Old War-Dreams

by Walt Whitman · 1881-1882
Published 01/07/1881

IN midnight sleep of many a face of anguish,

Of the look at first of the mortally wounded, (of that indescribable look,)

Of the dead on their backs with arms extended wide,

I dream, I dream, I dream.


Of scenes of Nature, fields and mountains,

Of skies so beauteous after a storm, and at night the moon so unearthly bright,

Shining sweetly, shining down, where we dig the trenches and gather the heaps,

I dream, I dream, I dream.


Long have they pass'd, faces and trenches and fields,

Where through the carnage I moved with a callous composure, or away from the fallen,

Onward I sped at the time—but now of their forms at night,

I dream, I dream, I dream.

#death #nightmares #walt whitman #war trauma

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