Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Advanced Poem Search
Home
Submit Poem
Contests
Member
Poems
Poets
Famous
Poems
Poets
Quotes
Lyrics
Terms
Forms
Forum
News
Articles
Blogs
Fun
Member Area
Member Area
My Poems
My Profile
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Submit Poem
Soup Social
The Wall
Chat Room
Soup Facebook Page
Poetry Forum
Events Calendar
Who is Online
Past Polls (Archives)
Member Poets/Poems
Premium Members For Life
Poets
Poets - New
Poets - by Country
Poets - Top 100 Poems
Poets - Top 100 Popular
Poets - Top 100 Contests
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poems
Poems - Best Poems
Poems - by Country
Poems - Hindi
Poems - Long Poems
Poems - New
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Poem Topics
Poems - Poetry
Poems - Random Poem
Poems - Read Poems
Poems - Search Poems
Poems - Short Poems
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Top 100 Recent
Poems - Unread
Poems - Urdu
Famous Poets/Poems
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - All
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Biographies
Famous Poets - Black
Famous Poets - by Country
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Popular
Famous Poets - Quotes
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Black
Famous Poems - Category
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Random
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Contests
Contests: by PoetrySoup
Contests: by Members
Contest Winners: Soup
Contest Winners: Member
Contest Status: Member
Lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics - Search
Resources
About PoetrySoup
The Bible
Character Counter
Cliches in Poetry
Common English Words
Copyright Information
Dictionary
eBooks - Poetry
FAQs
Grammar
Haiku Syllable Counter
History of Poetry
Homonyms
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Love Poem Generator
Meter and Foot in Poetry
National Poetry Month
Poet Laureate
Poetics
Poetics of Aristotle
Poetry For Kids
Poetry
Poetry Definitions
Poetry Slam
Poetry Store
Poetry Out Loud
Prose
Publishing
Punctuation in Poetry
Quotes - Quotations
Resources - External
Resources - For Teachers
Rhyming Dictionary
Rhyme in Poetry
Spell Checker
Syllables
Syllable Counter
Syllable Rules
Teaching Prose and Poetry
Thesaurus
Videos: Poetry/Writing
What is Good Poetry?
What is Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
From Email:
To Email:
Subject
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
WHILE my wife at my side lies slumbering, and the wars are over long, And my head on the pillow rests at home, and the vacant midnight passes, And through the stillness, through the dark, I hear, just hear, the breath of my infant, There in the room, as I wake from sleep, this vision presses upon me: The engagement opens there and then, in fantasy unreal; The skirmishers begin—they crawl cautiously ahead—I hear the irregular snap! snap! I hear the sounds of the different missiles—the short t-h-t! t-h-t! of the rifle balls; I see the shells exploding, leaving small white clouds—I hear the great shells shrieking as they pass; The grape, like the hum and whirr of wind through the trees, (quick, tumultuous, now the contest rages!) All the scenes at the batteries themselves rise in detail before me again; The crashing and smoking—the pride of the men in their pieces; The chief gunner ranges and sights his piece, and selects a fuse of the right time; After firing, I see him lean aside, and look eagerly off to note the effect; —Elsewhere I hear the cry of a regiment charging—(the young colonel leads himself this time, with brandish’d sword;) I see the gaps cut by the enemy’s volleys, (quickly fill’d up, no delay;) I breathe the suffocating smoke—then the flat clouds hover low, concealing all; Now a strange lull comes for a few seconds, not a shot fired on either side; Then resumed, the chaos louder than ever, with eager calls, and orders of officers; While from some distant part of the field the wind wafts to my ears a shout of applause, (some special success;) And ever the sound of the cannon, far or near, (rousing, even in dreams, a devilish exultation, and all the old mad joy, in the depths of my soul;) And ever the hastening of infantry shifting positions—batteries, cavalry, moving hither and thither; (The falling, dying, I heed not—the wounded, dripping and red, I heed not—some to the rear are hobbling;) Grime, heat, rush—aid-de-camps galloping by, or on a full run; With the patter of small arms, the warning s-s-t of the rifles, (these in my vision I hear or see,) And bombs busting in air, and at night the vari-color’d rockets.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture