Hush'd Be the Camps to-Day
by Walt Whitman
· 1865
Published 01/07/1865
HUSH'D be the camps to-day;
And, soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons;
And each, with musing soul retire, to celebrate,
Our dear commander's death.
No more for him life's stormy conflicts;
Nor victory, nor defeat—No more time's dark events,
Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.
But sing, poet, in our name;
Sing of the love we bore him—because you, dweller in camps, know it truly.
Sing, to the lower'd coffin there;
Sing, with the shovel'd clods that fill the grave—a verse,
For the heavy hearts of soldiers.