A sight in camp in the daybreak gray and dim,
As from my tent I emerge so early sleepless,
As slow I walk in the cool fresh air the path near by the hospital tent,
Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended lying,
Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woolen blanket,
Gray and heavy blanket, folding, covering all.

Curious I halt and silent stand,
Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest the first
    just lift the blanket;
Who are you elderly man so gaunt and grim, with well-gray’d hair,
    and flesh all sunken about the eyes? 
Who are you my dear comrade? 
Then to the second I step—­and who are you my child and darling? 
Who are you sweet boy with cheeks yet blooming? 
Then to the third—­a face nor child nor old, very calm, as of
    beautiful yellow-white ivory;
Young man I think I know you—­I think this face is the face of the
    Christ himself,
Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.

} As Toilsome I Wander’d Virginia’s Woods

As toilsome I wander’d Virginia’s woods,
To the music of rustling leaves kick’d by my feet, (for ’twas autumn,)
I mark’d at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier;
Mortally wounded he and buried on the retreat, (easily all could
    understand,)
The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose—­yet this sign left,
On a tablet scrawl’d and nail’d on the tree by the grave,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.

Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering,
Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life,
Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt, alone, or
    in the crowded street,
Comes before me the unknown soldier’s grave, comes the inscription
    rude in Virginia’s woods,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.

} Not the Pilot

Not the pilot has charged himself to bring his ship into port,
    though beaten back and many times baffled;
Not the pathfinder penetrating inland weary and long,
By deserts parch’d, snows chill’d, rivers wet, perseveres till he
    reaches his destination,
More than I have charged myself, heeded or unheeded, to compose
    march for these States,
For a battle-call, rousing to arms if need be, years, centuries hence.

} Year That Trembled and Reel’d Beneath Me

Year that trembled and reel’d beneath me! 
Your summer wind was warm enough, yet the air I breathed froze me,
A thick gloom fell through the sunshine and darken’d me,
Must I change my triumphant songs? said I to myself,
Must I indeed learn to chant the cold dirges of the baffled? 
And sullen hymns of defeat?

} The Wound-Dresser