Now in those camps of green, in their tents dotting the world, In the parents, children, husbands, wives, in them, in the old and young, Sleeping under the sunlight, sleeping under the moonlight, content and silent there at last, Behold the mighty bivouac-field and waiting-camp of all, Of the corps and generals all, and the President over the corps and generals all, And of each of us O soldiers, and of each and all in the ranks we fought, (There without hatred we all, all meet.) For presently O soldiers, we too camp in our place in the bivouac-camps of green, But we need not provide for outposts, nor word for the countersign, Nor drummer to beat the morning drum. The Sobbing of the Bells [Midnight, Sept. 19-20, 1881] The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere, The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People, (Full well they know that message in the darkness, Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, the sad reverberations,) The passionate toll and clang--city to city, joining, sounding, passing, Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night. As They Draw to a Close As they draw to a close, Of what underlies the precedent songs--of my aims in them, Of the seed I have sought to plant in them, Of joy, sweet joy, through many a year, in them, (For them, for them have I lived, in them my work is done,) Of many an aspiration fond, of many a dream and plan; Through Space and Time fused in a chant, and the flowing eternal identity, To Nature encompassing these, encompassing God--to the joyous, electric all, To the sense of Death, and accepting exulting in Death in its turn the same as life, The entrance of man to sing; To compact you, ye parted, diverse lives, To put rapport the mountains and rocks and streams, And the winds of the north, and the forests of oak and pine, With you O soul. Joy, Shipmate, Joy! Joy, shipmate, Joy! (Pleas’d to my soul at death I cry,) Our life is closed, our life begins, The long, long anchorage we leave, The ship is clear at last, she leaps! She swiftly courses from the shore, Joy, shipmate, joy. The Untold Want The untold want by life and land ne’er granted, Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find. Portals What are those of the known but to ascend and enter the Unknown? And what are those of life but for Death? These Carols These carols sung to cheer my passage through the world I see, For completion I dedicate to the Invisible World. Now Finale to the Shore