Bivouac on a Mountain Side

by Walt Whitman · 1865
Published 01/07/1865

I SEE before me now, a traveling army halting;

Below, a fertile valley spread, with barns, and the orch-ards orchards of summer;

Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain, abrupt in places, rising high;

Broken, with rocks, with clinging cedars, with tall shapes, dingily seen;

The numerous camp-fires scatter'd near and far, some away up on the mountain;

The shadowy forms of men and horses, looming, large-sizedlarge-sized, flickering;

And over all, the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach, studded with the eternal stars.

#mountain #nature #night sky #travel #walt whitman #war

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