Drum Taps | Page 7

Pennsylvania, or on deck
along the Ohio river, Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at
Chattanooga on the mountain top, Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs clothed in
blue, bearing weapons, robust year, Heard your determin'd voice launch'd forth again and
again, Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp'd cannon, I repeat you,
hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.

BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS!
Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow! Through the windows-through doors-burst like a
ruthless force, Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation, Into the school where
the scholar is studying; Leave not the bridegroom quiet--no happiness must he have now
with his bride, Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his
grain, So fierce you whirr and pound you drums--so shrill you bugles blow.
Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow! Over the traffic of cities--over the rumble of
wheels in the streets; Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers

must sleep in those beds, No bargainers' bargains by day--no brokers or
speculators--would they continue? Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt
to sing? Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge? Then rattle
quicker, heavier drums--you bugles wilder blow.
Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow! Make no parley--stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid--mind not the weeper or prayer, Mind not the old man beseeching the
young man, Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties, Make even the
trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses, So strong you thump O
terrible drums--so loud you bugles blow.

FROM PAUMANOK STARTING I FLY LIKE A BIRD
From Paumanok starting I fly like a bird, Around and around to soar to sing the idea of
all, To the north betaking myself to sing there arctic songs, To Kanada till I absorb
Kanada in myself, to Michigan then, To Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, to sing their songs,
(they are inimitable;) Then to Ohio and Indiana to sing theirs, to Missouri and Kansas and
Arkansas to sing theirs, To Tennessee and Kentucky, to the Carolinas and Georgia to sing
theirs, To Texas and so along up toward California, to roam accepted everywhere; To
sing first, (to the tap of the war-drum if need be,) The idea of all, of the Western world
one and inseparable, And then the song of each member of these States.

SONG OF THE BANNER AT DAYBREAK.
_Poet._ O a new song, a free song, Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping, by sounds, by
voices clearer, By the wind's voice and that of the drum, By the banner's voice and child's
voice and sea's voice and father's voice, Low on the ground and high in the air, On the
ground where father and child stand, In the upward air where their eyes turn, Where the
banner at daybreak is flapping.
Words! bookwords! what are you? Words no more, for hearken and see, My song is there
in the open air, and I must sing, With the banner and pennant a-flapping.
I'll weave the chord and twine in, Man's desire and babe's desire, I'll twine them in, I'll
put in life, I'll put the bayonet's flashing point, I'll let bullets and slugs whizz, (As one
carrying a symbol and menace far into the future, Crying with trumpet voice, _Arouse
and beware! Beware and arouse!_) I'll pour the verse with streams of blood, full of
volition, full of joy. Then loosen, launch forth, to go and compete, With the banner and
pennant a-flapping.
_Pennant._ Come up here, bard, bard, Come up here, soul, soul, Come up here, dear little
child, To fly in the clouds and winds with me, and play with the measureless light.
_Child._ Father what is that in the sky beckoning to me with long finger? And what does
it say to me all the while?
_Father._ Nothing my babe you see in the sky, And nothing at all to you it says--but look
you my babe, Look at these dazzling things in the houses, and see you the money-shops
opening, And see you the vehicles preparing to crawl along the streets with goods; These,
ah these, how valued and toil'd for these! How envied by all the earth.
_Poet._ Fresh and rosy red the sun is mounting high, On floats the sea in distant blue
careering through its channels, On floats the wind over the breast of the sea setting in
toward land, The great steady wind from west or west-by-south, Floating so buoyant with
milk-white foam on the waters.

But I am not the sea nor the red sun, I am not the wind with girlish laughter, Not the
immense wind which strengthens, not the wind