AS I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado,
The confession I made I resume-what I said to you in the open air I resume:
I know I am restless, and make others so;
I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;
(Indeed I am myself the real soldier;
It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-striped artilleryman;)
For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them;
I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could ever have been had all
accepted me;
I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule;
And the threat of what is call’d hell is little or nothing to me;
And the lure of what is call’d heaven is little or nothing to me;
…Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you, without
the
least
idea what is our destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell’d and defeated.
(Walt Whitman)
More Poetry from Walt Whitman:
Walt Whitman Poems based on Topics: Death & Dying, War & Peace, Law & Regulation, Soldiers, Heaven, Danger & Risk, Hell, Confession, Failure, Experience, Security- A Proadway Pageant (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A Boston Ballad, 1854 (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A Woman Waits For Me (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A March In The Ranks, Hard-prest (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A Riddle Song (Walt Whitman Poems)
- A child said, What is the grass? (Walt Whitman Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Death & Dying Poems, War & Peace Poems, Heaven Poems, Law & Regulation Poems, Hell Poems, Danger & Risk Poems, Soldiers Poems, Confession Poems, Failure Poems, Experience Poems, Security PoemsBased on Keywords: confront, cautions, unsettle, camerado, red-striped