life,
Weave yet a soldier strong and full for great campaigns to come,
Weave in red blood, weave sinews in like ropes, the senses, sight
weave in,
Weave lasting sure, weave day and night the weft, the warp, incessant
weave, tire not
(We know not what the use O life, nor know the aim, the end, nor really
aught we know,
But know the work, the need goes on and shall go on, the
death-envelop'd march of peace as well as war goes on),
For great campaigns of peace the same the wiry threads to weave,
We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.

HOW SOLEMN AS ONE BY ONE

(_Washington City, 1865_)

How solemn as one by one,
As the ranks returning worn and sweaty, as the men file by where I
stand,
As the faces the masks appear, as I glance at the faces studying the
masks
(As I glance upward out of this page studying you, dear friend,
whoever you are),
How solemn the thought of my whispering soul to each in the ranks,
and to you!
I see behind each mask that wonder a kindred soul,
O the bullet could never kill what you really are, dear friend,
Nor the bayonet stab what you really are;
The soul! yourself I see, great as any, good as the best,
Waiting secure and content, which the bullet could never kill,
Nor the bayonet stab O friend.

SPIRIT WHOSE WORK IS DONE

(_Washington City, 1865_)

Spirit whose work is done--spirit of dreadful hours!
Ere departing fade from my eyes your forests of bayonets;
Spirit of gloomiest fears and doubts (yet onward ever unfaltering
pressing),
Spirit of many a solemn day and many a savage scene--electric spirit,
That with muttering voice through the war now closed, like a tireless
phantom flitted,
Rousing the land with breath of flame, while you beat and beat the
drum,
Now as the sound of the drum, hollow and harsh to the last,
reverberates round me,
As your ranks, your immortal ranks, return, return from the battles,
As the muskets of the young men yet lean over their shoulders,
As I look on the bayonets bristling over their shoulders,
As those slanted bayonets, whole forests of them appearing in the
distance, approach and pass on, returning homeward,
Moving with steady motion, swaying to and fro to the right and left,