AS toilsome I wander’d Virginia’s woods,
To the music of rustling leaves, kick’d by my feet, (for ’twas autumn,)
I mark’d at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier,
Mortally wounded he, and buried on the retreat, (easily all could I understand;)
The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose-yet this sign left,
On a tablet scrawl’d and nail’d on the tree by the grave,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering;
Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life;
Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt, alone, or in the crowded street,
Comes before me the unknown soldier’s grave-comes the inscription rude in
Virginia’s
woods,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.
(Walt Whitman)
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Based on Topics: Life Poems, Time Poems, Nature Poems, Music Poems, Autumn Poems, Soldiers Poems, Moderation & Temperance PoemsBased on Keywords: tablet, toilsome, mortally, scrawl