April 18, 2003

Bivouac on a Mountain side
by Walt Whitman


I see before me now a traveling army halting,
Below a fertile valley spread,
with barns and the orchards of summer,
Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain,
abrupt, in places rising high,
Broken, with rocks, with clinging cedars,
with tall shapes dingily seen,
The numerous camp-fires scatter'd near and far,
some away up on the mountain,
The shadowy forms of men and horses,
looming, large-sized, flickering,
And over all the sky --- the sky! far, far out of reach,
studded, breaking out, the eternal Stars.


Posted by caterina at April 18, 2003 01:20 AM