gentle-curled as young cloudlings, sweet-fragrant as bay, Till it takes all the fierceness of living away. Oh, when you are with me, my heart is white steel. But the bat’s in the belfry, the mold’s in the meal, And I think I hear skeletons climbing the stair! —Rosemary, Rosemary, let down your bright hair! TO ROSEMARY, ON THE METHODS BY WHICH SHE MIGHT BECOME AN ANGEL Not where the sober sisters, grave as willows, Walk like old twilights by the jasper sea, Nor where the plump hunt of cherubs holly-hilloes Chasing their ruddy fox, the sun, you’ll be! Not with the stained-glass prophets, bearded grimly, Not with the fledgling saved, meek Wisdom’s lot, Kissing a silver book that glimmers dimly, For acolytes are mild and you are not. They’ll give you a curled tuba, tall as Rumor, They’ll sit you on a puff of Autumn cloud, Gilded-fantastic as your scorn and humor And let you blow that tuba much too loud. Against the unceasing chant to sinless Zion, Three impudent seraph notes, three starry coals, Sweet as wild grass and happy as a lion —And all the saints will throw you aureoles. EVENING AND MORNING Over the roof, like burnished men, The stars tramp high. You blink—the fire blinks back again With a cock’s red eye. Lay your book away to doze, Say your silly prayers, See that nothing grabs your toes And run upstairs! Sandman eyes and heavy head, Sleep comes soon, Pouring on your quiet bed The great, cool moon. Nod’s green wheel of moss turns round, Dripping dreams and peace, Gentle as a pigeon’s sound, Soft as fleece. Think of warm sheep shuffling home, Stones sunk deep, Bees inside a honeycomb— Sleep—Sleep. Smile as when young Una smiled, Hard and sweet and gay, Bitter saint, fantastic child, Fold your wings away. Dawn, the owl, is fluttering At Day’s bright bars. Night, the lame man, puttering, Puffs out the stars. Wake! and hear an airy shout Crack the egg of cloud, And see the golden bird creep out, Ruffling and proud. IN A GLASS OF WATER BEFORE RETIRING Now the day Burns away. Most austere Night is here —Time for sleep. And, to sleep, If you please, For release Into peace, Think of these. Snails that creep, Silver-slow; Streams that flow, Murmuring, Murmuring; Bells that chime, _Sweet_—clear—c-o-o-l; Of a pool Hushed so still Stars drowse there, Sleepy-fair; Of a hill Drenched with night, Drowned with moon’s Lovely light; Of soft tunes, Played so slow, Kind and low, You sink down, Into down, Into rest, Into the perfect whiteness, The drowsy, drowsy lightness, The warm, clean, sleepy feathers of a slumbering bird’s white breast. LEGEND The trees were sugared like wedding-cake With a bright hoar frost, with a very cold snow, When we went begging for Jesus’ sake, Penniless children, years ago. Diamond weather—but nothing to eat In that fine, bleak bubble of earth and skies. Nothing alive in the windy street But two young children with hungry eyes. “We must go begging or we will die. I would sell my soul for an apple-core!” So we went mendicant, you and I, Knock-knock-knock at each snow-choked door. Knock-knock-knock till our fingers froze. Nobody even replied, “Good day!”, Only the magistrate, toasting his toes, Howled at us sleepily, “Go away!” “Rosemary dear, what shall we do?” “Stephen, I know not. Beseech some saint! My nose has turned to an icicle blue, And my belly within me is very faint.” “If there be saints, they are fast asleep, Lounging in Heaven, in wraps of feather.” “Talk not so, or my eyes will weep Till the ice-tears rattle and clink together.” “Saints are many—on which shall I call? He must be kindly, without constraint.” “I think you had better pray to Saint Paul. I have heard people call him a neighborly saint.” Down he flopped on his cold, bare knees —Breath that smoked in the bitter air— Crossing his body with hands afreeze, He sought Saint Paul in a vehement prayer. Scarce had these shiverers piped, “Amen,” Cheeping like fledglings, crying for bread, When good Saint Paul appeared to them then, With a wide gold halo around his head. He waved his episcopal hand, and smiled, And the ground was spread like a banquet-table! “Here is much good food for each hungry child, And I hope you will eat as long as you’re able. “Here are good, thick cloaks for your ragged backs, And strong, warm boots for your feet,” said he, “And for Stephen, gloves and a little axe, And a little fur muff for Rosemary.” They thanked him humbly, saying a Pater, Before they had touched a morsel even, But he said, “Your thanks are for One far greater” And pointed his right arm up at Heaven. “For you are the sparrows around God’s door, He will lift you up like His own great banner. But the folk who made you suffer so sore— He shall deal with them in another manner. “It is His own will to transport those folk To a region of infinite ice and snow.” And his breath was a taper of incense-smoke, And he lifted a finger—and it was so. And the folk were gone—and the saint was fled— And we stared and stared at the wintry land. And in front of us there was a banquet spread. And a little fur muff on Rosemary’s hand. DULCE RIDENTEM The bee, he has white honey, The Sunday child her muff, The rich man lots of money Though never quite enough, The apple has a Springtime smell, The star-fields silver grain, But I have youth, the cockleshell, And the sweet laugh of Jane. The lark’s tune goes so clearly But Jane’s is clear wells. The cuckoo’s voice currs cheerly, But Jane’s is new bells. Whether she chuckles like a dove, Or laughs like April rain, It is her heart and hands and love, The moth-wing soul of Jane. ALL NIGHT LONG We were in bed by nine, but she did not hear the clock, She lay in her quiet first sleep, soft-breathing, head by her arm, And the rising, radiant moon spilled silver out of its crock On her hair and forehead and eyes as we rested, gentle and warm. All night long it remained, that calm, compassionate sheet, All the long night it wrapped us in whiteness like ermine-fur, I did not sleep all the night, but lay, with wings on my feet, Still, the cool at my lips, seeing her, worshipping her. Oh, the bright sparks of dawn when day broke, burning and wild! Oh, the first waking glance from her sleepy, beautiful eyes! With a heart and a mind newborn as a naked, young, golden child, I took her into my arms. We saw the morning arise! DAYS PASS: MEN PASS When, like all liberal girls and boys, We too get rid of sight —The juggler with his painted toys The elf and her delight— In the cool place where jests are few And there’s no time to weep For all the untamed hearts we knew Creeping like moths to sleep. This eagerness that burns us yet Will rot like summer snow, And we’ll forget as winds forget When they have ceased to blow. Oh, we’ll grow sleepy, lacking mirth! But there will still endure Somewhere, like innocence and earth, The things your wish made pure. Wide moonlight on a harvest dew, White silk, too dear to touch, These will be you and always you When I am nothing much. The flowers with the hardy eyes, The bread that feeds the gods, These will be you till Last Assize When I’m improper sods. Oh dear immortal, while you can, Commit one mortal sin. And let me love you like a man Till Judgment Day comes in! ILLA This is only the shadow of what she was once; The rest is Honor’s. Nevertheless, O Death, be humble in claiming Even that shadow. HANDS My wife’s hands are long and thin, Fit to catch a spirit in, Fit to set a subtle snare For something lighter than the air. My brother’s hands are long and fine, Good at verse and pouring wine, Good to spend and bad to hoard And good to hold a singing sword. My own hands are short and blunt Being children of affront, Base mechanics at the most That have sometimes touched a ghost. I ask between the running sands, A blessing upon four hands, And for mine an iron stake They can do their best to break. Now God the Son and God the Sire And God the triple-handed fire, Make these blessings come to be Out of your civility For four hands of courtesy. Amen. MEMORY They can have the names and the dates, It will do them little service. They can open the locked chest And steal the wine and the gold. There is nothing to be said But this—the clasp of her body Was better than milk to the child Or wisdom to the old. We die with our first breath. And, if we die, what matter? There was a ghost in the flesh, A ghost that went and came. Though the moon burn like a lamp It will not be that brightness— I said her name in my sleep, Waking, I said her name. [Illustration] _BALLADS AND TALES_ [Illustration] _Ballads and Tales_ * * * * * AMERICAN NAMES I have fallen in love with American names, The sharp names that never get fat, The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims, The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat, Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat. Seine and Piave are silver spoons, But the spoonbowl-metal is thin and worn, There are English counties like hunting-tunes Played on the keys of a postboy’s horn, But I will remember where I was born. I will remember Carquinez Straits, Little French Lick and Lundy’s Lane, The Yankee ships and the Yankee dates And the bullet-towns of Calamity Jane. I will remember Skunktown Plain. I will fall in love with a Salem tree And a rawhide quirt from Santa Cruz, I will get me a bottle of Boston sea And a blue-gum nigger to sing me blues. I am tired of loving a foreign muse. Rue des Martyrs and Bleeding-Heart-Yard, Senlis, Pisa, and Blindman’s Oast, It is a magic ghost you guard But I am sick for a newer ghost, Harrisburg, Spartanburg, Painted Post. Henry and John were never so And Henry and John were always right? Granted, but when it was time to go And the tea and the laurels had stood all night, Did they never watch for Nantucket Light? I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse. I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea. You may bury my body in Sussex grass, You may bury my tongue at Champmédy. I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. THE BALLAD OF WILLIAM SYCAMORE (1790-1871) My father, he was a mountaineer, His fist was a knotty hammer; He was quick on his feet as a running deer, And he spoke with a Yankee stammer. My mother, she was merry and brave, And so she came to her labor, With a tall green fir for her doctor grave And a stream for her comforting neighbor. And some are wrapped in the linen fine, And some like a godling’s scion; But I was cradled on twigs of pine In the skin of a mountain lion. And some remember a white, starched lap And a ewer with silver handles; But I remember a coonskin cap And the smell of bayberry candles. The cabin logs, with the bark still rough, And my mother who laughed at trifles, And the tall, lank visitors, brown as snuff, With their long, straight squirrel-rifles. I can hear them dance, like a foggy song, Through the deepest one of my slumbers, The fiddle squeaking the boots along And my father calling the numbers. The quick feet shaking the puncheon-floor, And the fiddle squealing and squealing, Till the dried herbs rattled above the door And the dust went up to the ceiling. There are children lucky from dawn till dusk, But never a child so lucky! For I cut my teeth on “Money Musk” In the Bloody Ground of Kentucky! When I grew tall as the Indian corn, My father had little to lend me, But he gave me his great, old powder-horn And his woodsman’s skill to befriend me. With a leather shirt to cover my back, And a redskin nose to unravel Each forest sign, I carried my pack As far as a scout could travel. Till I lost my boyhood and found my wife, A girl like a Salem clipper! A woman straight as a hunting-knife With eyes as bright as the Dipper! We cleared our camp where the buffalo feed, Unheard-of streams were our flagons; And I sowed my sons like the apple-seed On the trail of the Western wagons. They were right, tight boys, never sulky or slow, A fruitful, a goodly muster. The eldest died at the Alamo. The youngest fell with Custer. The letter that told it burned my hand. Yet we smiled and said, “So be it!” But I could not live when they fenced the land, For it broke my heart to see it. I saddled a red, unbroken colt And rode him into the day there; And he threw me down like a thunderbolt And rolled on me as I lay there. The hunter’s whistle hummed in my ear As the city-men tried to move me, And I died in my boots like a pioneer With the whole wide sky above me. Now I lie in the heart of the fat, black soil, Like the seed of a prairie-thistle; It has washed my bones with honey and oil And picked them clean as a whistle. And my youth returns, like the rains of Spring, And my sons, like the wild-geese flying; And I lie and hear the meadow-lark sing And have much content in my dying. Go play with the towns you have built of blocks, The towns where you would have bound me! I sleep in my earth like a tired fox, And my buffalo have found me. THE HEMP _I. The Planting of the Hemp_ _Captain Hawk scourged clean the seas_ _(Black is the gap below the plank)_ _From the Great North Bank to the Caribbees._ _(Down by the marsh the hemp grows rank.)_ _His fear was on the seaport towns,_ _The weight of his hand held hard the downs._ _And the merchants cursed him, bitter and black,_ _For a red flame in the sea-fog’s wrack_ _Was all of their ships that might come back._ _For all he had one word alone,_ _One clod of dirt in their faces thrown,_ “_The hemp that shall hang me is not grown!_” _His name bestrode the seas like Death,_ _The waters trembled at his breath._ _This is the tale of how he fell,_ _Of the long sweep and the heavy swell,_ _And the rope that dragged him down to hell._ The fight was done, and the gutted ship, Stripped like a shark the sea-gulls strip, Lurched blindly, eaten out with flame, Back to the land from whence she came, A skimming horror, an eyeless shame. And Hawk stood up on his quarter-deck, And saw the sky and saw the wreck. Below, a butt for sailors’ jeers, White as the sky when a white squall nears, Huddled the crowd of the prisoners. Over the bridge of the tottering plank, Where the sea shook and the gulf yawned blank, They shrieked and struggled and dropped and sank. Pinioned arms and hands bound fast. One girl alone was left at last. Sir Henry Gaunt was a mighty lord. He sat in state at the Council board. The governors were as naught to him. From one rim to the other rim Of his great plantations, flung out wide Like a purple cloak, was a full month’s ride. Life and death in his white hands lay, And his only daughter stood at bay, Trapped like a hare in the toils that day. He sat at wine in his gold and his lace, And far away, in a bloody place, Hawk came near, and she covered her face. He rode in the fields, and the hunt was brave, And far away, his daughter gave A shriek that the seas cried out to hear, And he could not see and he could not save. Her white soul withered in the mire As paper shrivels up in fire, And Hawk laughed, and he kissed her mouth, And her body he took for his desire. _II. The Growing of the Hemp_ Sir Henry stood in the manor room, And his eyes were hard gems in the gloom. And he said, “Go, dig me furrows five Where the green marsh creeps like a thing alive— There at its edge where the rushes thrive.” And where the furrows rent the ground He sowed the seed of hemp around. And the blacks shrink back and are sore afraid At the furrows five that rib the glade, And the voodoo work of the master’s spade. For a cold wind blows from the marshland near, And white things move, and the night grows drear, And they chatter and crouch and are sick with fear. _But down by the marsh, where the grey slaves glean,_ _The hemp sprouts up, and the earth is seen_ _Veiled with a tenuous mist of green._ And Hawk still scourges the Caribbees, And many men kneel at his knees. Sir Henry sits in his house alone, And his eyes are hard and dull like stone. And the waves beat, and the winds roar, And all things are as they were before. And the days pass, and the weeks pass, And nothing changes but the grass. _But down where the fireflies are like eyes,_ _And the damps shudder, and the mists rise,_ _The hemp-stalks stand up toward the skies._ And down from the poop of the pirate ship A body falls, and the great sharks grip. Innocent, lovely, go in grace! At last there is peace upon your face. And Hawk laughs loud as the corpse is thrown, “The hemp that shall hang me is not grown!” Sir Henry’s face is iron to mark, And he gazes ever in the dark. And the days pass, and the weeks pass, And the world is as it always was. _But down by the marsh the sickles beam,_ _Glitter on glitter, gleam on gleam,_ _And the hemp falls down by the stagnant stream._ And Hawk beats up from the Caribbees, Swooping to pounce in the Northern seas. Sir Henry sits sunk deep in his chair, And white as his hand is grown his hair. And the days pass, and the weeks pass, And the sands roll from the hourglass. _But down by the marsh, in the blazing sun,_ _The hemp is smoothed and twisted and spun._ _The rope made, and the work done._ _III. The Using of the Hemp_ Captain Hawk scourged clean the seas, (Black is the gap below the plank) From the Great North Bank to the Caribbees. (Down by the marsh the hemp grows rank.) He sailed in the broad Atlantic track And the ships that saw him came not back. Till once again, where the wide tides ran, He stopped to harry a merchantman. He bade her stop. Ten guns spoke true From her hidden ports, and a hidden crew, Lacking his great ship through and through. Dazed and dumb with the sudden death, He scarce had time to draw a breath Before the grappling-irons bit deep And the boarders slew his crew like sheep. Hawk stood up straight, his breast to the steel; His cutlass made a bloody wheel. His cutlass made a wheel of flame. They shrank before him as he came. And the bodies fell in a choking crowd, And still he thundered out aloud, “The hemp that shall hang me is not grown!” They fled at last. He was left alone. Before his foe Sir Henry stood. “The hemp is grown and my word made good!” And the cutlass clanged with a hissing whir On the lashing blade of the rapier. Hawk roared and charged like a maddened buck. As the cobra strikes, Sir Henry struck, Pouring his life in a single thrust, And the cutlass shivered to sparks and dust. Sir Henry stood on the blood-stained deck, And set his foot on his foe’s neck. Then, from the hatch, where the torn decks slope, Where the dead roll and the wounded grope, He dragged the serpent of the rope. The sky was blue and the sea was still, The waves lapped softly, hill on hill, And between one wave and another wave The doomed man’s cries were little and shrill. The sea was blue and the sky was calm, The air dripped with a golden balm. Like a wind-blown fruit between sea and sun, A black thing writhed at a yard-arm. Slowly then, and awesomely, The ship sank, and the gallows-tree, And there was nought between sea and sun— Nought but the sun and the sky and the sea. _But down by the marsh, where the fever breeds,_ _Only the water chuckles and pleads;_ _For the hemp clings fast to a dead man’s throat,_ _And blind Fate gathers back her seeds._ THE MOUNTAIN WHIPPOORWILL OR, HOW HILL-BILLY JIM WON THE GREAT FIDDLERS’ PRIZE (_A Georgia Romance_) Up in the mountains, it’s lonesome all the time, (Sof’ win’ slewin’ thu’ the sweet-potato vine). Up in the mountains, it’s lonesome for a child, (Whippoorwills a-callin’ when the sap runs wild). Up in the mountains, mountains in the fog, Everythin’s as lazy as an old houn’ dog. Born in the mountains, never raised a pet, Don’t want nuthin’ an’ never got it yet. Born in the mountains, lonesome-born, Raised runnin’ ragged thu’ the cockleburrs and corn. Never knew my pappy, mebbe never should. Think he was a fiddle made of mountain laurel-wood. Never had a mammy to teach me pretty-please. Think she was a whippoorwill, a-skitin’ thu’ the trees. Never had a brother ner a whole pair of pants, But when I start to fiddle, why, yuh got to start to dance! _Listen to my fiddle—Kingdom Come—Kingdom Come!_ _Hear the frogs a-chunkin’ “Jug o’ rum, Jug o’ rum!”_ _Hear that mountain-whippoorwill be lonesome in the air,_ _An’ I’ll tell yuh how I traveled to the Essex County Fair._ Essex County has a mighty pretty fair, All the smarty fiddlers from the South come there. Elbows flyin’ as they rosin up the bow For the First Prize Contest in the Georgia Fiddlers’ Show. Old Dan Wheeling, with his whiskers in his ears, King-pin fiddler for nearly twenty years. Big Tom Sargent, with his blue wall-eye, An’ Little Jimmy Weezer that can make a fiddle cry. _All sittin’ roun’, spittin’ high an’ struttin’ proud,_ _(Listen, little whippoorwill, yuh better bug yore eyes!)_ _Tun-a-tun-a-tunin’ while the jedges told the crowd_ _Them that got the mostest claps’d win the bestest prize._ Everybody waitin’ for the first tweedle-dee, When in comes a-stumblin’—hill-billy me! Bowed right pretty to the jedges an’ the rest, Took a silver dollar from a hole inside my vest, Plunked it on the table an’ said, “There’s my callin’ card! An’ anyone that licks me—well, he’s got to fiddle hard!” Old Dan Wheeling, he was laughin’ fit to holler, Little Jimmy Weezer said, “There’s one dead dollar!” Big Tom Sargent had a yaller-toothy grin, But I tucked my little whippoorwill spang underneath my chin, An’ petted it an’ tuned it till the jedges said, “Begin!” Big Tom Sargent was the first in line; He could fiddle all the bugs off a sweet-potato vine. He could fiddle down a possum from a mile-high tree. He could fiddle up a whale from the bottom of the sea. Yuh could hear hands spankin’ till they spanked each other raw, When he finished variations on “Turkey in the Straw.” Little Jimmy Weezer was the next to play; He could fiddle all night, he could fiddle all day. He could fiddle chills, he could fiddle fever, He could make a fiddle rustle like a lowland river. He could make a fiddle croon like a lovin’ woman. An’ they clapped like thunder when he’d finished strummin’. Then came the ruck of the bob-tailed fiddlers, The let’s go-easies, the fair-to-middlers. They got their claps an’ they lost their bicker, An’ settled back for some more corn-licker. An’ the crowd was tired of their no-count squealing, When out in the center steps Old Dan Wheeling. _He fiddled high and he fiddled low,_ _(Listen, little whippoorwill; yuh got to spread yore wings!)_ _He fiddled with a cherrywood bow._ _(Old Dan Wheeling’s got bee-honey in his strings.)_ He fiddled the wind by the lonesome moon, He fiddled a most almighty tune. He started fiddling like a ghost, He ended fiddling like a host. He fiddled north an’ he fiddled south, He fiddled the heart right out of yore mouth. He fiddled here an’ he fiddled there. He fiddled salvation everywhere. _When he was finished, the crowd cut loose,_ _(Whippoorwill, they’s rain on yore breast.)_ _An’ I sat there wonderin’, “What’s the use?_” _(Whippoorwill, fly home to yore nest.)_ But I stood up pert an’ I took my bow, An’ my fiddle went to my shoulder, so. An’—they wasn’t no crowd to get me fazed— But I was alone where I was raised. Up in the mountains, so still it makes yuh skeered. Where God lies sleepin’ in his big white beard. An’ I heard the sound of the squirrel in the pine, An’ I heard the earth a-breathin’ thu’ the long night-time. They’ve fiddled the rose, an’ they’ve fiddled the thorn, But they haven’t fiddled the mountain-corn. They’ve fiddled sinful an’ fiddled moral, But they haven’t fiddled the breshwood-laurel. They’ve fiddled loud, an’ they’ve fiddled still, But they haven’t fiddled the whippoorwill. I started off with a _dump-diddle-dump_, (_Oh, hell’s broke loose in Georgia!_) Skunk-cabbage growin’ by the bee-gum stump, (_Whippoorwill, yo’re singin’ now!_) Oh, Georgia booze is mighty fine booze, The best yuh ever poured yuh, But it eats the soles right offen yore shoes, For Hell’s broke loose in Georgia. My mother was a whippoorwill pert, My father, he was lazy, But I’m Hell broke loose in a new store shirt To fiddle all Georgia crazy. Swing yore partners—up an’ down the middle! Sashay now—oh, listen to that fiddle! Flapjacks flippin’ on a red-hot griddle, An’ hell broke loose, Hell broke loose, Fire on the mountains—snakes in the grass. Satan’s here a-bilin’—oh, Lordy, let him pass! Go down Moses, set my people free, Pop goes the weasel thu’ the old Red Sea! Jonah sittin’ on a hickory-bough, Up jumps a whale—an’ where’s yore prophet now? Rabbit in the pea-patch, possum in the pot, Try an’ stop my fiddle, now my fiddle’s gettin’ hot! Whippoorwill, singin’ thu’ the mountain hush, Whippoorwill, shoutin’ from the burnin’ bush, Whippoorwill, cryin’ in the stable-door, Sing to-night as yuh never sang before! Hell’s broke loose like a stompin’ mountain-shoat, Sing till yuh bust the gold in yore throat! Hell’s broke loose for forty miles aroun’ Bound to stop yore music if yuh don’t sing it down. Sing on the mountains, little whippoorwill, Sing to the valleys, an’ slap ’em with a hill, For I’m struttin’ high as an eagle’s quill, An’ Hell’s broke loose, Hell’s broke loose, Hell’s broke loose in Georgia! They wasn’t a sound when I stopped bowin’, (_Whippoorwill, yuh can sing no more._) But, somewhere or other, the dawn was growin’, (_Oh, mountain whippoorwill!_) An’ I thought, “I’ve fiddled all night an’ lost. Yo’re a good hill-billy, but yuh’ve been bossed.” So I went to congratulate old man Dan, —But he put his fiddle into my han’— An’ then the noise of the crowd began. KING DAVID David sang to his hook-nosed harp: “The Lord God is a jealous God! His violent vengeance is swift and sharp! And the Lord is King above all gods! “Blest be the Lord, through years untold, The Lord Who has blessed me a thousand fold! “Cattle and concubines, corn and hives Enough to last me a dozen lives. “Plump, good women with noses flat, Marrowful blessings, weighty and fat. “I wax in His peace like a pious gourd, The Lord God is a pleasant God, Break mine enemy’s jaw, O Lord! For the Lord is King above all gods!” His hand dropped slack from the tunable strings, A sorrow came on him—a sorrow of kings. A sorrow sat on the arm of his throne, An eagle sorrow with claws of stone. “I am merry, yes, when I am not thinking, But life is nothing but eating and drinking. “I can shape my psalms like daggers of jade, But they do not shine like the first I made. “I can harry the heathen from North to South, But no hot taste comes into my mouth. “My wives are comely as long-haired goats, But I would not care if they cut their throats! “Where are the maids of the desert tents With lips like flagons of frankincense? “Where is Jonathan? Where is Saul? The captain-towers of Zion wall? “The trees of cedar, the hills of Nod, The kings, the running lions of God? “Their words were a writing in golden dust, Their names are myrrh in the mouths of the just. “The sword of the slayer could never divide them— Would God I had died in battle beside them!” The Lord looked down from a thunder-clap. (The Lord God is a crafty God.) He heard the strings of the shrewd harp snap. (The Lord Who is King above all gods.) He pricked the king with an airy thorn, It burnt in his body like grapes of scorn. The eyelids roused that had drooped like lead. David lifted his heavy head. The thorn stung at him, a fiery bee, “The world is wide. I will go and see From the roof of my haughty palace,” said he. 2 Bathsheba bathed on her vine-decked roof. (The Lord God is a mighty God.) Her body glittered like mail of proof. (And the Lord is King above all gods.) Her body shimmered, tender and white As the flesh of aloes in candlelight. King David forgot to be old or wise. He spied on her bathing with sultry eyes. A breath of spice came into his nose. He said, “Her breasts are like two young roes.” His eyes were bright with a crafty gleam. He thought, “Her body is soft as cream.” He straightened himself like an unbent bow And called a servant and bade him go. 3 Uriah the Hittite came to his lord, Dusty with war as a well-used sword. A close, trim man like a belt, well-buckled; A jealous gentleman, hard to cuckold. David entreated him, soft and bland, Offered him comfits from his own hand. Drank with him deep till his eyes grew red, And laughed in his beard as he went to bed. The days slipped by without hurry or strife, Like apple-parings under a knife, And still Uriah kept from his wife. Lean fear tittered through David’s psalm, “This merry husband is far too calm.” David sent for Uriah then, They greeted each other like pious men. “Thou hast borne the battle, the dust and the heat. Go down to thy house and wash thy feet!” Uriah frowned at the words of the king. His brisk, hard voice had a leaden ring. “While the hosts of God still camp in the field My house to me is a garden sealed. “How shall I rest while the arrow yet flies? The dust of the war is still in my eyes.” David spoke with his lion’s roar: “If Peace be a bridle that rubs you sore, You shall fill your belly with blood and war!” Uriah departed, calling him kind. His eyes were serpents in David’s mind. He summoned a captain, a pliable man, “Uriah the Hittite shall lead the van. “In the next assault, when the fight roars high, And the Lord God is a hostile God, Retire from Uriah that he may die. For the Lord is King above all gods.” 4 The messenger came while King David played The friskiest ditty ever made. “News, O King, from our dubious war! The Lord of Hosts hath prevailed once more! “His foes are scattered like chirping sparrows, Their kings lie breathless, feathered with arrows. “Many are dead of your captains tall. Uriah the Hittite was first to fall.” David turned from the frolicsome strings And rent his clothes for the death of kings. Yet, as he rent them, he smiled for joy. The sly, wide smile of a wicked boy. “The powerful grace of the Lord prevails! He has cracked Uriah between His nails! “His blessings are mighty, they shall not cease. And my days henceforth shall be days of peace!” His mind grew tranquil, smoother than fleece. He rubbed his body with scented grease. And his days thenceforward were days of peace. His days were fair as the flowering lime —For a little time, for a little time. And Bathsheba lay in his breast like a dove, A vessel of amber, made for love. 5 When Bathsheba was great with child, (The Lord God is a jealous God!) Portly and meek as a moon grown mild, (The Lord is King above all gods!) Nathan, the prophet, wry and dying, Preached to the king like a locust crying: “Hearken awhile to a doleful thing! There were two men in thy land, O King! “One was rich as a gilded ram. One had one treasure, a poor ewe-lamb. “Rich man wasted his wealth like spittle. Poor man shared with his lamb spare victual. “A traveler came to the rich man’s door. ‘Give me to eat, for I hunger sore!’ “Rich man feasted him fatly, true, But the meat that he gave him was fiend’s meat, too, Stolen and roasted, the poor man’s ewe! “Hearken, my lord, to a deadly thing! What shall be done with these men, O King?” David hearkened, seeing it plain, His heart grew heavy with angry pain: “Show me the rich man that he be slain!” Nathan barked as a jackal can. “Just, O King! And thou art the man!” David rose as the thunders rise When someone in Heaven is telling lies. But his eyes were weaker than Nathan’s eyes. His huge bulk shivered like quaking sod, Shoulders bowing to Nathan’s rod, Nathan, the bitter apple of God. His great voice shook like a runner’s, spent, “My sin has found me! Oh, I repent!” Answered Nathan, that talkative Jew: “For many great services, comely and true, The Lord of Mercy will pardon you. “But the child in Bathsheba, come of your seed, Shall sicken and die like a blasted weed.” David groaned when he heard him speak. The painful tears ran hot on his cheek. Ashes he cast on his kingly locks. All night long he lay on the rocks. Beseeching his Lord with a howling cry: “O Lord God, O my jealous God, Be kind to the child that it may not die, For Thou art King above all gods!” 6 Seven long nights he lay there, howling, A lion wounded, moaning and growling. Seven long midnights, sorrowing greatly, While Sin, like a dead man, embraced him straitly. Till he was abased from his lust and pride And the child was born and sickened and died. He arose at last. It was ruddy Day. And his sin like water had washed away. He cleansed and anointed, took fresh apparel, And worshiped the Lord in a tuneful carol. His servants, bearing the child to bury, Marveled greatly to see him so merry. He spoke to them mildly as mid-May weather: “The child and my sin are perished together. “He is dead, my son. Though his whole soul yearn to me, I must go to him, he may not return to me. “Why should I sorrow for what was pain? A cherished grief is an iron chain.” He took up his harp, the sage old chief. His heart felt clean as a new green leaf. His soul smelt pleasant as rain-wet clover. “I have sinned and repented and that’s all over. “In his dealings with heathen, the Lord is hard. But the humble soul is his spikenard.” His wise thoughts fluttered like doves in the air. “I wonder is Bathsheba still so fair? “Does she weep for the child that our sin made perish? I must comfort my ewe-lamb, comfort and cherish. “The justice of God is honey and balm. I will soothe her heart with a little psalm.” He went to her chamber, no longer sad, Walking as light as a shepherd lad. He found her weeping, her garments rent, Trodden like straw by God’s punishment. He solaced her out of his great content. Being but woman, a while she grieved, But at last she was comforted, and conceived. Nine months later she bore him a son. (The Lord God is a mighty God!) The name of that child was SOLOMON. He was God’s tough staff till his days were run! (And the Lord is King above all gods!) THE RETORT DISCOURTEOUS (_Italy—16th Century_) But what, by the fur on your satin sleeves, The rain that drags at my feather And the great Mercurius, god of thieves, Are we thieves doing together? Last night your blades bit deep for their hire, And we were the sickled barley. To-night, atoast by the common fire, You ask me to join your parley. Your spears are shining like Iceland spar, The blood-grapes drip for your drinking; For you folk follow the rising star, I follow the star that’s sinking! My queen is old as the frosted whins, Nay, how could her wrinkles charm me? And the starving bones are bursting the skins In the ranks of her ancient army. You marshal a steel-and-silken troop, Your cressets are fed with spices, And you batter the world like a rolling hoop To the goal of your proud devices. I have rocked your thrones—but your fight is won. To-night, as the highest bidder, You offer a share of your brigand-sun, Consider, old bull, consider! Ahead, red Death and the Fear of Death, Your vultures, stoop to the slaughter. But I shall fight you, body and breath, Till my life runs out like water! My queen is wan as the Polar snows. Her host is a rout of specters. But I gave her Youth like a burning rose, And her age shall not lack protectors! I would not turn for the thunderclap Or the face of the woman who bore me, With her battered badge still scarring my cap, And the drums of defeat before me. Roll your hands in the honey of life, Kneel to your white-necked strumpets! You came to your crowns with a squealing fife But I shall go out with trumpets! Poison the steel of the plunging dart, Holloa your hounds to their station! I march to my ruin with such a heart As a king to his coronation. Your poets roar of your golden feats— I have herded the stars like cattle. And you may die in the perfumed sheets, But I shall die in battle. THREE DAYS’ RIDE “_From Belton Castle to Solway side,_ _Hard by the bridge, is three days’ ride._” We had fled full fast from her father’s keep, And the time was come that we must sleep. The first day was an ecstasy, A golden mist, a burgeoning tree; We rode like gods through a world new-made, The hawthorn scented hill and glade, A faint, still sweetness in the air— And, oh, her face and the wind in her hair! And the steady beat of our good steeds’ hooves, Bearing us northward, strong and fast, To my high black tower, stark to the blast, Like a swimmer stripped where the Solway moves. And ever, riding, we chanted a song, Challenging Fortune, loud and long, “_From Belton Castle to Solway side,_ _Strive as you may, is three days’ ride!_” She slept for an hour, wrapped in my cloak, And I watched her till the morning broke; The second day—and a harsher land, And grey bare hills on either hand; A surly land and a sullen folk, And a fog that came like bitter smoke. The road wound on like a twisted snake, And our horses sobbed as they topped the brake. Till we sprang to earth at Wyvern Fen, Where fresh steeds stamped, and were off again. Weary and sleepless, bruised and worn, We still had strength for laughter and scorn; Love held us up through the mire and mist, Love fed us, while we clasped and kissed, And still we sang as the night closed in, Stealthy and slow as a hidden sin, “_From Belton Castle to Solway side,_ _Ride how you will, is three days’ ride._” My love drooped low on the black mare’s back, Drowned in her hair . . . the reins went slack . . . Yet she could not sleep, save to dream bad dreams And wake all trembling, till at last Her golden head lay on my breast. At last we saw the first faint gleams Of day. Dawn broke. A sickly light Came from the withered sun—a blight Was on the land, and poisonous mist Shrouded the rotting trees, unkissed By any wind, and black crags glared Like sightless, awful faces, spared From death to live accursed for aye. Dragging slow chains the hours went by. We rode on, drunk and drugged with sleep, Too deadly weary now to say Whether our horses kept the way Or no—like slaves stretched on a heap Of poisoned arrows. Every limb Shot with sharp pain; pain seemed to swim Like a red cloud before our eyes. . . . The mist broke, and a moment showed, Sharp as the Devil’s oxen-goad, The spear-points where the hot chase rode. Idly I watched them dance and rise Till white wreaths wiped them out again . . . My love jerked at the bridle rein; The black mare, dying, broke her heart In one swift gallop; for my part I dozed; and ever in my brain, Four hoofs of fire beat out refrain, A dirge to light us down to death, A silly rhyme that saith and saith, “_From Belton Castle to Solway side,_ _Though great hearts break, is three days’ ride!_” The black mare staggered, reeled and fell, Bearing my love down . . . a great bell Began to toll . . . and sudden fire Flared at me from the road, a pyre It seemed, to burn our bodies in . . . And I fell down, far down, within The pit’s mouth . . . and my brain went blind. . . . I woke—a cold sun rose behind Black evil hills—my love knelt near Beside a stream, her golden hair Streaming across the grass—below The Solway eddied to and fro, White with fierce whirlpools . . . my love turned. . . . Thank God, some hours of joy are burned Into the mind, and will remain, Fierce-blazing still, in spite of pain! They came behind us as we kissed, Stealthily from the dripping mist, Her brothers and their evil band. They bound me fast and made me stand. They forced her down upon her knees. She did not strive or cry or call, But knelt there dumb before them all— I could not turn away my eyes— There was no fear upon her face, Although they slew her in that place. The daggers rent and tore her breast Like dogs that snarl above a kill, Her proud face gazed above them still, Seeking rest—Oh, seeking rest! The blood swept like a crimson dress Over her bosom’s nakedness, A curtain for her weary eyes, A muffling-cloth to stop her sighs . . . And she was gone—and a red thing lay Silent, on the trampled clay. Beneath my horse my feet are bound, My hands are bound behind my back, I feel the sinews start and crack— And ever to the hoof-beats’ sound, As we draw near the gallows-tree, Where I shall hang right speedily, A crazy tune rings in my brain, Four hoofs of fire tramp the refrain, Crashing clear o’er the roaring crowd, Steadily galloping, strong and loud, “_From Belton Castle to Solway side,_ _Hard by the bridge, is three days’ ride!_” ALEXANDER THE SIXTH DINES WITH THE CARDINAL OF CAPUA Next, then, the peacock, gilt With all its feathers. Look, what gorgeous dyes Flow in the eyes! And how deep, lustrous greens are splashed and spilt Along the black, that like a sea-wave’s crest Scatters soft beauty o’er th’ emblazoned breast! A strange fowl! But most fit For feasts like this, whereby I honor one Pure as the sun! Yet glowing with the fiery zeal of it! Some wine? Your goblet’s empty? Let it foam! It is not often that you come to Rome. You like the Venice glass? Rippled with lines that float like women’s curls, Neck like a girl’s, Fierce-glowing as a chalice in the Mass? You start—’twas artist then, not Pope who spoke! Ave Maria stella!—ah, it broke! ’Tis said they break alone When poison writhes within. A foolish tale! What, you look pale? Caraffa, fetch a silver cup! . . . You own A Birth of Venus, now—or so I’ve heard, Lovely as the breast-plumage of a bird. Also a Dancing Faun, Hewn with the lithe grace of Praxiteles; Globed pearls to please A sultan; golden veils that drop like lawn— How happy I could be with but a tithe Of your possessions, fortunate one! Don’t writhe But take these cushions here! Now for the fruit! Great peaches, satin-skinned, Rough tamarind, Pomegranates red as lips—oh they come dear! But men like you we feast at any price— A plum perhaps? They’re looking rather nice. I’ll cut the thing in half. There’s yours! Now, with a one-side-poisoned knife One might snuff life And leave one’s friend with—“fool” for epitaph. An old trick? Truth! But when one has the itch For pretty things and isn’t very rich. . . . There, eat it all or I’ll Be angry! You feel giddy? Well, it’s hot! This bergamot Take home and smell—it purges blood of bile; And when you kiss Bianca’s dimpled knee, Think of the poor Pope in his misery! Now you may kiss my ring. Ho there, the Cardinal’s litter!—You must dine When the new wine Is in, again with me—hear Bice sing, Even admire my frescoes—though they’re nought Beside the calm Greek glories you have bought. Godspeed, Sir Cardinal, And take a weak man’s blessing! Help him there To the cool air! . . . Lucrezia here? You’re ready for the ball? —He’ll die within ten hours, I suppose— MhM! Kiss your poor old father, little rose! The remaining poems in this section are from _A Book of Americans_ by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét. SOUTHERN SHIPS AND SETTLERS 1606-1732 _O, where are you going, “Goodspeed” and “Discovery”?_ _With meek “Susan Constant” to make up the three?_ We’re going to settle the wilds of Virginia, For gold and adventure we’re crossing the sea. _And what will you find there?_ Starvation and fever. We’ll eat of the adder and quarrel and rail. All but sixty shall die of the first seven hundred, But a nation begins with the voyage we sail. _O, what are you doing, my handsome Lord Baltimore?_ _Where are you sending your “Ark” and your “Dove”?_ I’m sending them over the ocean to Maryland To build up a refuge for people I love. Both Catholic and Protestant there may find harbor, Though I am a Catholic by creed and by prayer. The South is Virginia, the North is New England. I’ll go in the middle and plant my folk there. _O, what do you seek, “Carolina” and “Albemarle”,_ _Now the Stuarts are up and the Roundheads are down?_ We’ll seek and we’ll find, to the South of Virginia, A site by two rivers and name it Charles Town. And, in South Carolina, the cockfighting planters Will dance with their belles by a tropical star. And, in North Carolina, the sturdy Scotch-Irish Will prove at King’s Mountain the metal they are. _O, what are you dreaming, cock-hatted James Oglethorpe?_ _And who are the people you take in the “Anne”?_ They’re poor English debtors whom hard laws imprison, And poor, distressed Protestants, fleeing a ban. I’ll settle them pleasantly on the Savannah, With Germans and Highlanders, thrifty and strong. They shall eat Georgia peaches in huts of palmetto, And their land shall be fertile, their days shall be long. _All_ We’re the barques and the sailors, the bread on the waters, The seed that was planted and grew to be tall, And the South was first won by our toils and our dangers, So remember our journeys. Remember us all. COTTON MATHER 1663-1728 Grim Cotton Mather Was always seeing witches, Daylight, moonlight, They buzzed about his head, Pinching him and plaguing him With aches and pains and stitches, Witches in his pulpit, Witches by his bed. Nowadays, nowadays, We’d say that he was crazy, But everyone believed him In old Salem town And nineteen people Were hanged for Salem witches Because of Cotton Mather And his long, black gown. Old Cotton Mather Didn’t die happy. He could preach and thunder, He could fast and pray, But men began to wonder If there _had_ been witches— When he walked in the streets Men looked the other way. CAPTAIN KIDD 1650?-1701 This person in the gaudy clothes Is worthy Captain Kidd. They say he never buried gold. _I think, perhaps, he did._ They say it’s all a story that His favorite little song Was “Make these lubbers walk the plank!” _I think, perhaps, they’re wrong._ They say he never pirated Beneath the Skull-and-Bones. He merely traveled for his health And spoke in soothing tones. In fact, you’ll read in nearly all The newer history books That he was mild as cottage cheese —_But I don’t like his looks!_ FRENCH PIONEERS 1534-1759 _New France, New Spain, New England,_ _Which will it be?_ _Who will win the new land?_ _The land across the sea?_ They came here, they toiled here, They broke their hearts afar, Normandy and Brittany, Paris and Navarre. They lost here, at last here, It wasn’t so to be. Let us still remember them, Men from oversea. Marquette and Joliet, Cartier, La Salle, Priest, corsair, gentleman, Gallants one and all. France was in their quick words, France was in their veins. They came here, they toiled here. They suffered many pains. Lake and river, stream and wood, Seigneurs and dames— They lived here, they died here, They left singing names. THOMAS JEFFERSON 1743-1826 Thomas Jefferson, What do you say Under the gravestone Hidden away? “I was a giver, I was a molder, I was a builder With a strong shoulder.” Six feet and over, Large-boned and ruddy, The eyes grey-hazel But bright with study. The big hands clever With pen and fiddle And ready, ever, For any riddle. From buying empires To planting ’taters, From Declarations To trick dumb-waiters. “I liked the people, The sweat and crowd of them, Trusted them always And spoke aloud or them. “I liked all learning And wished to share it Abroad like pollen For all who merit. “I liked fine houses With Greek pilasters, And built them surely, My touch a master’s. “I liked queer gadgets And secret shelves, And helping nations To rule themselves. “Jealous of others? Not always candid? But huge of vision And open-handed. “A wild-goose-chaser? Now and again, Build Monticello, You little men! “Design my plow, sirs, They use it still, Or found my college At Charlottesville. “And still go questing New things and thinkers, And keep as busy As twenty tinkers. “While always guarding The people’s freedom— You need more hands, sir? I didn’t need ’em. “They call you rascal? They called me worse. You’d do grand things, sir, But lack the purse? “I got no riches. I died a debtor. I died free-hearted And that was better. “For life was freakish But life was fervent, And I was always Life’s willing servant. “Life, life’s too weighty? Too long a haul, sir? I lived past eighty. I liked it all, sir.” JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 1780-1851 Some men live for warlike deeds, Some for women’s words. John James Audubon Lived to look at birds. Pretty birds and funny birds, All our native fowl From the little cedar waxwing To the Great Horned Owl. Let the wind blow hot or cold, Let it rain or snow, Everywhere the birds went Audubon would go. Scrambling through a wilderness, Floating down a stream, All around America In a feathered dream. Thirty years of traveling, Pockets often bare, (Lucy Bakewell Audubon Patched them up with care). Followed grebe and meadowlark, Saw them sing and splash. (Lucy Bakewell Audubon Somehow raised the cash). Drew them all the way they lived In their habitats. (Lucy Bakewell Audubon Sometimes wondered “Cats?”) Colored them and printed them In a giant book, “Birds of North America”— All the world said, “Look!” Gave him medals and degrees, Called him noble names, —Lucy Bakewell Audubon Kissed her queer John James. DANIEL BOONE 1735-1820 When Daniel Boone goes by, at night, The phantom deer arise And all lost, wild America Is burning in their eyes. WESTERN WAGONS They went with axe and rifle, when the trail was still to blaze, They went with wife and children, in the prairie-schooner days, With banjo and with frying pan—Susanna, don’t you cry! For I’m off to California to get rich out there or die! We’ve broken land and cleared it, but we’re tired of where we are. They say that wild Nebraska is a better place by far. There’s gold in far Wyoming, there’s black earth in Ioway, So pack up the kids and blankets, for we’re moving out today! The cowards never started and the weak died on the road, And all across the continent the endless campfires glowed. _We’d taken land and settled—but a traveler passed by—_ _And we’re going West tomorrow—Lordy, never ask us why!_ We’re going West tomorrow, where the promises can’t fail. O’er the hills in legions, boys, and crowd the dusty trail! We shall starve and freeze and suffer. We shall die, and tame the lands. But we’re going West tomorrow, with our fortune in our hands. [Illustration] _CREATURES OF EARTH_ [Illustration] _Creatures of Earth_ * * * * * THE INNOVATOR (_A Pharaoh Speaks_) I said, “Why should a pyramid Stand always dully on its base? I’ll change it! Let the top be hid, The bottom take the apex-place!” And as I bade they did. The people flocked in, scores on scores, To see it balance on its tip. They praised me with the praise that bores, My godlike mind on every lip. —Until it fell, of course. And then they took my body out From my crushed palace, mad with rage, —Well, half the town _was_ wrecked, no doubt— Their crazy anger to assuage By dragging it about. The end? Foul birds defile my skull. The new king’s praises fill the land. He clings to precept, simple, dull; _His_ pyramids on bases stand. But—Lord, how usual! SNOWFALL Heaven is hell, if it be as they say, An endless day. A pen of terrible radiance, on whose walls No shadow falls, No sunset ever comes because no sun has ever risen, Where, like bewildered flies, Poor immortalities Interminably crawl, caught in a crystal prison. Yet, if there is but night to recompense Impertinence, How can we bear to live so long and know The end is so? Creatures that hate the dark, to utmost dark descending? The worm’s dull enmity, To feel it—but not see! To be afraid at night and know that night unending! There is a time when, though the sun be weak. It is not bleak With perfect and intolerable light, Nor has the night Yet put those eyes to sleep that do not wish for slumber; When, on the city we know, The pale, transmuting snow Falls softly, in sighing flakes, immaculate, without number. Whisperingly it drifts, and whisperingly Fills earth and sky With fragile petals, tranquil as a swan’s Blanch pinions. And where it falls is silence, subtle and mild. That silence is not cruel But calm as a frozen jewel, And clasped to its cold frail breast Earth sucks in rest like a child. If there can be a heaven, let it wear Even such an air. Not shamed with sun nor black without a ray, But gently day. A tired street, whereon the snow falls, whitely, An infant, cradled in fleece, An ancient, drowsy with peace, Unutterable peace, too pure to shine too brightly. BAD DREAM Out of the stroke, the change, The body locked in its death Like a stream locked in the ice, The whiteness under the cheek, The lips forever set In the look that is always strange Because we remember yet How they spoke, how the mere breath Was enough to make them speak. I saw the soul arise, Naked, shaped like a blade, Free, inhuman and bright, And where the body was laid I saw it hover. It had no need of eyes. It had forgotten the grief, The long pain and the brief, The daybreak, the burning night, The touch of water and light. These were over. It was free. It would not return. I saw its brightness spurn Like the heel of a fugitive The body it hung above, The body which gave it birth— It is this I cannot forgive. It is thus they answer our love When they are gone from the earth. FOR ALL BLASPHEMERS Adam was my grandfather, A tall, spoiled child, A red, clay tower In Eden, green and mild. He ripped the Sinful Pippin From its sanctimonious limb. Adam was my grandfather— And I take after him. Noah was my uncle And he got dead drunk. There were planets in his liquor-can And lizards in his bunk. He fell into the Bottomless Past Hell’s most shrinking star. Old Aunt Fate has often said How much alike we are. Lilith, she’s my sweetheart Till my heartstrings break, Most of her is honey-pale And all of her is snake. Sweet as secret thievery, I kiss her all I can, While Somebody Above remarks “That’s not a nice young man!” Bacchus was my brother, Nimrod is my friend. All of them have talked to me On how such courses end. But when His Worship takes me up How can I fare but well? For who in gaudy Hell will care? —And I shall be in Hell. ARCHITECTS My son has built a fortified house To keep his pride from the thunder, And his steadfast heart from the gnawing mouse That nibbles the roots of wonder. My daughter’s wit has hammered and filed Her slight and glittering armor. She hides in its rings like a dragon-child, And nothing on earth can harm her. My wife has molded a coffin of lead From the counterfeit tears of mourners. She rests in it, calm as a saint long dead, And the Four Winds kneel at its corners. I have scooped my den with a crafty thumb In the guts of an arid acre. And it may not last till Kingdom Come —But it will not cripple its maker. It is six feet long by three feet deep And some may call it narrow. But, when I get into it, I can keep The nakedness of an arrow. DINNER IN A QUICK LUNCH ROOM Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn, Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars; Strange _entrées_ with a jangle of glass bars Fantastically alive with subtle scorn; Fish, by a plopping, gurgling rush of waters, Clear, vibrant waters, beautifully austere; Roast, with a thunder of drums to stun the ear, A screaming fife, a voice from ancient slaughters! Over the salad let the woodwinds moan; Then the green silence of many watercresses; Dessert, a balalaika, strummed alone; Coffee, a slow, low singing no passion stresses; Such are my thoughts as—clang! crash! bang!—I brood And gorge the sticky mess these fools call food! OPERATION (_For J. F. C., Jr._) Bound to the polished table, arm and leg, I lay and watched, with loud, disgusting fear, The army of the instruments draw near, Hook, saw, sleek scissor and distorted peg; My eyes were like a spaniel’s when they beg, The nurses’ purpose was so very clear . . . And though I tried to bite one in the ear She stayed as white and silent as an egg. Time, the superb physician, drew his breath, “I’ll just remove Youth, Health and Love,” he said, “The rest is for Consulting-Surgeon Death.” God, how I hated that peremptory head! As through the ether came his sickening drawl “Now this won’t hurt. . . . Oh, it won’t hurt at all.” THE TRAPEZE PERFORMER (_For C. M._) Fierce little bombs of gleam snap from his spangles, Sleek flames glow softly on his silken tights, The waiting crowd blurs to crude darks and whites Beneath the lamps that stare like savage bangles; Safe in a smooth and sweeping arc he dangles And sees the tanbark tower like old heights Before careening eyes. At last he sights The waiting hands and sinuously untangles. Over the sheer abyss so deadly-near, He falls, like wine to its appointed cup, Turns like a wheel of fireworks, and is mine. Battering hands acclaim our triumph clear. —And steadfast muscles draw my sonnet up To the firm iron of the fourteenth line. JUDGMENT “He’ll let us off with fifty years!” one said. And one, “I always knew that Bible lied!” One who was philanthropic stood aside, Patting his sniveling virtues on the head. “Yes, there may be some—pain,” another wheezed. “One rending touch to fit the soul for bliss.” “A bare formality!” one seemed to hiss. And everyone was pink and fed and pleased. Then thunder came, and with an earthquake sound Shook those fat corpses from their flabby languor. The sky was furious with immortal anger, We miserable sinners hugged the ground: Seeing through all the torment, saying, “Yes,” God’s quiet face, serenely merciless. GHOSTS OF A LUNATIC ASYLUM Here, where men’s eyes were empty and as bright As the blank windows set in glaring brick, When the wind strengthens from the sea—and night Drops like a fog and makes the breath come thick; By the deserted paths, the vacant halls, One may see figures, twisted shades and lean, Like the mad shapes that crawl an Indian screen, Or paunchy smears you find on prison walls. Turn the knob gently! There’s the Thumbless Man, Still weaving glass and silk into a dream, Although the wall shows through him—and the Khan Journeys Cathay beside a paper stream. A Rabbit Woman chitters by the door— —Chilly the grave-smell comes from the turned sod— Come—lift the curtain—and be cold before The silence of the eight men who were God! FOR THOSE WHO ARE AS RIGHT AS ANY “Spirit, they charge you that the time is ill. The great wall sinks in the slime!” “_I am a spirit, still._ _I do not walk with the time._” “The sky shivers, the king is a beast run wild, The lords are sullen and base!” “_When the sun rose up in the East like a great child,_ _I saw the gold and the face._” “Come, draw your steel for the right, for the time wears on! It is only a little way to Jerusalem!” “_I have seen the floating swan_ _And the lion, bloody with dawn,_ _I will make pictures of them._” “What, lift no sword in the battle?” “_I am swordless._” “No cause, no cry?” “_I am lordless._” “_I am shadow, shadow that passes across the meadow_ _And goes its way._” “By God, against God, in our name, we will slay you, then!” “_Slay._” “And, when we have slain them all, we will build for men The city called Marvelous, the glittering town, And none shall be exalted or cast down But all at ease, all hatreds reconciled.” “_I am air and I live. I live again and again._ _I am wind and fire. But I am not reconciled._” GIRL CHILD Like a flower, like a tulip, So fresh, so hardy, So slim, so hasting, The nose tip-tilted, The mouth her mother’s, The eyes brighter Than rabbit’s or squirrel’s Suddenly peering From bough or burrow; All this in motion, Motion and swaying, As if all life Were a wave of ocean, As if all life Were the clean stalk springing Brightly, greenly, From earth unworn, To sway with sunlight, To drink clear freshets, Swiftly, oh, swiftly To swell its bubble, The staunch red flower Hardy and mortal, The bright flag On the new hill, Mortal, gallant, As a cockerel’s cry. To this child, To all swift children, My great thanks For their clear honor, The hound running, The flying fire. OLD MAN HOPPERGRASS Flesh, if you were stone or tree, I’d be happier with ye. When I was young, I slept like stone, When I was young, I grew like tree. Now I lie, abed, alone, And I wonder if ’tis me. Wake at night and ease me But it does not please me, Stick I am, sick I am, Apple pared to quick I am, Woman-nursed and queer. Once I had a sweet tooth, A sharp tooth, a neat tooth, Cocked my hat and winked my eye As the pretty girls went by, Pretty girls and punkin-pie— Dear! oh, dear! Old man’s a hoppergrass Kicking in the wheat. Can’t eat his fill, Can’t drink his will, Can’t climb his hill, Can’t have his Jill. And, when he talks sense, Relations say, “Better let Father Have his way.” A stone’s a stone And a tree’s a tree, But what was the sense Of aging me? It’s no improvement That _I_ can see. And the night’s long And the night-sleep brief And I hear the rustle Of the fallen leaf, “Old man Hoppergrass, Come and see!” Well, I won’t for a little, Not while I’m me. But the sun’s not as hot As it used to be. THE LOST WIFE In the daytime, maybe, your heart’s not breaking, For there’s the sun and the sky and working And the neighbors to give you a word or hear you, But, ah, the long nights when the wind comes shaking The cold, black curtain, pulling and jerking, And no one there in the bed to be near you. And worse than the clods on the coffin falling Are the clothes in the closet that no one wears now And the things like hairpins you’re always finding. And you wouldn’t mind the ghost of her calling As much as knowing that no one cares now If the carpet fades when the sun gets blinding. I look in the houses, when twilight narrows, And in each a man comes back to a woman. The thought of that coming has spurs to ride me. —Death, you have taken the great like sparrows, But she was so slight, so small, so human. You might have left her to lie beside me. SPARROW Lord, may I be A sparrow in a tree. No ominous and splendid bird of prey But something that is fearful every day Yet keeps its small flesh full of heat and lightness. Pigeons are better dressed and robins stouter, The white owl has all winter in his whiteness And the blue heron is a kingly dream At evening, by the pale stream, But, even in the lion’s cage, in Zoos, You’ll find a sparrow, picking up the crumbs And taking life precisely as it comes With the black, wary eye that marks the doubter; Squabbling in crowds, dust-bathing in the sun, Small, joyous, impudent, a gutter-child In Lesbia’s bosom or December’s chill, Full of impertinence and hard to kill As Queen Anne’s lace and poppies in the wheat— I won’t pretend the fellow has a Muse But that he has advice, and good advice, All lovers know who’ve walked the city’s street And wished the stones were bread. Peacocks are handsomer and owls more wise. (At least, by all repute.) And parrots live on flattery and fruit, Live to great age. The sparrow’s none of these. The sparrow is a humorist, and dies. There are so many things that he is not. He will not tear the stag nor sweep the seas Nor fall, majestical, to a king’s arrow. Yet how he lives, and how he loves in living Up to the dusty tip of every feather! How he endures oppression and the weather And asks for neither justice nor forgiving! Lord, in your mercy, let me be a sparrow! His rapid heart’s so hot. And some can sing—song-sparrows, so they say— And, one thing, Lord—the times are iron, now. Perhaps you have forgot. They shoot the wise and brave on every bough. But sparrows are the last things that get shot. THANKS For these my thanks, not that I eat or sleep, Sweat or survive, but that at seventeen I could so blind myself in writing verse That the wall shuddered and the cry came forth And the numb hand that wrote was not my hand But a wise animal’s. Then the exhaustion and the utter sleep. O flagrant and unnecessary body, So hard beset, so clumsy in your skill! For these my thanks, not that I breathe and ache, Talk with my kind, swim in the naked sea, But that the tired monster keeps the road And even now, even at thirty-eight, The metal heats, the flesh grows numb again And I can still go muttering down the street Not seeing the interminable world Nor the ape-faces, only the live coal. COMPLAINT OF BODY, THE ASS, AGAINST HIS RIDER, THE SOUL BODY Well, here we go! I told you that the weather looked like snow. Why couldn’t we have stayed there at the inn? There was good straw and barley in the bin And a grey jenny with a melting eye, Neat-hoofed and sly—I rather like them sly— Master a trader and a man of sense. He likes his life and dinner. So do I. Sleeps warm and doesn’t try to cross a pass A mountain-goat would balk at in his prime, Where the hail falls as big as Peter’s Pence And every stone you slip on rolls a mile! But that’s not you, of course—that’s not our style— We’re far too dandipratted and sublime! Which of us is the ass? Good ground, beyond the snow? I’ve heard that little song before, you know. Past cliff and ragged mount And the wind’s skinning-knife, Far and forever far, The water of the fount, The water that is life And the bright star? Give me my water from a decent trough, Not dabs of ice licked out of freezing stone And, as for stars, why, let the stars alone, You’ll have us both in glory soon enough! Alas, alack! I’m carrying an idiot on my back. I’m carrying Mr. Who to God Knows Where. Oh, do not fix me with that burning stare Of beauteous disdain! I’m not a colt. I know my ass’s rights. A stall and fodder and sound sleep of nights. One can’t expect to live on sugarcane But what’s the sense, when one grows old and stiff, Of scrambling up this devil-haunted cliff To play hot cockles with the Northern Lights? I’ll balk, that’s what I’ll do! And all the worse for you! Oh, lash me if you like—I know your way— Rake my poor sides and leave the bloody weal Beneath your spurring steel. My lungs are fire and my limbs are lead. _Go on ahead?_ I can’t go on ahead. _Desert you in your need?_ Nay, master, nay. Nay, master, nay; I grumble as I must And yet, as you perceive, I do go on, Grudging, impenitent and full of fear And knowing my own death. You have no fear because you have no breath. Your silver essence knows nor cold nor heat. Your world’s beyond. My only world is here. (Oh, the sweet rollings in the summer dust, The smell of hay and thistles and the street, The quick life, done so soon!) You’ll have your guerdon when the journey’s done. You’ll play the hero where the wine is poured, You and the moon—but I Who served you well and shall become a bone, Why do I live when it must be to die? Why should I serve—and still have no reward? SOUL Your plaint is sound, yet I must rule you still With bridle, bit and will. For, without me, you are the child unborn And the infertile corn. I am not cruelty but I am he, Drowning in sea, who yet disdains the sea, And you that sea, that shore And the brave, laboring oar, Little upon the main, That drives on reefs I know not of but does not drive in vain. For I’m your master but your scholar, too, And learn great things of you. And, though I shall forsake you, nothing loth, To grumble with the clods, To sleep into the stone, I’ll answer for us both When I stand up alone. For it is part as your ambassador I go before To tell the gods who sit above the show, How, in this world they never stoop to know, Under what skies, against what mortal odds, The dust grows noble with desire and pain, And that not once but every day anew. [Illustration] _NIGHTMARES AND VISITANTS_ [Illustration] _Nightmares and Visitants_ * * * * * NOTES TO BE LEFT IN A CORNERSTONE This is for you who are to come, with Time, And gaze upon our ruins with strange eyes. So, always, there were the streets and the high, clear light And it was a crowded island and a great city; They built high up in the air. _I have gone to the museum and seen the pictures._ And yet shall not know this body. It was other; Though the first sight from the water was even so, The huge blocks piled, the giants standing together, Noble with plane and mass and the squareness of stone, The buildings that had skeletons like a man And nerves of wire in their bodies, the skyscrapers, Standing their island, looking toward the sea. But the maps and the models will not be the same. They cannot restore that beauty, rapid and harsh, That loneliness, that passion or that name. _Yet the films were taken?_ Most carefully and well, But the skin is not the life but over the life. The live thing was a different beast, in its time, And sometimes, in the fall, very fair, like a knife sharpened On stone and sun and blue shadow. That was the time When girls in red hats rode down the Avenue On the tops of busses, their faces bright with the wind. And the year began again with the first cool days. All places in that country are fair in the fall. _You speak as if the year began with the fall._ It was so. It began then, not with the calendar. It was an odd city. The fall brought us new life, Though there was no festival set and we did not talk of it. _That seems to me strange._ It was not strange, in that city. We had four seasons: the fall of the quick, brief steps Ringing on stone and the thick crowds walking fast, The clear sky, the rag of sunset beyond great buildings, The bronze flower, the resurrection of the year. The squirrels ran in the dry Park, burying nuts. The boys came from far places with cardboard suitcases. It is hard to describe, but the lights looked gay at night then And everything old and used had been put away. There were cheap new clothes for the clerks and the clerks’ women. There was frost in the blood and anything could begin. The shops were slices of honeycomb full of honey, Full of the new, glassed honey of the year. It seemed a pity to die then, a great pity. The great beast glittered like sea-water in the sun, His heart beating, his lungs full of air and pride, And the strong shadow cutting the golden towers. Then the cold fell, and the winter, with grimy snow, With the overcoatless men with the purple hands Walking between two signboards in the street And the sign on their backs said “Winter” and the soiled papers Blew fretfully up and down and froze in the ice As the lukewarm air blew up from the grated holes. This lasted a long time, till the skin was dry And the cheeks hot with the fever and the cough sharp. On the cold days, the cops had faces like blue meat, And then there was snow and pure snow and tons of snow And the whole noise stopping, marvellously and slowly, Till you could hear the shovels scraping the stone, Scritch-scratch, scritch-scratch, like the digging of iron mice. Nothing else but that sound, and the air most pure, Most pure, most fragrant and most innocent, And, next day, the boys made dirty balls of the snow. This season lasted so long we were weary of it. We were very weary indeed when the spring came to us. And it came. I do not know how even yet, but there was a turning, A change, a melting, a difference, a new smell Though not that of any flower. It came from both Rivers, I think, or across them. It sneaked in On a market truck, a girl in a yellow hat With a pinched, live face and a bunch of ten-cent narcissus And the sky was soft and it was easy to dream. You could count the spring on your fingers, but it came. Ah, brief it was in that city, but good for love! The boys got their stick-bats out then, the youths and girls Talked hoarsely under street lamps, late in the night. And then it was tiger-summer and the first heat, The first thunder, the first black pile of aching cloud, The big warm drops of rain that spatter the dust And the ripping cloth of lightning. Those were the hot Nights when the poor lay out on the fire-escapes And the child cried thinly and endlessly. Many streets Woke very late in the night, then. And barbarously the negro night bestrode The city with great gold rings in his ears And his strong body glistening with heat. He had, I think, a phial in one hand And from it took a syringe, dry as dust, To dope tired bodies with uneasy sleep. The backs of my hands are sweating with that sleep And I have lain awake in the hot bed And heard the fierce, brief storm bring the relief, The little coolness, the water on the tongue, The new wind from the river, dear as rain. _I have not studied the weather-reports intensively._ _Should I do so?_ You will not get it from weather-reports. There was the drunkard’s city and the milkman’s, The city of the starving and the fed, The city of the night-nurse and the scrubbed wall. All these locked into each other like sliding rings And a man, in his time, might inhabit one of them Or many, as his fate took him, but always, always, There were the blocks of stone and the windows gazing And the breath that did not stop. It was never quite still. You could always hear some sound, though you forgot it, And the sound entered the flesh and was part of it. It was high but no one planned it to be so high. They did not think, when they built so. They did not say, “This will make life better, this is due to the god, This will be good to live in.” They said “Build!” And dug steel into the rocks. They were a race Most nervous, energetic, swift and wasteful, And maddened by the dry and beautiful light Although not knowing their madness. So they built Not as men before but as demons under a whip And the light was a whip and a sword and a spurning heel And the light wore out their hearts and they died praising it. And for money and the lack of it many died, Leaping from windows or crushed by the big truck. They shot themselves in washrooms because of money. They were starved and died on the benches of subway-stations, The old men, with the caved cheeks, yellow as lard, The men with the terrible shoes and the open hands, The eyeing and timid crowd about them gathered. Yet it is not just to say money was all their god Nor just to say that machine was all their god. It is not just to say any one thing about them. They built the thing very high, far over their heads. Because of it, they gave up air, earth and stars. _Will you tell me about the people, if you please?_ They are all gone, the workers on the high steel, The best of their kind, cat-footed, walking on space, The arcs of the red-hot rivet in the air; They are gone with the empty, arrogant women of price, The evening women, curried till their flesh shone; With the big, pale baker, the flour in his creases, Coming up to breathe from his hell on a summer night; They are gone as if they were not. The blue-chinned men of the hotel-lobbies are gone, Though they sat like gods in their chairs; Night-watchmen and cleaning-women and millionaires; The maimed boy, clean and legless and always sitting On his small, wheeled platform, by the feet of the crowd; The sharp, sad newsmen, the hackers spinning their wheels; The ardent, the shy, the brave; The women who looked from mean windows, every day, A pillow under their elbows, heavily staring; They are gone, gone with the long cars and the short ones, They have dropped as smoothly as coins through the slot of Time, Mrs. Rausmeyer is gone and Mrs. Costello And the girl at Goldstein & Brady’s who had the hair. Their lipsticks have made no mark on the evening sky. It is long ago this all was. It is all forgotten. _And yet, you lie uneasy in the grave._ I cannot well lie easy in the grave. All cities are the loneliness of man And this was very lonely, in its time (Sea-haunted, river-emblemed, O the grey Water at ends of streets and the boats hooting! The unbelievable, new, bright, girl moon!), Most cruel also, but I walked it young, Loved in it and knew night and day in it. There was the height and the light. It was like no other. When the gods come, tell them we built this out of steel, Though men use steel no more. And tell the man who tries to dig this dust, He will forget his joy before his loneliness. SHORT ODE It is time to speak of these Who took the long, strange journey overseas, Who fell through the air in flames. Their names are many. I will not name their names Though some were people I knew; After some years the ghost itself dies, too, And that is my son’s picture on the wall But his girl has been long married and that is all. They died in mud, they died in camps of the flu. They are dead. Let us leave it so. The ones I speak of were not forced, I know. They were men of my age and country, they were young men At Belleau, at the seaports, by the Aisne. They went where their passion took them and are not. They do not answer mockery or praise. You may restore the days They lived beneath and you may well restore The painted image of that fabled war, But not those faces, not the living ones Drowned in the water, blown before the guns In France or Belgium or the bitter sea (And the foreign grave is far, and men use the name, But they did not go for votes or the pay they got Or the brave memorial speech by the D.A.R.) It is far, the foreign grave. It is very far And the time is not the same. But certain things are true Despite the time, and these were men that I knew, Sat beside, walked beside, In the first running of June, in the careless pride. It is hard to think back, to find them, to see their eyes And none born since shall see those, and the books are lies, Being either praise or blame. But they were in their first youth. It is not the same. You, who are young, remember that youth dies. Go, stranger, and to Lacedemon tell, They were shot and rotted, they fell Burning, on flimsy wings. And yet it was their thought that they did well. And yet there are still the tyrants and the kings. LITANY FOR DICTATORSHIPS For all those beaten, for the broken heads, The fosterless, the simple, the oppressed, The ghosts in the burning city of our time . . . For those taken in rapid cars to the house and beaten By the skilful boys, the boys with the rubber fists, —Held down and beaten, the table cutting their loins, Or kicked in the groin and left, with the muscles jerking Like a headless hen’s on the floor of the slaughter-house While they brought the next man in with his white eyes staring. For those who still said “Red Front!” or “God Save the Crown!” And for those who were not courageous But were beaten nevertheless. For those who spit out the bloody stumps of their teeth Quietly in the hall, Sleep well on stone or iron, watch for the time And kill the guard in the privy before they die, Those with the deep-socketed eyes and the lamp burning. For those who carry the scars, who walk lame—for those Whose nameless graves are made in the prison-yard And the earth smoothed back before morning and the lime scattered. For those slain at once. For those living through months and years Enduring, watching, hoping, going each day To the work or the queue for meat or the secret club, Living meanwhile, begetting children, smuggling guns, And found and killed at the end like rats in a drain. For those escaping Incredibly into exile and wandering there. For those who live in the small rooms of foreign cities And who yet think of the country, the long green grass, The childhood voices, the language, the way wind smelt then, The shape of rooms, the coffee drunk at the table, The talk with friends, the loved city, the waiter’s face, The gravestones, with the name, where they will not lie Nor in any of that earth. Their children are strangers. For those who planned and were leaders and were beaten And for those, humble and stupid, who had no plan But were denounced, but grew angry, but told a joke, But could not explain, but were sent away to the camp, But had their bodies shipped back in the sealed coffins, “Died of pneumonia.” “Died trying to escape.” For those growers of wheat who were shot by their own wheat-stacks, For those growers of bread who were sent to the ice-locked wastes, And their flesh remembers their fields. For those denounced by their smug, horrible children For a peppermint-star and the praise of the Perfect State, For all those strangled or gelded or merely starved To make perfect states; for the priest hanged in his cassock, The Jew with his chest crushed in and his eyes dying, The revolutionist lynched by the private guards To make perfect states, in the names of the perfect states. For those betrayed by the neighbors they shook hands with And for the traitors, sitting in the hard chair With the loose sweat crawling their hair and their fingers restless As they tell the street and the house and the man’s name. And for those sitting at table in the house With the lamp lit and the plates and the smell of food, Talking so quietly; when they hear the cars And the knock at the door, and they look at each other quickly And the woman goes to the door with a stiff face, Smoothing her dress. “We are all good citizens here. We believe in the Perfect State.” And that was the last Time Tony or Karl or Shorty came to the house And the family was liquidated later. It was the last time. We heard the shots in the night But nobody knew next day what the trouble was And a man must go to his work. So I didn’t see him For three days, then, and me near out of my mind And all the patrols on the streets with their dirty guns And when he came back, he looked drunk, and the blood was on him. For the women who mourn their dead in the secret night, For the children taught to keep quiet, the old children, The children spat-on at school. For the wrecked laboratory, The gutted house, the dunged picture, the pissed-in well, The naked corpse of Knowledge flung in the square And no man lifting a hand and no man speaking. For the cold of the pistol-butt and the bullet’s heat, For the rope that chokes, the manacles that bind, The huge voice, metal, that lies from a thousand tubes And the stuttering machine-gun that answers all. For the man crucified on the crossed machine-guns Without name, without resurrection, without stars, His dark head heavy with death and his flesh long sour With the smell of his many prisons—John Smith, John Doe, John Nobody—oh, crack your mind for his name! Faceless as water, naked as the dust, Dishonored as the earth the gas-shells poison And barbarous with portent. This is he. This is the man they ate at the green table Putting their gloves on ere they touched the meat. This is the fruit of war, the fruit of peace, The ripeness of invention, the new lamb, The answer to the wisdom of the wise. And still he hangs, and still he will not die, And still, on the steel city of our years The light fails and the terrible blood streams down. We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong. We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. We thought the long train would run to the end of Time. We thought the light would increase. Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it. Now the boar and the asp have power in our time. Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid. Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon’s teeth. Our children know and suffer the armed men. ODE TO THE AUSTRIAN SOCIALISTS (FEBRUARY 12—FEBRUARY 15, 1934) They shot the Socialists at half-past five In the name of victorious Austria. The sky Was blue with February those four cold days And the little snow lay lightly on the hard ground. (Vienna’s the laughing city of tunes and wine, Of _Schlagobers_ and starved children . . . and a great ghost . . .) They had called the general strike but the plans went wrong Though the lights failed, that first night. It is odd to turn The switch by your bed and have no lamp go on And then look out of the windows at the black street Empty, except for a man with a pistol, running. We have built our cities for lights and the harsh glare And, when the siren screams at the winter stars, It is only a fire, an ambulance, nothing wrong, Just part of the day. You can walk to the corner store And never duck at a bullet. The lights are there And, if you see a man with a pistol, running, You phone the police or wait for tomorrow’s papers. It is different, with the lights out and the shots beginning. . . . These were ordinary people. The kind that go to the movies and watch parades, Have children, take them to parks, ride in trolley cars, The workmen at the next bench, the old, skilful foreman; You have seen the backs of their necks a million times In any crowd and forgotten—seen their faces, Anonymous, tired, good-humored, faces of skill. (The quick hands moving deftly among machines, Hands of the baker and the baker’s wife, Hands gloved with rubber, mending the spitting wire, Hands on controls and levers, big, square-palmed hands With the dint of the tool upon them, Dull, clumsy fingers laboring a dull task And others, writing and thoughtful, or sensitive As a setter’s mouth.) You have seen their hats and their shoes Everywhere, in every city. They wear no costumes. Their pockets have lint in them, and tobacco-dust. Their faces are the faces of any crowd. It was Monday when this began. They were slow to start it But they had been pushed to the wall. They believed in peace, Good houses, meetings, elections and resolutions, Not the sudden killing in corners, the armored cars Sweeping the square, the bombs and the bloody heads, But they’d seen what happened next door, in another country, To people who believed in peace and elections And the same tide was rising here. They could hear the storm. They took to their guns at last, in the workmen’s quarters, Where they’d built the houses for peace and the sure future. The houses were tall and fine, Great blocks of manstone, built by people for people, Not to make one man rich. When you do not build To make one man rich, you can give people light and air, You can have room to turn round—room after the day— You can have books and clean water and healthy sleep, A place for children to grow in. All over the world men knew about those houses. Let us remember Karl Marx Hof, Goethe Hof, The one called Matteoti and all the rest. They were little cities built by people for people. They were shelled by six-inch guns. It is strange to go Up the known stairs to the familiar room And point the lean machine-gun out of the window, Strange to see the black of that powder upon your hands. . . . They had hidden arms against need but they could not find them In many cases, being ordinary people. The other side was much readier—Fey and Dollfuss And all the shirts were quite ready. When you believe In parks and elections and meetings and not in death, Not in Caesar, It is hard to realize that the day may come When you send your wife and children down to the cellar To be out of the way of shells, and mount the known Countable stairs to the familiar room, The unfamiliar pistol cold in your fist And your mouth dry with despair. It is hard to think In spite of all oppression, all enmity, That that is going to happen. And so, when it does happen, your plans go wrong. (White flags on the Karl Marx Hof and the Goethe Hof And the executions, later.) A correspondent Of the British press remarked, when the thing was done And they let him in to see it, that on the whole The buildings were less damaged than you’d expect From four days’ bullets. True, he had seen, before, A truckload of undertakers and cheap, pine coffins Go to the disputed district. But the buildings stood, on the whole. They had built them well. These were ordinary people and they are dead. Dead where they lived, by violence, in their own homes, Between the desk and the door and the kitchen chair, Dead in the courtyards where the children played (The child’s jaw smashed by a bullet, the bloody crib, The woman sprawled like a rag on the clean stairs) Uncaesarlike, unwarlike, merely dead. Dead, or in exile many, or afraid (And those who live there still and wake in the night, Remembering the free city) Silent or hunted and their leaders slimed. The communists said they would not fight but they fought Four days of bitter February, Ill-led, outnumbered, the radio blaring lies And the six-inch guns against them and all hope gone, Four days in the Karl Marx Hof and the Goethe Hof And nobody knows yet how many dead And sensible men give in and accept the flag, The badge, the arm-band, the gag, the slave-tyranny, The shining, tin peace of Caesar. They were not sensible, Four days of February, two years ago. Bring no flowers here, Neither of mountain nor valley, Nor even the common flowers of the waste field That still are free to the poor; No wreaths upon these graves, these houseless graves; But bring alone the powder-blackened brass Of the shell-case, the slag of bullets, the ripped steel And the bone-spattering lead, Infertile, smelling acridly of death, And heap them here, till the rusting of guns, for remembrance. _1936._ DO YOU REMEMBER, SPRINGFIELD? (VACHEL LINDSAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1879—DECEMBER 5, 1931) The Illinois earth is black (Do you remember, Springfield?) The State is shaped like a heart, Shaped like an arrowhead. The black earth goes deep down. (Do you remember, Springfield?) Three feet under the plow You can find the black earth still. The towns settled, the woods Fine in the spring and autumn, The waters large and rolling, The black earth ready to hand. Surely this earth, this air Should bear the prophet-singers, Minstrels like colts unbroken, Minstrels of leaves and corn. Baltimore gave a stone, A stone to another singer (Do you remember, Springfield?) But that was in years gone by. A cat to tear at his breast And a glass to work him madness, That was the gift to Poe: But things are different here. There are votes here to be bought And rich men here to buy them; What more could a poet ask Of the streets where Lincoln strode? The Board of Health is superb. The ladies watchful and cultured. What more could a poet need Or the heart of man desire? Gather the leaves with rakes, The burning autumn, Springfield, Gather them in with rakes Lest one of them turn to gold. A leaf is only a leaf, It is worth nothing, in Springfield. It is worth as little as song, Little as light and air. Trap the lark in the corn, Let it tell of your bounty, Springfield. If you burn its eyes with a wire It still will sing for a space. A man is another affair. We understand that, in Springfield. If he sings, why, let him sing As long as we need not hear. He came with singing leaves; It was really most unfortunate. The Lindsays and the Frazees Are sturdy pioneer stock. He came with broncos and clouds And the cornsilk of the moonlight. It is not a usual thing In Springfield, Illinois. We will show his room and his book For that brings trade to the city. We try to use everything. If you like, you can see his grave. His mouth is stopped with earth, The deep, black earth of Springfield. He will not sing any more. It is fine earth for the mute. Let us give the Arts their due And Lincoln a marble courthouse. Both are respectably dead. They need not trouble us, now. Break the colts to the plow And make them pull their hearts out. Break the broncos of dancing And sell them for bones and hide. ODE TO WALT WHITMAN (MAY 31, 1819—MARCH 26, 1892) Now comes Fourth Month and the early buds on the trees. By the roads of Long Island, the forsythia has flowered, In the North, the cold will be breaking; even in Maine The cold will be breaking soon; the young, bull-voiced freshets Roar from green mountains, gorging the chilly brooks With the brown, trout-feeding waters, the unlocked springs; Now Mississippi stretches with the Spring rains. . . . It is forty years and more, The time of the ripeness and withering of a man, Since you lay in the house in Camden and heard, at last, The great, slow footstep, splashing the Third Month snow In the little, commonplace street —Town snow, already trampled and growing old, Soot-flecked and dingy, patterned with passing feet, The bullet-pocks of rain, the strong urine of horses, The slashing, bright steel runners of small boys’ sleds Hitching on behind the fast cutters. They dragged their sleds to the tops of the hills and yelled The Indian yell of all boyhood, for pure joy Of the cold and the last gold light and the swift rush down Belly-flopping into darkness, into bedtime. You saw them come home, late, hungry and burning-cheeked, The boys and girls, the strong children, Dusty with snow, their mittens wet with the silver drops of thawed snow. All winter long, you had heard their sharp footsteps passing, The skating crunch of their runners, An old man, tied to a house, after many years, An old man with his rivery, clean white hair, His bright eyes, his majestic poverty, His fresh pink skin like the first strawberry-bloom, His innocent, large, easy old man’s clothes —Brown splotches on the hands of clean old men At County Farms or sitting on warm park-benches Like patient flies, talking of their good sons, “Yes, my son’s good to me”— An old man, poor, without sons, waiting achingly For spring to warm his lameness, For spring to flourish, And yet, when the eyes glowed, neither old nor tied. All winter long there had been footsteps passing, Steps of postmen and neighbors, quick steps of friends, All winter long you had waited that great, snow-treading step, The enemy, the vast comrade, The step behind, in the wards, when the low lamp flickered And the sick boy gasped for breath, “_Lean on me! Lean upon my shoulder! By God, you shall not die!_” The step ahead, on the long, wave-thundering beaches of Paumanok, Invisible, printless, weighty, The shape half-seen through the wet, sweet sea-fog of youth, Night’s angel and the dark Sea’s, The grand, remorseless treader, Magnificent Death. “Let me taste all, my flesh and my fat are sweet, My body hardy as lilac, the strong flower. I have tasted the calamus; I can taste the nightbane.” Always the water about you since you were born, The endless lapping of water, the strong motion, The gulls by the ferries knew you, and the wild sea-birds, The sandpiper, printing the beach with delicate prints. At last, old, wheeled to the wharf, you still watched the water, The tanned boys, flat-bodied, diving, the passage of ships, The proud port, distant, the people, the work of harbors. . . . “I have picked out a bit of hill with a southern exposure. I like to be near the trees. I like to be near The water-sound of the trees.” Now, all was the same in the cluttered, three-windowed room, Low-ceiled, getting the sun like a schooner’s cabin, The crowding photos hiding the ugly wall-paper. The floor-litter, the strong chair, timbered like a ship, The hairy black-and-silver of the old wolfskin; In the back-yard, neither lilac nor pear yet bloomed But the branch of the lilac swelling with first sap; And there, in the house, the figures, the nurse, the woman, The passing doctor, the friends, the little clan, The disciple with the notebook who’s always there. All these and the pain and the water-bed to ease you And you said it rustled of oceans and were glad And the pain shut and relaxed and shut once more. “Old body, counsellor, why do you thus torment me? Have we not been friends from our youth?” But now it came, Slow, perceived by no others, The splashing step through the grey, soft, Saturday rain, Inexorable footstep of the huge friend. “Are you there at last, fine enemy? Ah, haste, friend, hasten, come closer! Breathe upon me with your grave, your releasing lips! I have heard and spoken; watched the bodies of boys Flash in the copper sun and dive to green waters, Seen the fine ships and the strong matrons and the tall axemen, The young girls, free, athletic; the drunkard, retching In his poor dream; the thief taken by officers; The President, calm, grave, advising the nation; The infant, with milk-wet lips in his bee-like slumber. They are mine; all, all are mine; must I leave them, truly? I have cherished them in my veins like milk and fruit. I have warmed them at my bare breast like the eggs of pigeons. The great plains of the buffalo are mine, the towns, the hills, the ship-bearing waters. These States are my wandering sons. I had them in my youth; I cannot desert them. The green leaf of America is printed on my heart forever.” Now it entered the house, it marched upon the stair. By the bedside the faces dimmed, the huge shoulder blotting them, —It is so they die on the plains, the great, old buffalo, The herd-leaders, the beasts with the kingly eyes, Innocent, curly-browed, They sink to the earth like mountains, hairy and silent, And their tongues are cut by the hunter. Oh, singing tongue! Great tongue of bronze and salt and the free grasses, Tongue of America, speaking for the first time, Must the hunter have you at last? Now, face to face, you saw him And lifted the right arm once, as a pilot lifts it, Signalling with the bell, In the passage at night, on the river known yet unknown, —Perhaps to touch his shoulder, perhaps in pain— Then the rain fell on the roof and the twilight darkened And they said that in death you looked like a marvelous old, wise child. 2 It is Fourth Month now and spring in another century, Let us go to the hillside and ask; he will like to hear us; “Is it good, the sleep?” “It is good, the sleep and the waking. I have picked out a bit of hill where the south sun warms me. I like to be near the trees.” Nay, let him ask, rather. “Is it well with you, comrades? The cities great, portentous, humming with action? The bridges mightily spanning wide-breasted rivers? The great plains growing the wheat, the old lilac hardy, well-budded? Is it well with these States?” “The cities are great, portentous, a world-marvel, The bridges arched like the necks of beautiful horses. We have made the dry land bloom and the dead land blossom.” “Is it well with these States?” “The old wound of your war is healed and we are one nation. We have linked the whole land with the steel and the hard highways. We have fought new wars and won them. In the French field There are bones of Texarkana and Little Falls, Aliens, our own; in the low-lying Belgian ground; In the cold sea of the English; in dark-faced islands. Men speak of them well or ill; they themselves are silent.” “Is it well with these States?” “We have made many, fine new toys. We— There is a rust on the land. A rust and a creeping blight and a scaled evil, For six years eating, yet deeper than those six years, Men labor to master it but it is not mastered. There is the soft, grey, foul tent of the hatching worm Shrouding the elm, the chestnut, the Southern cypress. There is shadow in the bright sun, there is shadow upon the streets. They burn the grain in the furnace while men go hungry. They pile the cloth of the looms while men go ragged. We walk naked in our plenty.” “My tan-faced children?” “These are your tan-faced children. These skilled men, idle, with the holes in their shoes. These drifters from State to State, these wolvish, bewildered boys Who ride the blinds and the box-cars from jail to jail, Burnt in their youth like cinders of hot smokestacks, Learning the thief’s crouch and the cadger’s whine, Dishonored, abandoned, disinherited. These, dying in the bright sunlight they cannot eat, Or the strong men, sitting at home, their hands clasping nothing, Looking at their lost hands. These are your tan-faced children, the parched young, The old man rooting in waste-heaps, the family rotting In the flat, before eviction, With the toys of plenty about them, The shiny toys making ice and music and light, But no price for the shiny toys and the last can empty. The sleepers in blind corners of the night. The women with dry breasts and phantom eyes. The walkers upon nothing, the four million. These are your tan-faced children.” “But the land?” “Over the great plains of the buffalo-land, The dust-storm blows, the choking, sifting, small dust. The skin of that land is ploughed by the dry, fierce wind And blown away, like a torrent; It drifts foot-high above the young sprouts of grain And the water fouls, the horses stumble and sicken, The wash-board cattle stagger and die of drought. We tore the buffalo’s pasture with the steel blade. We made the waste land blossom and it has blossomed. That was our fate; now that land takes its own revenge, And the giant dust-flower blooms above five States.” “But the gains of the years, who got them?” “Many, great gains. Many, yet few; they robbed us in the broad daylight, Saying, ‘Give us this and that; we are kings and titans; We know the ropes; we are solid; we are hard-headed; We will build you cities and railroads.’—as if _they_ built them! They, the preying men, the men whose hearts were like engines, Gouging the hills for gold, laying waste the timber, The men like band-saws, moving over the land. And, after them, the others, Soft-bodied, lacking even the pirate’s candor, Men of paper, robbing by paper, with paper faces, Rustling like frightened paper when the storm broke. The men with the jaws of moth and aphis and beetle, Boring the dusty, secret hole in the corn, Fixed, sucking the land, with neither wish nor pride But the wish to suck and continue. They have been sprayed, a little. But they say they will have the land back again, these men.” “There were many such in my time. I have seen the rich arrogant and the poor oppressed. I have seen democracy, also. I have seen The good man slain, the knave and the fool in power, The democratic vista botched by the people, Yet not despaired, loving the giant land, Though I prophesied to these States.” “Now they say we must have one tyranny or another And a dark bell rings in our hearts.” “Was the blood spilt for nothing, then?” 3 Under dry winter Arbutus grows. It is careless of man. It is careless of man. Man can tear it, Crush it, destroy it; Uproot the trailers, The thumb-shaped leafings. A man in grey clothes May come there also, Lie all day there In weak spring sunlight. White, firm-muscled, The flesh of his body; Wind, sun, earth In him, possessing him. In his heart A flock of birds crying. In his belly The new grass growing. In his skull Sunlight and silence, Like a vast room Full of sunlight and silence. In the lines of his palms The roads of America, In the knots of his hands The anger of America. In the sweat of his flesh The sorrows of America, In the seed of his loins The glory of America. The sap of the birch-tree Is in his pelt, The maple, the red-bud Are his nails and parings. He grows through the earth and is part of it like the roots of new grass. Little arbutus Delicate, tinted, Tiny, tender, Fragile, immortal. If you can grow, A man can grow Not like others But like a man. Man is a bull But he has not slain you And this man lies Like a lover beside you. Beside the arbutus, The green-leaved Spring, He lies like a lover By his young bride, In the white hour, The white, first waking. 4 They say, they say, they say and let them say. Call you a revolutionist—you were one— A nationalist—you were one—a man of peace, A man describing battles, an old fraud, A Charlus, an adept self-advertiser, A “good, grey poet”—oh, God save us all! God save us from the memoirs and the memories! And yet, they count. They have to. If they didn’t There’d be no Ph.Ds. And each disciple Jealously guards his own particular store Of acorns fallen from the oak’s abundance And spits and scratches at the other gatherers. “I was there when he died!” “He was not there when he died!” “It was me he trusted, me! X got on his nerves! He couldn’t stand X in the room!” “Y’s well-intentioned But a notorious liar—and, as for Z . . .” So all disciples, always and forever. —And the dire court at Longwood, those last years, The skull of Sterne, grinning at the anatomists, Poe’s hospital-bed, the madness of the Dean, The bright, coughing blood Keats wrote in to the girl, The terrible corpse of France, shrunk, naked and solitary— Oh, yes, you were spared some things. Though why did Mrs. Davis sue the estate And what did you mean when you said— And who cares? You’re still the giant lode we quarry For gold, fools’ gold and all the earthy metals, The matchless mine. Still the trail-breaker, still the rolling river. You and your land, your turbulent, seeking land Where anything can grow. And they have wasted the pasture and the fresh valley, Stunk the river, shot the ten thousand sky-darkening pigeons To build sham castles for imitation Medici And the rugged sons of the rugged sons of death. The slum, the sharecropper’s cabin, the senseless tower, The factory town with the dirty stoops of twilight, The yelling cheapness, the bitter want among plenty, But never Monticello, never again. And there are many years in the dust of America And they are not ended yet. Far north, far north are the sources of the great river, The headwaters, the cold lakes, By the little sweet-tasting brooks of the blond country, The country of snow and wheat, Or west among the black mountains, the glacial springs. Far north and west they lie and few come to them, few taste them, But, day and night, they flow south, By the French grave and the Indian, steadily flowing, By the forgotten camps of the broken heart, By the countries of black earth, fertile, and yellow earth and red earth, A growing, a swelling torrent: Rivers meet it, and tiny rivulets, Meet it, stain it, Great rivers, rivers of pride, come bowing their watery heads Like muddy gift-bearers, bringing their secret burdens, Rivers from the high horse-plains and the deep, green Eastern pastures Sink into it and are lost and rejoice and shout with it, shout within it, They and their secret gifts, A fleck of gold from Montana, a sliver of steel from Pittsburgh, A wheat-grain from Minnesota, an apple-blossom from Tennessee, Roiled, mixed with the mud and earth of the changing bottoms In the vast, rending floods, But rolling, rolling from Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Rolling from Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Rolling and shouting: Till, at last, it is Mississippi, The Father of Waters; the matchless; the great flood Dyed with the earth of States; with the dust and the sun and the seed of half the States; The huge heart-vein, pulsing and pulsing; gigantic; ever broader, ever mightier; It rolls past broken landings and camellia-smelling woods; strange birds fly over it; It rolls through the tropic magic, the almost-jungle, the warm darkness breeding the warm, enormous stars; It rolls to the blue Gulf; ocean; and the painted birds fly. The grey moss mixes with it, the hawk’s feather has fallen in it, The cardinal feather, the feather of the small thrush Singing spring to New England, The apple-pip and the pepper-seed and the checkerberry, And always the water flowing, earthy, majestic, Fed with snow and heat, dew and moonlight. Always the wide, sure water, Over the rotted deer-horn The gold, Spanish money, The long-rusted iron of many undertakings, Over De Soto’s bones and Joliet’s wonder, And the long forest-years before them, the brief years after, The broad flood, the eternal motion, the restless-hearted Always, forever, Mississippi, the god. _April, 1935._ METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE It rained quite a lot, that spring. You woke in the morning And saw the sky still clouded, the streets still wet, But nobody noticed so much, except the taxis And the people who parade. You don’t, in a city. The parks got very green. All the trees were green Far into July and August, heavy with leaf, Heavy with leaf and the long roots boring and spreading, But nobody noticed that but the city gardeners And they don’t talk. Oh, on Sundays, perhaps, you’d notice: Walking through certain blocks, by the shut, proud houses With the windows boarded, the people gone away, You’d suddenly see the queerest small shoots of green Poking through cracks and crevices in the stone And a bird-sown flower, red on a balcony, But then you made jokes about grass growing in the streets And politics and grass-roots—and there were songs And gags and a musical show called “Hot and Wet.” It all made a good box for the papers. When the flamingo Flew into a meeting of the Board of Estimate, The new Mayor acted at once and called the photographers. When the first green creeper crawled upon Brooklyn Bridge, They thought it was ornamental. They let it stay. That was the year the termites came to New York And they don’t do well in cold climates—but listen, Joe, They’re only ants and ants are nothing but insects. It was funny and yet rather wistful, in a way (As Heywood Broun pointed out in the _World-Telegram_) To think of them looking for wood in a steel city. It made you feel about life. It was too divine. There were funny pictures by all the smart, funny artists And Macy’s ran a terribly clever ad: “The Widow’s Termite” or something. There was no Disturbance. Even the Communists didn’t protest And say they were Morgan hirelings. It was too hot, Too hot to protest, too hot to get excited, An even, African heat, lush, fertile and steamy, That soaked into bone and mind and never once broke. The warm rain fell in fierce showers and ceased and fell. Pretty soon you got used to its always being that way. You got used to the changed rhythm, the altered beat, To people walking slower, to the whole bright Fierce pulse of the city slowing, to men in shorts, To the new sun-helmets from Best’s and the cops’ white uniforms, And the long noon-rest in the offices, everywhere. It wasn’t a plan or anything. It just happened. The fingers tapped the keys slower, the office-boys Dozed on their benches, the bookkeeper yawned at his desk. The A. T. & T. was the first to change the shifts And establish an official siesta-room, But they were always efficient. Mostly it just Happened like sleep itself, like a tropic sleep, Till even the Thirties were deserted at noon Except for a few tourists and one damp cop. They ran boats to see the big lilies on the North River But it was only the tourists who really noticed The flocks of rose-and-green parrots and parrakeets Nesting in the stone crannies of the Cathedral. The rest of us had forgotten when they first came. There wasn’t any real change, it was just a heat spell, A rain spell, a funny summer, a weather-man’s joke, In spite of the geraniums three feet high In the tin-can gardens of Hester and Desbrosses. New York was New York. It couldn’t turn inside out. When they got the news from Woods Hole about the Gulf Stream, The _Times_ ran an adequate story. But nobody reads those stories but science-cranks. Until, one day, a somnolent city-editor Gave a new cub the termite yarn to break his teeth on. The cub was just down from Vermont, so he took the time. He was serious about it. He went around. He read all about termites in the Public Library And it made him sore when they fired him. So, one evening, Talking with an old watchman, beside the first Raw girders of the new Planetopolis Building (Ten thousand brine-cooled offices, each with shower) He saw a dark line creeping across the rubble And turned a flashlight on it. “Say, buddy,” he said, “You better look out for those ants. They eat wood, you know, They’ll have your shack down in no time.” The watchman spat. “Oh, they’ve quit eating wood,” he said, in a casual voice, “I thought everybody knew that.” —and, reaching down, He pried from the insect jaws the bright crumb of steel. NIGHTMARE, WITH ANGELS An angel came to me and stood by my bedside, Remarking in a professorial-historical-economic and irritated voice, “If the Romans had only invented a decent explosion-engine! Not even the best, not even a Ford V-8 But, say, a Model T or even an early Napier, They’d have built good enough roads for it (they knew how to build roads) From Cape Wrath to Cape St. Vincent, Susa, Babylon and Moscow, And the motorized legions never would have fallen, And peace, in the shape of a giant eagle, would brood over the entire Western World!” He changed his expression, looking now like a combination of Gilbert Murray, Hilaire Belloc and a dozen other scientists, writers, and prophets, And continued, in angelic tones, “If the Greeks had known how to coöperate, if there’d never been a Reformation, If Sparta had not been Sparta, and the Church had been the Church of the saints, The Argive peace like a free-blooming olive-tree, the peace of Christ (who loved peace) like a great, beautiful vine enwrapping the spinning earth! Take it nearer home,” he said. “Take these Mayans and their star-clocks, their carvings and their great cities. Who sacked them out of their cities, drowned the cities with a green jungle? A plague? A change of climate? A queer migration? Certainly they were skilful, certainly they created. And, in Tenochtitlan, the dark obsidian knife and the smoking heart on the stone but a fair city, And the Incas had it worked out beautifully till Pizarro smashed them. The collectivist state was there, and the ladies very agreeable. They lacked steel, alphabet and gunpowder and they had to get married when the government said so. They also lacked unemployment and overproduction. For that matter,” he said, “take the Cro-Magnons, The fellows with the big skulls, the handsome folk, the excellent scribers of mammoths, Physical gods and yet with the sensitive brain (they drew the fine, running reindeer). What stopped them? What kept us all from being Apollos and Aphrodites Only with a new taste to the nectar, The laughing gods, not the cruel, the gods of song, not of war? Supposing Aurelius, Confucius, Napoleon, Plato, Gautama, Alexander— Just to take half a dozen— Had ever realized and stabilized the full dream? How long, O Lord God in the highest? How long, what now, perturbed spirit?” He turned blue at the wingtips and disappeared as another angel approached me. This one was quietly but appropriately dressed in cellophane, synthetic rubber and stainless steel, But his mask was the blind mask of Ares, snouted for gas-masks. He was neither soldier, sailor, farmer, dictator nor munitions-manufacturer. Nor did he have much conversation, except to say, “You will not be saved by General Motors or the pre-fabricated house. You will not be saved by dialectic materialism or the Lambeth Conference. You will not be saved by Vitamin D or the expanding universe. In fact, you will not be saved.” Then he showed his hand: In his hand was a woven, wire basket, full of seeds, small metallic and shining like the seeds of portulaca; Where he sowed them, the green vine withered, and the smoke and the armies sprang up. NIGHTMARE NUMBER THREE We had expected everything but revolt And I kind of wonder myself when they started thinking— But there’s no dice in that now. I’ve heard fellows say They must have planned it for years and maybe they did. Looking back, you can find little incidents here and there, Like the concrete-mixer in Jersey eating the wop Or the roto press that printed “Fiddle-dee-dee!” In a three-color process all over Senator Sloop, Just as he was making a speech. The thing about that Was, how could it walk upstairs? But it was upstairs, Clicking and mumbling in the Senate Chamber. They had to knock out the wall to take it away And the wrecking-crew said it grinned. It was only the best Machines, of course, the superhuman machines, The ones we’d built to be better than flesh and bone, But the cars were in it, of course . . . and they hunted us Like rabbits through the cramped streets on that Bloody Monday, The Madison Avenue busses leading the charge. The busses were pretty bad—but I’ll not forget The smash of glass when the Duesenberg left the show-room And pinned three brokers to the Racquet Club steps Or the long howl of the horns when they saw men run, When they saw them looking for holes in the solid ground . . . I guess they were tired of being ridden in And stopped and started by pygmies for silly ends, Of wrapping cheap cigarettes and bad chocolate bars Collecting nickels and waving platinum hair And letting six million people live in a town. I guess it was that. I guess they got tired of us And the whole smell of human hands. But it was a shock To climb sixteen flights of stairs to Art Zuckow’s office (Nobody took the elevators twice) And find him strangled to death in a nest of telephones, The octopus-tendrils waving over his head, And a sort of quiet humming filling the air. . . . Do they eat? . . . There was red . . . But I did not stop to look. I don’t know yet how I got to the roof in time And it’s lonely, here on the roof. For a while, I thought That window-cleaner would make it, and keep me company. But they got him with his own hoist at the sixteenth floor And dragged him in, with a squeal. You see, they coöperate. Well, we taught them that And it’s fair enough, I suppose. You see, we built them. We taught them to think for themselves. It was bound to come. You can see it was bound to come. And it won’t be so bad, in the country. I hate to think Of the reapers, running wild in the Kansas fields, And the transport planes like hawks on a chickenyard, But the horses might help. We might make a deal with the horses. At least, you’ve more chance, out there. And they need us, too. They’re bound to realize that when they once calm down. They’ll need oil and spare parts and adjustments and tuning up. Slaves? Well, in a way, you know, we were slaves before. There won’t be so much real difference—honest, there won’t. (I wish I hadn’t looked into that beauty-parlor And seen what was happening there. But those are female machines and a bit high-strung.) Oh, we’ll settle down. We’ll arrange it. We’ll compromise. It wouldn’t make sense to wipe out the whole human race. Why, I bet if I went to my old Plymouth now (Of course you’d have to do it the tactful way) And said, “Look here! Who got you the swell French horn?” He wouldn’t turn me over to those police cars; At least I don’t think he would. Oh, it’s going to be jake. There won’t be so much real difference—honest, there won’t— And I’d go down in a minute and take my chance— I’m a good American and I always liked them— Except for one small detail that bothers me And that’s the food proposition. Because, you see, The concrete-mixer may have made a mistake, And it looks like just high spirits. But, if it’s got so they like the flavor . . . well . . . 1936 All night they marched, the infantrymen under pack, But the hands gripping the rifles were naked bone And the hollow pits of the eyes stared, vacant and black, When the moonlight shone. The gas mask lay like a blot on the empty chest, The slanting helmets were spattered with rust and mold, But they burrowed the hill for the machine-gun nest As they had of old. And the guns rolled, and the tanks, but there was no sound, Never the gasp or rustle of living men Where the skeletons strung their wire on disputed ground. . . . I knew them, then. “It is eighteen years,” I cried. “You must come no more.” “We know your names. We know that you are the dead. Must you march forever from France and the last, blind war?” “_Fool! From the next!_” they said. FOR CITY SPRING Now grimy April comes again, Maketh bloom the fire-escapes, Maketh silvers in the rain, Maketh winter coats and capes Suddenly all worn and shabby Like the fur of winter bears, Maketh kittens, maketh baby, Maketh kissing on the stairs. Maketh bug crawl out of crack, Maketh ticklings down the back As if sunlight stroked the spine To a hurdy-gurdy’s whine And the shower ran white wine. April, April, sing cuckoo, April, April, maketh new Mouse and cockroach, man and wife, Everything with blood and life; Bloweth, groweth, flourisheth, Danceth in a ragged skirt On the very stoop of Death And will take no mortal hurt. Maketh dogs to whine and bound, Maketh cats to caterwaul, Maketh lovers, all around, Whisper in the hall. Oh, and when the night comes down And the shrieking of the town Settles to the steady roar Of a long sea-beaten shore, April hieth, April spieth Everywhere a lover lieth, Bringeth sweetness, bringeth fever, Will not stop at “I would liever,” Will not heed, “Now God a mercy!” Turneth Moral topsy-versy, Bringeth he and she to bed, Bringeth ill to maidenhead, Bringeth joyance in its stead. By May, by May, she lieth sped, Yet still we praise that crocus head, April! FOR CITY LOVERS Do not desire to seek who once we were, Or where we did, or what, or in whose name. Those buildings have been torn down. When the first wreckers Tore the house open like a pack of cards And the sun came in all over, everywhere, They found some old newspapers and a cork And footprints on the very dusty floor But neither mouse nor angel. Then even these Went, even the little marks of shabby shoes, The one sharp impress of the naked heel. You cannot call us up there any more. The number has been changed. There was a card Downstairs, with names and such, under the bell. But that’s long gone. Yes, and we, they and you And telegrams and flowers and the years Went up and down these stairs, day after day, And kept the stair-rail polished with our hands. But we have moved to other neighborhoods. Do not arraign that doorsill with your eyes Nor try to make your hardened mind recall How the old windows looked when they were lit Or who the woman was on the third floor. There are no ghosts to raise. There is the blank Face of the stone, the hard line of the street, The boys crying through twilight. That is all. Go buy yourself a drink and talk about it. Carry a humming head home through the rain. But do not wear rosemary, touch cold iron, Or leave out food before you go to bed. For there’s no fear of ghosts. That boy and girl Are dust the sparrows bathe in, under the sun: Under the virgin rock their bones lie sunken Past pave and conduit and hidden waters Stifled like unborn children in the darkness, Past light and speech, cable and rooted steel, Under the caissons, under the foundation. Peace, peace, for there are people with those names Somewhere or elsewhere, and you must not vex Strangers with words about an old address. But, for those others, do not be afraid. They are beyond you. They are too deep down For steel to pierce, for engines to uncover. Not all the desperate splitters of the earth, Nitro or air-drill or the chewing shovel Shall ever mouth them up from where they lie. NIGHTMARE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE That was the second year of the Third World War, The one between Us and Them. Well we’ve gotten used. We don’t talk much about it, queerly enough. There was all sorts of talk the first years after the Peace, A million theories, a million wild suppositions, A million hopeful explanations and plans, But we don’t talk about it, now. We don’t even ask. We might do the wrong thing. I don’t guess you’d understand that. But you’re eighteen, now. You can take it. You’d better know. You see, you were born just before the war broke out. Who started it? Oh, they said it was Us or Them And it looked like it at the time. You don’t know what that’s like. But anyhow, it started and there it was, Just a little worse, of course, than the one before, But mankind was used to that. We didn’t take notice. They bombed our capital and we bombed theirs. You’ve been to the Broken Towns? Yes, they take you there. They show you the look of the tormented earth. But they can’t show the smell or the gas or the death Or how it felt to be there, and a part of it. But we didn’t know. I swear that we didn’t know. I remember the first faint hint there was something wrong, Something beyond all wars and bigger and strange, Something you couldn’t explain. I was back on leave— Strange, as you felt on leave, as you always felt— But I went to see the Chief at the hospital And there he was, in the same old laboratory, A little older, with some white in his hair But the same eyes that went through you and the same tongue. They hadn’t been able to touch him—not the bombs Nor the ruin of his life’s work nor anything. He blinked at me from behind his spectacles And said, “Huh. It’s you. They won’t let me have guinea pigs Except for the war work, but I steal a few. And they’ve made me a colonel—expect me to salute. Damn fools. A damn-fool business. I don’t know how. Have you heard what Erickson’s done with the ductless glands? The journals are four months late. Sit down and smoke.” And I did and it was like home. He was a great man. You might remember that—and I’d worked with him. Well, finally he said to me, “How’s your boy?” “Oh—healthy,” I said. “We’re lucky.” “Yes,” he said, And a frown went over his face. “He might even grow up, Though the intervals between wars are getting shorter. I wonder if it wouldn’t simplify things To declare mankind in a permanent state of siege. It might knock some sense in their heads.” “You’re cheerful,” I said. “Oh, I’m always cheerful,” he said. “Seen these, by the way?” He tapped some charts on a table. “Seen what?” I said. “Oh,” he said, with that devilish, sidelong grin of his, “Just the normal city statistics—death and birth. You’re a soldier now. You wouldn’t be interested. But the birth rate’s dropping—” “Well, really, sir,” I said, “We know that it’s always dropped, in every war.” “Not like this,” he said. “I can show you the curve. It looks like the side of a mountain, going down. And faster, the last three months—yes, a good deal faster. I showed it to Lobenheim and he was puzzled. It makes a neat problem—yes?” He looked at me. “They’d better make peace,” he said. “They’d better make peace.” “Well, sir,” I said, “if we break through, in the spring—” “Break through?” he said. “What’s that? They’d better make peace. The stars may be tired of us. No, I’m not a mystic. I leave that to the big scientists in bad novels. But I never saw such a queer maternity curve. I wish I could get to Ehrens, on their side. He’d tell me the truth. But the fools won’t let me do it.” His eyes looked tired as he stared at the careful charts. “Suppose there are no more babies?” he said. “What then? It’s one way of solving the problem.” “But, sir—” I said. “But, sir!” he said. “Will you tell me, please, what is life? Why it’s given, why it’s taken away? Oh, I know—we make a jelly inside a test tube, We keep a cock’s heart living inside a jar. We know a great many things and what do we know? We think we know what finished the dinosaurs, But do we? Maybe they were given a chance And then it was taken back. There are other beasts That only kill for their food. No, I’m not a mystic, But there’s a certain pattern in nature, you know, And we’re upsetting it daily. Eat and mate And go back to the earth after that, and that’s all right. But now we’re blasting and sickening earth itself. She’s been very patient with us. I wonder how long.” Well, I thought the Chief had gone crazy, just at first, And then I remembered the look of no man’s land, That bitter landscape, pockmarked like the moon, Lifeless as the moon’s face and horrible, The thing we’d made with the guns. If it were earth, It looked as though it hated. “Well?” I said, And my voice was a little thin. He looked hard at me. “Oh—ask the women,” he grunted. “Don’t ask me. Ask them what they think about it.” I didn’t ask them, Not even your mother—she was strange, those days— But, two weeks later, I was back in the lines And somebody sent me a paper— Encouragement for the troops and all of that— All about the fall of Their birth rate on Their side. I guess you know, now. There was still a day when we fought And the next day, the women knew. I don’t know how they knew, But they smashed every government in the world Like a heap of broken china, within two days, And we’d stopped firing by then. And we looked at each other. We didn’t talk much, those first weeks. You couldn’t talk. We started in rebuilding and that was all, And at first, nobody would even touch the guns, Not even to melt them up. They just stood there, silent, Pointing the way they had and nobody there. And there was a kind of madness in the air, A quiet, bewildered madness, strange and shy. You’d pass a man who was muttering to himself And you’d know what he was muttering, and why. I remember coming home and your mother there. She looked at me, at first didn’t speak at all, And then she said, “Burn those clothes. Take them off and burn them Or I’ll never touch you or speak to you again.” And then I knew I was still in my uniform. Well, I’ve told you, now. They tell you now at eighteen. There’s no use telling before. Do you understand? That’s why we have the Ritual of the Earth, The Day of Sorrow, the other ceremonies. Oh yes, at first people hated the animals Because they still bred, but we’ve gotten over that. Perhaps they can work it better, when it’s their turn, If it’s their turn—I don’t know. I don’t know at all. You can call it a virus, of course, if you like the word, But we haven’t been able to find it. Not yet. No. It isn’t as if it had happened all at once. There were a few children born in the last six months Before the end of the war, so there’s still some hope. But they’re almost grown. That’s the trouble. They’re almost grown. Well, we had a long run. That’s something. At first they thought There might be a nation somewhere—a savage tribe. But we were all in it, even the Eskimos, And we keep the toys in the stores, and the colored books, And people marry and plan and the rest of it, But, you see, there aren’t any children. They aren’t born. MINOR LITANY This being a time confused and with few clear stars, Either private ones or public, Out of its darkness I make a litany For the lost, for the half-lost, for the desperate, For all of those who suffer, not in the flesh. I will say their name, but not yet. This is for those Who talk to the bearded man in the quiet office, Sensibly, calmly, explaining just how it was, And suddenly burst into noisy, quacking tears; For those who live through the party, wishing for death; For those who take the sensible country walks, Wondering if people stare; For those who try to hook rugs in the big, bright room And do it badly and are pleased with the praise; For the night and the fear and the demons of the night; For the lying back on the couch and the wincing talk. This is for those who work and those who may not, For those who suddenly come to a locked door, And the work falls out of their hands; For those who step off the pavement into hell, Having not observed the red light and the warning signals Because they were busy or ignorant or proud. This is for those who are bound in the paper chains That are stronger than links of iron; this is for those Who each day heave the papier-mache rock Up the huge and burning hill, And there is no rock and no hill, but they do not know it. This is for those who wait till six for the drink, Till eleven for the tablet; And for those who cannot wait but go to the darkness; And for those who long for the darkness but do not go, Who walk to the window and see the body falling, Hear the thud of air in the ears, And then turn back to the room and sit down again, None having observed the occurrence but themselves. Christ, have mercy upon us. Freud, have mercy upon us. Life, have mercy upon us. This is for those Who painfully haul the dark fish out of the dark, The child’s old nightmare, embalmed in its own pain, And, after that, get well or do not get well, But do not forget the sulphur in the mouth Or the time when the world was different, not for a while. And for those also, the veterans Of another kind of war, Who say “No thanks” to the cocktails, who say “No thanks. Well, yes, give me Coca-Cola” with the trained smile, Those who hid the bottles so cleverly in the trunk, Who bribed the attendant, who promised to be good, Who woke in the dirty bed in the unknown town. They are cured, now, very much cured. They are tanned and fine. Their eyes are their only scars. This is for those with the light white scars on the wrists, Who remember the smell of gas and the vomiting, And it meant little and it is a well-known symptom And they were always careful to phone, before. Nevertheless, they remember. This is for those Who heard the music suddenly get too loud, Who could not alter the fancy when it came. Chloral, have mercy upon us. Amytal, have mercy upon us. Nembutal, have mercy upon us. This occurs more or less than it did in the past times. There are statistics. There are no real statistics. There is also no heroism. There is merely Fatigue, pain, great confusion, sometimes recovery. The name, as you know, is Legion. What’s your name, friend? Where are you from and how did you get here? The name is Legion. It’s Legion in the case history. Friends, Romans, countrymen, Mr. and Mrs. Legion is the name. NIGHTMARE AT NOON There are no trenches dug in the park, not yet. There are no soldiers falling out of the sky. It’s a fine, clear day, in the park. It is bright and hot. The trees are in full, green, summer-heavy leaf. An airplane drones overhead but no one’s afraid. There’s no reason to be afraid, in a fine, big city That was not built for a war. There is time and time. There was time in Norway and time, and the thing fell. When they woke, they saw the planes with the black crosses. When they woke, they heard the guns rolling in the street. They could not believe, at first. It was hard to believe. They had been friendly and thriving and inventive. They had had good arts, decent living, peace for years. Those were not enough, it seems. There were people there who wrote books and painted pictures, Worked, came home tired, liked to be let alone. They made fun of the strut and the stamp and the strained salute, They made fun of the would-be Caesars who howl and foam. That was not enough, it seems. It was not enough. When they woke, they saw the planes with the black crosses. There is grass in the park. There are children on the long meadow Watched by some hot, peaceful nuns. Where the ducks are fed There are black children and white and the anxious teachers Who keep counting them like chickens. It’s quite a job To take so many school-kids out to the park, But when they’ve eaten their picnic, they’ll go home. (And they could have better homes, in a rich city.) But they won’t be sent to Kansas or Michigan At twenty-four hours’ notice, Dazed, bewildered, clutching their broken toys, Hundreds on hundreds filling the blacked-out trains. Just to keep them safe, just so they may live not die. Just so there’s one chance that they may not die but live. That does not enter our thoughts. There is plenty of time. In Holland, one hears, some children were less lucky. It was hard to send them anywhere in Holland. It is a small country, you see. The thing happened quickly. The bombs from the sky are quite indifferent to children. The machine-gunners do not distinguish. In Rotterdam One quarter of the city was blown to bits. That included, naturally, ordinary buildings With the usual furnishings, such as cats and children. It was an old, peaceful city, Rotterdam, Clean, tidy, full of flowers. But that was not enough, it seems. It was not enough to keep all the children safe. It was ended in a week, and the freedom ended. There is no air-raid siren yet, in the park. All the glass still stands, in the windows around the park. The man on the bench is reading a Yiddish paper. He will not be shot because of that, oddly enough. He will not even be beaten or imprisoned. Not yet, not yet. You can be a Finn or a Dane and an American. You can be German or French and an American, Jew, Bohunk, Nigger, Mick—all the dirty names We call each other—and yet American. We’ve stuck to that quite a while. Go into Joe’s Diner and try to tell the truckers You belong to a Master Race and you’ll get a laugh. _What’s that, brother? Double-talk?_ _I’m a stranger here myself but it’s a free country._ _It’s a free country . . ._ Oh yes, I know the faults and the other side, The lyncher’s rope, the bought justice, the wasted land, The scale on the leaf, the borers in the corn, The finks with their clubs, the grey sky of relief, All the long shame of our hearts and the long disunion. I am merely remarking—as a country, we try. As a country, I think we try. They tried in Spain but the tanks and the planes won out. They fought very well and long. They fought to be free but it seems that was not enough. They did not have the equipment. So they lost. They tried in Finland. The resistance was shrewd, Skilful, intelligent, waged by a free folk. They tried in Greece, and they threw them back for a while By the soul and spirit and passion of common men. Call the roll of fourteen nations. Call the roll Of the blacked-out lands, the lands that used to be free. But do not call it loud. There is plenty of time. There is plenty of time, while the bombs on London fall And turn the world to wind and water and fire. There is time to sleep while the fire-bombs fall on London. They are stubborn people in London. We are slow to wake, good-natured as a country. (It is our fault and our virtue.) We like to raise A man to the highest power and then throw bricks at him. We don’t like war and we like to speak our minds. We’re used to speaking our minds. There are certain words, Our own and others’, we’re used to—words we’ve used, Heard, had to recite, forgotten, Rubbed shiny in the pocket, left home for keepsakes, Inherited, stuck away in the back-drawer, In the locked trunk, at the back of the quiet mind. Liberty, equality, fraternity. To none will we sell, refuse or deny, right or justice. We hold these truths to be self-evident. I am merely saying—what if these words pass? What if they pass and are gone and are no more, Eviscerated, blotted out of the world? We’re used to them, so used that we half-forget, The way you forget the looks of your own house And yet you can walk around it, in the darkness. You can’t put a price on sunlight or the air, You can’t put a price on these, so they must be easy. They were bought with belief and passion, at great cost. They were bought with the bitter and anonymous blood Of farmers, teachers, shoemakers and fools Who broke the old rule and the pride of kings. And some never saw the end and many were weary, Some doubtful, many confused. They were bought by the ragged boys at Valmy mill, The yokels at Lexington with the long light guns And the dry, New England faces, The iron barons, writing a charter out For their own iron advantage, not the people, And yet the people got it into their hands And marked it with their own sweat. It took long to buy these words. It took a long time to buy them and much pain. Thenceforward and forever free. Thenceforward and forever free. No man may be bound or fined or slain till he has been judged by his peers. To form a more perfect Union. The others have their words too, and strong words, Strong as the tanks, explosive as the bombs. The State is all, worship the State! The Leader is all, worship the Leader! Strength is all, worship strength! Worship, bow down or die! I shall go back through the park to my safe house, This is not London or Paris. This is the high, bright city, the lucky place, The place that always had time. The boys in their shirtsleeves here, the big, flowering girls, The bicycle-riders, the kids with the model planes, The lovers who lie on the grass, uncaring of eyes, As if they lay on an island out of time, The tough kids, squirting the water at the fountain, Whistled at by the cop. The dopes who write “Jimmy’s a dope” on the tunnel walls. These are all quite safe and nothing will happen to them. Nothing will happen, of course. Go tell Frank the Yanks aren’t coming, in Union Square. Go tell the new brokers’ story about the President. Whatever it is. That’s going to help a lot. There’s time to drink your highball—plenty of time. Go tell fire it only burns in another country, Go tell the bombers this is the wrong address, The hurricane to pass on the other side. Go tell the earthquake it must not shake the ground. The bell has rung in the night and the air quakes with it. I shall not sleep tonight when I hear the plane. _1940._ [Illustration] _LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE_ [Illustration] _Listen to the People:_ _Independence Day, 1941_ * * * * * _NARRATOR:_ This is Independence Day, Fourth of July, the day we mean to keep, Whatever happens and whatever falls Out of a sky grown strange; This is firecracker day for sunburnt kids, The day of the parade, Slambanging down the street. Listen to the parade! There’s J. K. Burney’s float, Red-white-and-blue crepe-paper on the wheels, The Fire Department and the local Grange, There are the pretty girls with their hair curled Who represent the Thirteen Colonies, The Spirit of East Greenwich, Betsy Ross, Democracy, or just some pretty girls. There are the veterans and the Legion Post (Their feet are going to hurt when they get home), The band, the flag, the band, the usual crowd, Good-humored, watching, hot, Silent a second as the flag goes by, Kidding the local cop and eating popsicles, Jack Brown and Rosie Shapiro and Dan Shay, Paul Bunchick and the Greek who runs the Greek’s, The black-eyed children out of Sicily, The girls who giggle and the boys who push, All of them there and all of them a nation. And, afterwards, There’ll be ice-cream and fireworks and a speech By Somebody the Honorable Who, The lovers will pair off in the kind dark And Tessie Jones, our honor-graduate, Will read the Declaration. That’s how it is. It’s always been that way. That’s our Fourth of July, through war and peace, That’s our Fourth of July. And a lean farmer on a stony farm Came home from mowing, buttoned up his shirt And walked ten miles to town, Musket in hand. He didn’t know the sky was falling down And, it may be, he didn’t know so much. But people oughtn’t to be pushed around By kings or any such. A workman in the city dropped his tools. An ordinary, small-town kind of man Found himself standing in the April sun, One of a ragged line Against the skilled professionals of war, The matchless infantry who could not fail, Not for the profit, not to conquer worlds, Not for the pomp or the heroic tale But first, and principally, since he was sore. They could do things in quite a lot of places. They shouldn’t do them here, in Lexington. He looked around and saw his neighbors’ faces. . . . _AN ANGRY VOICE:_ _Disperse, ye villains! Damn you, why don’t you disperse?_ _A CALM VOICE:_ _Stand your ground, men. Don’t fire unless fired upon. But, if they mean to have a war, let it begin here!_ _NARRATOR, RESUMING:_ Well, that was that. And later, when he died Of fever or a bullet in the guts, Bad generalship, starvation, dirty wounds Or any one of all the thousand things That kill a man in wars, He didn’t die handsome but he did die free And maybe that meant something. It could be. Oh, it’s not pretty! Say it all you like! It isn’t a bit pretty. Not one bit. But that is how the liberty was won. That paid for the firecrackers and the band. _A YOUNG VOICE, RADICAL:_ Well, what do you mean, you dope? Don’t you know this is an imperialist, capitalist country, don’t you? Don’t you know it’s all done with mirrors and the bosses get the gravy, don’t you? Suppose some old guy with chin whiskers did get his pants shot off at a place called Lexington? What does it mean to me? _AN OLDER VOICE, CONSERVATIVE:_ My dear fellow, I myself am a son of a son of a son of the American Revolution, But I can only view the present situation with the gravest alarm, Because we are rapidly drifting into a dictatorship And it isn’t my kind of dictatorship, what’s more. The Constitution is dead and labor doesn’t know its place, And then there’s all that gold buried at Fort Knox And the taxes—oh, oh, oh! Why, what’s the use of a defense-contract if you can’t make money out of your country? Things are bad—things are very bad. Already my Aunt Emmeline has had to shoot her third footman. (He broke his leg passing cocktails and it was really a kindness.) And, if you let the working-classes buy coal, they’ll only fill it with bathtubs. Don’t you realize the gravity of the situation, don’t you? Won’t you hide your head in a bucket and telegraph your congressman, opposing everything possible, including peace and war? _A TOTALITARIAN VOICE, PERSUASIVE:_ My worthy American listeners, I am giving you one more chance. Don’t you know that we are completely invincible, don’t you? Won’t you just admit that we are the wave of the future, won’t you? You are a very nice, mongrel, disgusting people— But, naturally, you need new leadership. We can supply it. We’ve sent the same brand to fourteen nations. It comes in the shape of a bomb and it beats as it sweeps as it cleans. For those of you who like order, we can supply order. We give the order. You take it. For those of you who like efficiency, we can supply efficiency. Look what we did to Coventry and Rotterdam! For those of you who like Benito Mussolini, we can supply Benito Mussolini. (He’s three doors down to the left, at the desk marked second Vice President.) Now be sensible—give up this corrupt and stupid nonsense of democracy, And you can have the crumbs from our table and a trusty’s job in our world-jail. _RADICAL VOICE:_ Forget everything but the class-struggle. Forget democracy. _CONSERVATIVE VOICE:_ Hate and distrust your own government. Whisper, hate and never look forward. Look back wistfully to the good old, grand old days—the days when the boys said “The public be damned!” and got away with it. Democracy’s a nasty word, invented by the Reds. _TOTALITARIAN VOICE:_ Just a little collaboration and you too can be part of the New Order. You too can have fine new concentration camps and shoes made out of wood pulp. You too can be as peaceful as Poland, as happy and gay as France. Just a little collaboration. We have so many things to give you. We can give you your own Hess, your own Himmler, your own Goering—all home grown and wrapped in cellophane. We’ve done it elsewhere. If you’ll help, we can do it here. _RADICAL VOICE:_ Democracy’s a fake— _CONSERVATIVE:_ Democracy’s a mistake— _TOTALITARIAN:_ Democracy is finished. We are the future. (MUSIC UP AND OMINOUS) _NARRATOR, RESUMING:_ The sky is dark, now, over the parade, The sky’s an altered sky, a sky that might be. There’s J. K. Burney’s float With funny-colored paper on the wheels Or no—excuse me—used to be J. K.’s. But the store’s under different management Like quite a lot of stores. You see, J. K. got up in church one day, After it all had happened and walked out, The day they instituted the new order. They had a meeting. Held it in the church. He just walked out. That’s all. That’s all there is to say about J. K., Though I remember just the way he looked, White-faced and chin stuck out. I think they could have let the church alone. It’s kind of dreary, shutting up the church. But don’t you say I said so. Don’t you say! Listen to the parade! There are the pretty girls with their hair curled, Back from the labor camp. They represent the League of Strength Through Joy. At least, I guess it’s that. No, they don’t go to high-school any more. They get told where they go. We all get told. And, now and then, it happens like Jack Brown, Nice fellow, Jack. Ran the gas-station here. But he was married to a You-Know-Who. Fond of her, too. I don’t know why we never used to mind. Why, she walked round like anybody else, Kept her kids clean and joined the Ladies’ Social. Just shows you, doesn’t it? But that’s all done. And you won’t see her in the crowd today, Her or the kids or Jack, Unless you look six feet under the ground, The lime-washed ground, the bitter prison ground That hides the martyrs and the innocent, And you won’t see Dan Shay. Dan was a Union man And now we don’t have Unions any more. They wouldn’t even let him take his specs, The day the troopers came around for him. And yet he needed specs. He had grey hair. Funny—you keep remembering things like that. Maybe he’s still alive. It’s hard to say. (Half hysterically) Listen to the parade! The marching, marching, marching feet, All with the same hard stamp! The bands, the bands, the bands, the flags, the flags, The sharp, mechanical, inhuman cheer Dragged from the straining throats of the stiff crowd! It’s Independence—sorry, my mistake! It’s National Day—the Day of the New Order! We let it happen—we forgot the old, Bleak words of common sense, “Unite or Die,” We fiddled and we squabbled and we scrapped, We led a filibuster in the Senate, We were quite ready for a sacrifice Sometime, next Tuesday—but not yet, not now! And the clock struck—and the bad dream was here. _A VOICE:_ But you can’t do this to me! I subscribed to the Party funds! _A VOICE:_ You can’t do this to me. We got laws. We got courts. We got unions. _A VOICE:_ You can’t do this to me. Why, I believe in Karl Marx! _A VOICE:_ You can’t do this to me. The Constitution forbids it. _A VOICE:_ I was always glad to coöperate. _A VOICE:_ It looked to me like good business. _A VOICE:_ It looked to me like the class struggle. _A VOICE:_ It looked to me like peace in our time. _TOTALITARIAN VOICE:_ Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Democracy is finished. You are finished. We are the present! (MUSIC UP AND DOWN) _NARRATOR:_ That is one voice. You’ve heard it. Don’t forget it. And don’t forget it can be slick or harsh, Violent or crooning, but it’s still the same And it means death. Are there no other voices? None at all? No voice at all out of the long parade That marched so many years, Out of the passion of the Puritans, The creaking of the wagons going west, The guns of Sharpsburg, the unnumbered dead, Out of the baffled and bewildered hosts Who came here for a freedom hardly known, Rebel and exile, bondservant and outcast. Out of the bowels of the immigrant ship, The strange, sick voyage, the cheating and the scorn And yet, at the end, Liberty. Liberty with a torch in her right hand, Whoever cheated and whoever lied, Liberty for my children, Liberty Slowly worked out, deceived a thousand times, But never quite forgotten, always growing, Growing like wheat and corn. “I remember a man named Abe Lincoln. I remember the words he used to say.” Oh, we can call on Lincoln and Tom Paine, Adams and Jefferson. Call on the great words spoken that remain Like the great stars of evening, the fixed stars, But that is not enough. The dead are mighty and are part of us And yet the dead are dead. This is our world, Our time, our choice, our anguish, our decision. This is our world. We have to make it now, A hundred and thirty millions of us have to And make it well, or suffer the bad dream. What have we got to say? _A WOMAN’S VOICE:_ I don’t know. I’m a woman with a house. I do my work. I take care of my man. I’ve got a right to say how things should be. I’ve got a right to have my kids grow up The way they ought to grow. Don’t stop me there. Don’t tread on me, don’t hinder me, don’t cross me. I made my kids myself. I haven’t got Big words to tell about them. But, if you ask about democracy, Democracy’s the growing and the bearing, Mouth at the breast and child still to be born. Democracy is kids and the green grass. _NARRATOR:_ What have we got to say, People, you people? _MAN’S VOICE:_ I guess I haven’t thought about it much. I been too busy. Way I figure it It’s this way. We’ve got something. If it’s crummy The bunch of us can change what we don’t like In our own way and mean it. I got a cousin back in the old country. He says it’s swell there but he couldn’t change A button on his pants without an order From somebody’s pet horse. Maybe he likes it. I’m sticking here. That’s all. Well, sign me off. _NARRATOR:_ People, you people, living everywhere, Sioux Falls and Saugatuck and Texarkana, Memphis and Goshen, Harrodsburg and Troy, People who live at postmarks with queer names, Blue Eye and Rawhide, Santa Claus and Troublesome, People by rivers, people of the plains, People whose contour-plows bring back the grass To a dust-bitten and dishonored earth, And those who farm the hillside acres still And raise up fortitude between the stones, Millions in cities, millions in the towns, People who spit a mile from their front doors And gangling kids, ballplaying in the street, All races and all stocks, all creeds and cries, And yet one people, one, and always striving. . . . _A MAN:_ I’m on relief. I know what they say about us on relief, Those who never were there. All the same, we made the park. We made the road and the check-dam and the culvert. Our names are not on the tablets. Forget our names. But, when you drive on the road, remember us, also. Remember Johnny Lombardo and his pick, Remember us, when you build democracy, For we, too, were part and are part. _NARRATOR:_ One nation, one. And the voices of young and old, of all who have faith, Jostling and mingling, speaking from the ground, Speaking from the old houses and the pride, Speaking from the deep hollows of the heart. _MAN’S VOICE:_ I was born in ’63. There were many then who despaired of the Republic, Many fine and solid citizens. They had good and plausible reasons and were eloquent. I grew up in the Age of Brass, the Age of Steel. I have known and heard of three wars. All through my life, whenever the skies were dark, There came to me many fine and solid citizens, Wringing their hands, despairing of the Republic, Because of an income tax or a depression, Because their party had lost the last election, Because we couldn’t do this and shouldn’t do that. And yet, each time, I saw the Republic grow Like a great elm tree, through each fault and failure, The stubborn rock, the parched soil, And spread its branches over all the people. Look at the morning sun. There is the Republic. Not yesterday, but there, the breaking day. _TOTALITARIAN VOICE:_ But, my worthy American listeners, All this is degenerate talk. The future rolls like a wave and you cannot fight it. _A VOICE:_ Who says we can’t? _A VOICE:_ Who says so? _A VOICE:_ What’s his racket? _A VOICE:_ How does he get that way? _A VOICE:_ You mean to tell me A little shrimp like that could run the world, A guy with a trick moustache and a bum salute Run us, run you and me? _TOTALITARIAN VOICE:_ You mistake me. Others have often made the same mistake Often and often and in many countries. I never play upon a people’s strength. I play upon their weaknesses and fears. I make their doubts my allies and my spies. I have a most convincing mask of peace Painted by experts, for one kind of sucker, And for another—I’m a business man, Straight from the shoulder, talking trade and markets And much misunderstood. I touch this man upon his pocketbook, That man upon his hatred for his boss, That man upon his fear. I offer everything, for offering’s cheap. I make no claims until I make the claims. I’m always satisfied until I’m not Which happens rather rapidly to those Who think I could be satisfied with less Than a dismembered and digested world. My secret weapon is no secret weapon. It is to turn all men against all men For my own purposes. It is to use Good men to do my work without their knowledge, Not only the secret traitor and the spy. It is to raise a question and a doubt Where there was faith. It is to subjugate Men’s minds before their bodies feel the steel. It is to use All envy, all despair, all prejudice For my own work. If you’ve an envy or a prejudice A nicely grown, well-rounded piece of hate, I’ll play on it and use it to your ruin. My generals are General Distrust, General Fear, General Half-A-Heart, General It’s-Too-Late, General Greed and Major-General Hate, And they go walking in civilian clothes In your own streets and whisper in your ears. I won’t be beaten just by sitting tight. They tried that out in France. I won’t be beaten By hiding in the dark and making faces, And certainly I never will be beaten By those who rather like my kind of world, Or, if not like it, think that it must come, Those who have wings and burrow in the ground. For I’m not betting only on the tanks, The guns, the planes, the bombers, But on your own division and disunion. On your own minds and hearts to let me in, For, if that happens, all I wish for happens. So what have you to say? What have you got to bet against my bet? Where’s your one voice? _AMERICAN VOICE:_ Our voice is not one voice but many voices. Not one man’s, not the greatest, but the people’s. The blue sky and the forty-eight States of the people. Many in easy times but one in the pinch And that’s what some folks forget. Our voice is all the objectors and dissenters And they sink and are lost in the groundswell of the people, Once the people rouse, once the people wake and listen. People, you people, growing everywhere, What have you got to say? There’s a smart boy here with a question and he wants answers. What have you got to say? _A VOICE:_ We are the people. Listen to us now. _A VOICE:_ Says you we’re puny? We built Boulder Dam, We built Grand Coulee and the T. V. A. We built them out of freedom and our sweat. _VOICE:_ Says you we’re faint of heart and little of mind? We poured like wheat through the gaps of the Appalachians. We made the seas of wheat, the seas of corn. We made five States a sea of wheat and corn. _VOICE, LAUGHING:_ We built the cities and the skyscrapers, All the proud steel. We built them up so high The eagles lost their way. _VOICE:_ That’s us. When did you do a job like that? _VOICE:_ Wasn’t enough. _VOICE:_ No, and you bet it wasn’t. Not with the apple-sellers in the streets, Not with the empty shops, the hungry men. _VOICE:_ But we learned some things in that darkness and kept free. We didn’t fold up and yell for a dictator. We built, even in the darkness. We learned our trade By the licks we took and we’re building different now. _VOICE:_ We lost our way for a while but we’ve found our way. We know it and we’ll hold it and we’ll keep it. We’ll tell it to the world. We’re saying it. _VOICE:_ Freedom to speak and pray. _VOICE:_ Freedom from want and fear. _VOICE:_ That’s what we’re building. _VOICE:_ Now and here and now. _VOICE:_ Forever and forever and forever. _NARRATOR:_ People, you people, risen and awake. . . . _VOICE:_ That’s what we’re building and we’ll build it here. That’s what we’re building and we’ll build it now, Build it and make it shine across the world, A refuge and a fortress and a hope, Breaking old chains and laughing in the sun. This is the people’s cause, the people’s might. We have set up a standard for the free And it shall not go down. That’s why we drill the plate and turn the wheel, Build the big planes. That’s why a million and a half of us Learn here and now how free men stand in arms. Don’t tread on us, don’t hinder us, don’t cross us. We won’t have tyranny here. _VOICE:_ We don’t give one long low hoot for your master race. We think your slick new order’s a bowl of raspberries. We’ll pick the small and the free and the enduring, Wherever we find them and wherever they are. We won’t have tyranny here. _VOICE:_ We’ll stick by Rosie Shapiro and Dan Shay, Paul Bunchick and the Greek who runs the Greek’s, And all of ’em like that, wherever they are. We’ll stick by the worn old stones in Salem churchyard, The Jamestown church and the bones of the Alamo. We won’t have tyranny here. _VOICE:_ It’s a long way out of the past and a long way forward. It’s a tough way, too, and there’s plenty of trouble in it. It’s a black storm crowding the sky and a cold wind blowing, Blowing upon us all. See it and face it. That’s the way it is. That’s the way it’ll be for a time and a time. Even the easy may have little ease. Even the meek may suffer in their meekness. But we’ve ridden out storms before and we’ll ride out this one, Ride it out and get through. It won’t be done by the greedy and the go-easies. The stuffed shirts, the “yes but” men and the handsome phonies, The men who want to live in their father’s pockets, The folks who barely believe and the bitter few. It’ll be done by the river of the people, The mountain of the people, the great plain Grown to the wheat of the people, Plowed by their suffering, harrowed by their hope, Tall with their endless future. It’ll be done by the proud walker, Democracy, The walker in proud shoes. Get on your feet, Americans, and say it! Forget your grievances, wherever you are, The little yesterday’s hates and the last year’s discord. This is your land, this is your independence, This is the people’s cause, the people’s might. Say it and speak it loud, United, free. . . . _MANY VOICES:_ United, free. _VOICE:_ Whatever happens and whatever falls. We pledge ourselves to liberty and faith. _MANY VOICES:_ To liberty and faith. _VOICE:_ We pledge ourselves to justice, law and hope And a free government by our own men For us, our children and our children’s children. _MANY VOICES:_ For us, our children and our children’s children. _VOICE:_ Not for an old dead world but a new world rising. _VOICE:_ For the toil, the struggle, the hope and the great goal. (MUSIC UP AND DOWN) _NARRATOR:_ You’ve heard the long parade And all the voices that cry out against it, Some of our own, and one that’s not our own And never will be while we’re still the people. (Quietly) What do the people say? Well, you’ve just heard some questions and some answers, Not all, of course. No man can say that’s all. A man’s a humbug if he says that’s all. But look in your own minds and memories And find out what you find and what you’d keep. It’s time we did that and it won’t be earlier. I don’t know what each one of you will find, What memory, what token, what tradition, It may be only half a dozen words Carved on a stone, carved deeper in the heart, It might be all a life, but look and find it— Sun on Key West, snow on New Hampshire hills, Warm rain on Georgia and the Texas wind Blowing across an empire and all part, All one, all indivisible and one— Find it and keep it and hold on to it, For there’s a buried thing in all of us, Deeper than all the noise of the parade, The thing the haters never understand And never will, the habit of the free. Out of the flesh, out of the minds and hearts Of thousand upon thousand common men, Cranks, martyrs, starry-eyed enthusiasts Slow-spoken neighbors, hard to push around, Women whose hands were gentle with their kids And men with a cold passion for mere justice. We made this thing, this dream. This land unsatisfied by little ways, Open to every man who brought good will, This peaceless vision, groping for the stars, Not as a huge devouring machine Rolling and clanking with remorseless force Over submitted bodies and the dead But as live earth where anything could grow, Your crankiness, my notions and his dream, Grow and be looked at, grow and live or die. But get their chance of growing and the sun. We made it and we make it and it’s ours. We shall maintain it. It shall be sustained. _ALL VOICES UP:_ WE SHALL MAINTAIN IT. IT SHALL BE SUSTAINED. (MUSIC UP TO CLIMAX) (CURTAIN) [The end of _Selected Works of Stephen Vincent Benét, Volume One: Poetry_ by Stephen Vincent Benét]