by Whitman · Cluster: Stars · Night · Military Camp

Abstract

A four-line invocation to the sacred moon to bathe the ghastly swollen faces of the battlefield dead; war-death and mournful benediction.

Connections

Motifs: Moon, Death, Night Themes & Concepts: Grief and Loss, War and its Cost Settings: Battlefield

Testo integrale / Full text

Cluster: DRUM-TAPS

Look down fair moon and bathe this scene,
Pour softly down night’s nimbus floods on faces ghastly, swollen, purple,
On the dead on their backs with arms toss’d wide,
Pour down your unstinted nimbus sacred moon.