Dirge for Two Veterans
The last sunbeamLightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,Down a new-made double grave.
Lo, the moon ascending,Up from the east the silvery round moon,Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession,And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding,And the small drums steady whirring,And every blow of the great convulsive drums,Strikes me through and through.
For the son is brought with the father,(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,Two veterans son and father dropt together,And the double grave awaits them.)
Now nearer blow the bugles,And the drums strike more convulsive,And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
In the eastern sky up-buoying,The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,(’Tis some mother’s large transparent face,In heaven brighter growing.)
O strong dead-march you please me!O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!What I have I also give you.
The moon gives you light,And the bugles and the drums give you music,And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,My heart gives you love.
Words in this poem
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
- flooding n.
- The filling or covering with water or other fluid; overflow; inundation; the filling anything to excess.
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- burial n.
- A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS. byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli sepulcher.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dirge for Two Veterans is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, Dirge for Two Veterans, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/dirge-for-two-veterans.html, id L03957.
Form and metre
Dirge for Two Veterans is 36 lines in 9 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 19 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -AAA ascending · moonA · moonA · moonA
- 8 AA-- meA · meA · burial · you
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The last sunbeam | 4 | ··/· |
| Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath, | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking, | 13 | ··/˘·······/˘ |
| Down a new-made double grave. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Lo, the moon ascending, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Up from the east the silvery round moon, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon, | 13 | /˘˘·····/˘/˘· |
| Immense and silent moon. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| I see a sad procession, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles, | 12 | ······/˘··/˘ |
| All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding, | 12 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| As with voices and with tears. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I hear the great drums pounding, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And the small drums steady whirring, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And every blow of the great convulsive drums, | 12 | ·/˘˘····˘/˘· |
| Strikes me through and through. | 5 | ····· |
| For the son is brought with the father, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| (In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell, | 12 | ··/·····˘/·· |
| Two veterans son and father dropt together, | 12 | ·/˘˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| And the double grave awaits them.) | 8 | ··/˘·˘/· |
| Now nearer blow the bugles, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And the drums strike more convulsive, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded, | 12 | ··/···/˘··/˘ |
| And the strong dead-march enwraps me. | 8 | ········ |
| In the eastern sky up-buoying, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d, | 11 | ·/˘˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| (’Tis some mother’s large transparent face, | 9 | ··/˘·˘/˘· |
| In heaven brighter growing.) | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| O strong dead-march you please me! | 7 | ······· |
| O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me! | 13 | ··˘/··/˘˘···· |
| O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial! | 16 | ··/˘···/˘˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| What I have I also give you. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| The moon gives you light, | 5 | ····· |
| And the bugles and the drums give you music, | 11 | ··/˘·····/˘ |
| And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘˘ |
| My heart gives you love. | 5 | ····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.