A Twilight Song

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A Twilight Song Lyrics

As I sit in twilight late alone by the flickering oak-flame,
Musing on long-pass'd war-scenes—of the countless buried unknown
         soldiers,
Of the vacant names, as unindented air's and sea's—the unreturn'd,
The brief truce after battle, with grim burial-squads, and the
         deep-fill'd trenches
Of gather'd from dead all America, North, South, East, West, whence
        they came up,
From wooded Maine, New-England's farms, from fertile Pennsylvania,
         Illinois, Ohio,
From the measureless West, Virginia, the South, the Carolinas, Texas,
(Even here in my room-shadows and half-lights in the noiseless
         flickering flames,
Again I see the stalwart ranks on-filing, rising—I hear the
         rhythmic tramp of the armies;)
You million unwrit names all, all—you dark bequest from all the war,
A special verse for you—a flash of duty long neglected—your mystic
        roll strangely gather'd here,
Each name recall'd by me from out the darkness and death's ashes,
Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my heart recording, for many
        future year,
Your mystic roll entire of unknown names, or North or South,
Embalm'd with love in this twilight song.

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Leaves of Grass (1855)

Walt Whitman

1.
One’s-Self I Sing
2.
As I Ponder’d in Silence
3.
In Cabin’d Ships at Sea
4.
To Foreign Lands
5.
To a Historian
6.
To Thee Old Cause
7.
Eidolons
8.
For Him I Sing
9.
When I Read the Book
10.
Beginning My Studies
11.
Beginners
12.
To the States
13.
On Journeys Through the States
14.
To a Certain Cantatrice
15.
Me Imperturbe
16.
Savantism
17.
The Ship Starting
19.
What Place Is Besieged?
20.
Still Though the One I Sing
21.
Shut Not Your Doors
22.
Poets to Come
23.
Leaves of Grass (To You)
24.
Thou Reader
25.
Starting from Paumanok
26.
Song of Myself
27.
To the Garden the World
28.
From Pent-Up Aching Rivers
32.
One Hour to Madness and Joy
33.
Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd
34.
Ages and Ages Returning at Intervals
35.
We Two, How Long We Were Fool’d
36.
O Hymen! O Hymenee!
37.
I Am He That Aches with Love
38.
Native Moments
39.
Once I Pass’d Through a Populour City
40.
I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ
41.
Facing West from California’s Shores
42.
As Adam Early in the Morning
43.
In Paths Untrodden
44.
Scented Herbage of My Breast
47.
These I Singing in Spring
48.
Not Heaving from My Ribb’d Breast Only
49.
Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances
50.
The Base of All Metaphysics
51.
Recorders Ages Hence
52.
When I Heard at the Close of the Day
53.
Are You the New person Drawn Toward Me?
54.
Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone
55.
Not Heat Flames Up and Consumes
56.
Trickle Drops
57.
City of Orgies
58.
Behold This Swarthy Face
59.
I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing
60.
To a Stranger
61.
This Moment Yearning and Thoughtful
62.
I Hear It Was Charged Against Me
63.
The Prairie-Grass Dividing
64.
When I Peruse the Conquer’d Fame
65.
We Two Boys Together Clinging
66.
A Promise to California
67.
Here the Frailest Leaves of Me
68.
No Labor-Saving Machine
71.
Earth, My Likeness
72.
I Dream’d in a Dream
73.
What Think You I Take My Pen in Hand?
74.
To the East and to the West
76.
To a Western Boy
77.
Fast Anchor’d Eternal O Love!
79.
O You Whom I Often and Silently Come
80.
That Shadow My Likeness
81.
Full of Life Now
82.
Salut au Monde!
83.
Song of the Open Road
84.
Leaves Of Grass (Crossing Brooklyn Ferry)
85.
Song of the Answerer
86.
Our Old Feuillage
87.
A Song of Joys
88.
Song of the Broad-Axe
89.
Song of the Exposition
90.
Song of the Redwood-Tree
91.
A Song for Occupations
92.
A Song of the Rolling Earth
93.
Youth, Day, Old Age and Night
94.
Song of the Universal
95.
Leaves of Grass (Pioneers! O Pioneers! )
96.
To You II
97.
France [the 18th Year of these States]
98.
Myself and Mine
99.
Year of Meteors [1859-60]
100.
With Antecedents
101.
A Broadway Pageant
103.
As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life
104.
Tears
105.
To the Man-of-War-Bird
106.
Aboard at a Ship’s Helm
107.
On the Beach at Night
110.
Song for All Seas, All Ships
111.
Patroling Barnegat
112.
After the Sea-Ship
114.
Europe [The 72d and 73d Years of These States]
116.
Gods
117.
Germs
118.
Thoughts
119.
Perfections
121.
To a President
122.
I Sit and Look Out
123.
To Rich Givers
124.
The Dalliance of the Eagles
125.
Roaming in Thought [After reading Hegel]
128.
The Runner
129.
Beautiful Women
130.
Mother and Babe
131.
Thought
132.
Visor’d
133.
Thought-II
134.
Gliding O’er all
135.
Hast Never Come to Thee an Hour
136.
Thought-III
137.
To Old Age
138.
Locations and Times
139.
Offerings
140.
To The States [To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad]
141.
First O Songs for a Prelude
142.
Eighteen Sixty-One
143.
Beat! Beat! Drums!
144.
From Paumanok Starting I Fly Like a Bird
145.
Song of the Banner at Daybreak
146.
Rise O Days from Your Fathomless Deeps
147.
Virginia—The West
148.
City of Ships
149.
The Centenarian’s Story
150.
Cavalry Crossing a Ford
151.
Leaves of Grass (Bivouac on a Mountain Side )
152.
An Army Corps on the March
153.
By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame
154.
Leaves of Grass (Come Up from the Fields Father )
155.
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
156.
A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown
157.
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim
158.
As Toilsome I Wander’d Virginia’s Woods
159.
Not the Pilot
160.
Year That Trembled and Reel’d Beneath Me
161.
The Wound-Dresser
162.
Long, Too Long America
163.
Give Me the Splendid Silent Sun
164.
Dirge for Two Veterans
165.
Over the Carnage Rose Prophetic a Voice
166.
I Saw Old General at Bay
167.
The Artilleryman’s Vision
168.
Ethiopia Saluting the Colors
169.
Not Youth Pertains to Me
170.
Race of Veterans
171.
World Take Good Notice
172.
O Tan-Faced Prairie-Boy
173.
Leaves of Grass (Look Down Fair Moon )
174.
Reconciliation
175.
How Solemn As One by One [Washington City, 1865]
176.
As I Lay with My Head in Your Lap Camerado
177.
Leaves of Grass (Delicate Cluster )
178.
To a Certain Civilian
179.
Lo, Victress on the Peaks
180.
Spirit Whose Work Is Done [Washington City, 1865]
181.
Adieu to a Soldier
182.
Turn O Libertad
183.
To the Leaven’d Soil They Trod
184.
When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d
185.
O Captain! My Captain!
186.
Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day [May 4, 1865]
187.
This Dust Was Once the Man
188.
By Blue Ontario’s Shore
189.
Reversals
190.
As Consequent, Etc.
191.
The Return of the Heroes
192.
There Was a Child Went Forth
193.
Old Ireland
194.
The City Dead-House
195.
This Compost
196.
To a Foil’d European Revolutionaire
197.
Unnamed Land
198.
Song of Prudence
199.
The Singer in the Prison
200.
Warble for Lilac-Time
201.
Outlines for a Tomb [G. P., Buried 1870]
202.
Out from Behind This Mask [To Confront a Portrait]
203.
Vocalism
204.
To Him That Was Crucified
205.
You Felons on Trial in Courts
206.
Laws for Creations
207.
To a Common Prostitute
208.
I Was Looking a Long While
209.
Thought2
210.
Leaves of Grass (Miracles)
211.
Sparkles from the Wheel
212.
To a Pupil
214.
What Am I After All
215.
Kosmos
216.
Others May Praise What They Like
217.
Who Learns My Lesson Complete?
218.
Tests
219.
The Torch
220.
O Star of France [1870-71]
221.
The Ox-Tamer
222.
Wandering at Morn
223.
With All Thy Gifts
224.
My Picture-Gallery
225.
The Prairie States
226.
Proud Music of the Storm
228.
Prayer of Columbus
230.
Transpositions
232.
Darest Thou Now O Soul
233.
Whispers of Heavenly Death
234.
Chanting the Square Deific
235.
Of Him I Love Day and Night
236.
Yet, Yet, Ye Downcast Hours
237.
As If a Phantom Caress’d Me
238.
Assurances
239.
Quicksand Years
240.
That Music Always Round Me
241.
What Ship Puzzled at Sea
243.
O Living Always, Always Dying
244.
To One Shortly to Die
245.
Night on the Prairies
246.
Thought-IV
247.
The Last Invocation
248.
As I Watch the Ploughman Ploughing
249.
Pensive and Faltering
250.
Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood
251.
A Paumanok Picture
252.
Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling
253.
Faces
254.
The Mystic Trumpeter
255.
Leaves of Grass (To a Locomotive in Winter)
256.
O Magnet-South
257.
Leaves of Grass (Mannahatta)
258.
All Is Truth
259.
A Riddle Song
260.
Excelsior
261.
Ah Poverties, Wincing, and Sulky Retreats
262.
Thoughts-V
263.
Mediums
264.
Weave in, My Hardy Life
265.
Spain, 1873-74
266.
By Broad Potomac’s Shore
267.
From Far Dakota’s Canyons [June 25, 1876]
268.
Old War-Dreams
269.
Thick-Sprinkled Bunting
270.
Leaves of Grass (As I Walk These Broad majestic Days)
271.
Leaves of Grass (A Clear Midnight)
272.
As the Time Draws Nigh
273.
Years of the Modern
274.
Ashes of Soldiers
275.
Thoughts VI
276.
Song at Sunset
277.
As at Thy Portals Also Death
278.
My Legacy
279.
Pensive on Her Dead Gazing
280.
Camps of Green
281.
The Sobbing of the Bells [Midnight, Sept. 19-20, 1881]
282.
As They Draw to a Close
283.
Joy, Shipmate, Joy!
284.
Leaves of Grass (The Untold Want )
285.
Portals
286.
These Carols
287.
Now Finale to the Shore
288.
Leaves of Grass (So Long! )
289.
Mannahatta II
290.
Paumanok
291.
From Montauk Point
292.
To Those Who’ve Fail’d
293.
A Carol Closing Sixty-Nine
294.
The Bravest Soldiers
295.
A Font of Type
296.
As I Sit Writting Here
297.
My Canary Bird
298.
Queries to My Seventieth Year
299.
The Wallabout Martyrs
300.
The First Dandelion
301.
Leaves of Grass (America)
302.
Memories
303.
To-Day and Thee
304.
After the Dazzle of Day
305.
Abraham Lincoln, Born Feb. 12, 1809
306.
Out of May’s Shows Selected
307.
Halcyon Days
308.
Election Day, November, 1884
309.
With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!
310.
Death of General Grant
311.
Red Jacket (From Aloft)
312.
Leaves of Grass (Washington’s Monument February, 1885)
313.
Of That Blithe Throat of Thine
314.
Broadway
315.
To Get the Final Lilt of Songs
316.
Old Salt Kossabone
317.
The Dead Tenor
318.
Leaves of Grass (Continuities)
319.
Yonnondio
320.
Life
321.
“Going Somewhere”
322.
Small the Theme of My Chant
323.
True Conquerors
324.
The United States to Old World Critics
325.
The Calming Thought of All
326.
Thanks in Old Age
327.
Life and Death
328.
The Voice of the Rain
329.
Soon Shall the Winter’s Foil Be Here
330.
While Not the Past Forgetting
331.
The Dying Veteran
332.
Stronger Lessons
333.
A Prairie Sunset
334.
Twenty Years
335.
Orange Buds by Mail from Florida
336.
Twilight
337.
You Lingering Sparse Leaves of Me
338.
Not Meagre, Latent Boughs Alone
339.
The Dead Emperor
340.
As the Greek’s Signal Flame
341.
The Dismantled Ship
342.
Now Precent Songs, Farewell
343.
An Evening Lull
344.
Old Age’s Lambent Peaks
345.
Leaves of Grass (After the Supper and Talk)
346.
Sail out for Good, Eidolon Yacht!
347.
Lingering Last Drops
348.
Leaves of Grass (Good-Bye My Fancy)
349.
On, on the Same, Ye Jocund Twain!
350.
MY 71st Year
351.
Apparitions
352.
The Pallid Wreath
353.
An Ended Day
354.
Old Age’s Ship & Crafty Death’s
355.
To the Pending Year
356.
Shakspere-Bacon’s Cipher
357.
Long, Long Hence
358.
Bravo, Paris Exposition!
359.
Interpolation Sounds
360.
To the Sun-Set Breeze
361.
Old Chants
362.
A Christmas Greeting
363.
Sounds of the Winter
364.
A Twilight Song
365.
When the Full-Grown Poet Came
366.
Osceola
367.
A Voice from Death
368.
A Persian Lesson
369.
The Commonplace
370.
“The Rounded Catalogue Divine Complete”
371.
Mirages
372.
L. of G.’s Purport
373.
The Unexpress’d
374.
Grand Is the Seen
375.
Unseen Buds
376.
Good-Bye My Fancy! II
A Hand-Mirror
Unfolded Out of the Folds
Passage to India
Sometimes with One I Love
A Woman Waits for Me
World Below the Brine
The Sleepers
To Think of Time
Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand
Spontaneous Me
A Glimpse
Among the Multitude
A Boston Ballad, 1854
A Farm-Picture
A Child’s Amaze
A Noiseless Patient Spider
I Hear America Singing
I Sing the Body Electric
O Me! O Life!
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
301. Hours Continuing Long
Preface (Leaves of Grass)
A Leaf For Hand in Hand
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
As I Ponder’d in Silence (Inscriptions)
For You, O Democracy
One’s-Self I Sing [Redundant]

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A Twilight Song

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