by Whitman · Cluster: Heroism · Hero · Last Stand
Abstract
Elegy for General Grant, a hero withdrawing from history’s stage of war and peace alongside Lincoln and Lee.
Connections
Topoi: Theatrum Mundi Archetypes: Hero Motifs: Grave Themes & Concepts: Heroism, War and its Cost, Grief and Loss Forms & Genres: Elegy Historical References: American Civil War
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: SANDS AT SEVENTY
As one by one withdraw the lofty actors,
From that great play on history’s stage eterne,
That lurid, partial act of war and peace—of old and new contending,
Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;
All past—and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,
Victor’s and vanquish’d—Lincoln’s and Lee’s—now thou with them,
Man of the mighty days—and equal to the days!
Thou from the prairies!—tangled and many-vein’d and hard has been thy part,
To admiration has it been enacted!