As I sit in twilight late alone by the flickering oak-flame,

Musing on long-pass'd war-scenes--of the countless buried unknown

soldiers,

Of the vacant names, as unindented air's and sea's--the unreturn'd,

The brief truce after battle, with grim burial-squads, and the

deep-fill'd trenches

Of gather'd from dead all America, North, South, East, West, whence

they came up,

From wooded Maine, New-England's farms, from fertile Pennsylvania,

Illinois, Ohio,

From the measureless West, Virginia, the South, the Carolinas, Texas,

(Even here in my room-shadows and half-lights in the noiseless

flickering flames,

Again I see the stalwart ranks on-filing, rising--I hear the

rhythmic tramp of the armies;)

You million unwrit names all, all--you dark bequest from all the war,

A special verse for you--a flash of duty long neglected--your mystic

roll strangely gather'd here,

Each name recall'd by me from out the darkness and death's ashes,

Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my heart recording, for many

future year,

Your mystic roll entire of unknown names, or North or South,

Embalm'd with love in this twilight song.