I SAW THE VISION OF ARMIES (Walt Whitman)



I saw the vision of armies;

and I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags,

borne through the smoke of the battles and pierced with missiles, I saw them,

and carried, hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody;

and at last but a few shreds of 'the flags left on the staffs, (and all in silence,) 

and the staffs all splintered and broken.



I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, 

and the white skeletons of young men, I saw them;

I saw the debris and debris of all dead soldiers, 

But I saw they were not as was thought;

they themselves were fully at rest, they suffered not;

the living remained and suffered, the mother suffered,

and the wife and the child and the musing comrade suffered,

and the armies that remained suffered..