A Dirge for Two Veterans
by Walt Whitman
THE last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish'd Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.
Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they're flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.
For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)
Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin'd,
('Tis some mother's large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)
O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.
Labels: poetry
4 Comments:
Officials at Redstone Arsenal announced that something like 15,000 employees will be affected by sequestration. I would hazard a wild guess that most of them voted Republican in the last few elections, and many of them thought sequestration was a nifty idea. Up until now, when the piper's bill is due.
I'm convinced the whole thing was driven by the GOP's conviction that Obama was a one-term president. President Romney (or whoever) would have summarily dealt with the whole issue before the deadline hit.
And of course, all those who don't work for the government are going to discover what happens when 15,000 people have 20% less money to spend.
Absolutely. Federal employment is the engine that drives the Huntsville area. If not for that, Huntsville would be a small, sleepy, poor cotton town. Still voting Republican, of course.
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