by Whitman · Cluster: Stars · Night · Military Camp
Abstract
The speaker bends to kiss the white face of his dead enemy, a man divine as himself, as Death and Night wash the world clean; reconciliation, forgiveness and the brotherhood of the dead.
Connections
Motifs: Death, Night Themes & Concepts: Reconciliation, Grief and Loss, Mercy, War and its Cost, Divine Love
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: DRUM-TAPS
Word over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost, That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this solid world; For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead, I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin—I draw near, Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.