FEINBERG/WHITMAN LITERARY FILE Poetry File "The Dying Veteran" (1887). Proof sheet. (DCN250) Box 26 Folder 61 Includes Horace Traubel Quotation. The circumstances of presentations of this proof sheet is told in With Walt Whitman in Camden, Vol. 1, page 308 CEF THE DYING VETERAN. [A Long Island incident-early part of the present century.] Amid these days of order, ease, prosperity, Amid the current songs of beauty, peace, decorum, I cast a reminiscence -(likely 'twill offend you, I heard it in my boyhood;) - More than a generation since, A queer old savage man, a fighter under Washington himself, Large, brave, cleanly, hot-blooded, no talker, rather spiritualistic, (Had fought in the ranks - fought well - had been all through the Revolutionary war,) Lay dying - sons, daughters, church-deacons, lovingly tending him, Sharping their sense, their ears, toward his murmuring, half-caught words : "Let me return to my again to my war-days, To the sights and scenes - to forming the line of battle, To the scouts ahead reconnoitering, To the cannons, the grim artillery, To the galloping aids, carrying orders, To the wounded, the fallen, the heat, the suspense, The perfume strong, the smoke, the deafening noise; Away with your life of peace! - your joys of peace! Give me my old wild battle-life again!" WALT WHITMAN. [*June 14, 1888*] Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.