The Mind

Old War-Dreams

by Walt Whitman 1819–1892

From Leaves of Grass

The Mind

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.

MLA

Whitman, Walt. “Old War-Dreams.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/whitman/268/.

Chicago

Whitman, Walt. “Old War-Dreams.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/whitman/268/.

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