object:1.whitman - The Mystic Trumpeter
author class:Walt Whitman
subject class:Poetry
book class:Whitman - Poems
class:chapter
HARK! some wild trumpetersome strange musician,
Hovering unseen in air, vibrates capricious tunes to-night.
I hear thee, trumpeterlistening, alert, I catch thy notes,
Now pouring, whirling like a tempest round me,
Now low, subduednow in the distance lost.
Come nearer, bodiless onehaply, in thee resounds
Some dead composerhaply thy pensive life
Was fill'd with aspirations highunform'd ideals,
Waves, oceans musical, chaotically surging,
That now, ecstatic ghost, close to me bending, thy cornet echoing,
pealing,
Gives out to no one's ears but minebut freely gives to mine,
That I may thee translate.
Blow, trumpeter, free and clearI follow thee,
While at thy liquid prelude, glad, serene,
The fretting world, the streets, the noisy hours of day, withdraw;
A holy calm descends, like dew, upon me,
I walk, in cool refreshing night, the walks of Paradise,
I scent the grass, the moist air, and the roses;
Thy song expands my numb'd, imbonded spiritthou freest, launchest
me,
Floating and basking upon Heaven's lake.
Blow again, trumpeter! and for my sensuous eyes,
Bring the old pageantsshow the feudal world.
What charm thy music works!thou makest pass before me,
Ladies and cavaliers long deadbarons are in their castle hallsthe
troubadours are singing;
Arm'd knights go forth to redress wrongssome in quest of the Holy
Grail:
I see the tournamentI see the contestants, encased in heavy armor,
seated on stately, champing horses;
I hear the shoutsthe sounds of blows and smiting steel:
I see the Crusaders' tumultuous armiesHark! how the cymbals clang!
Lo! where the monks walk in advance, bearing the cross on high!
Blow again, trumpeter! and for thy theme,
Take now the enclosing theme of allthe solvent and the setting;
Love, that is pulse of allthe sustenance and the pang;
The heart of man and woman all for love;
No other theme but loveknitting, enclosing, all-diffusing love.
O, how the immortal phantoms crowd around me!
I see the vast alembic ever workingI see and know the flames that
heat the world;
The glow, the blush, the beating hearts of lovers,
So blissful happy someand some so silent, dark, and nigh to death:
Love, that is all the earth to loversLove, that mocks time and
space;
Love, that is day and nightLove, that is sun and moon and stars;
Love, that is crimson, sumptuous, sick with perfume;
No other words, but words of loveno other thought but Love.
Blow again, trumpeterconjure war's Wild alarums.
Swift to thy spell, a shuddering hum like distant thunder rolls;
Lo! where the arm'd men hastenLo! mid the clouds of dust, the glint
of bayonets;
I see the grime-faced cannoniersI mark the rosy flash amid the
smokeI hear the cracking of the guns:
Nor war alonethy fearful music-song, wild player, brings every
sight of fear,
The deeds of ruthless brigandsrapine, murderI hear the cries for
help!
I see ships foundering at seaI behold on deck, and below deck, the
terrible tableaux.
O trumpeter! methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest!
Thou melt'st my heart, my brainthou movest, drawest, changest them,
at will:
And now thy sullen notes send darkness through me;
Thou takest away all cheering lightall hope:
I see the enslaved, the overthrown, the hurt, the opprest of the
whole earth;
I feel the measureless shame and humiliation of my raceit becomes
all mine;
Mine too the revenges of humanitythe wrongs of agesbaffled feuds
and hatreds;
Utter defeat upon me weighsall lost! the foe victorious!
(Yet 'mid the ruins Pride colossal stands, unshaken to the last;
Endurance, resolution, to the last.)
Now, trumpeter, for thy close,
Vouchsafe a higher strain than any yet;
Sing to my soulrenew its languishing faith and hope;
Rouse up my slow beliefgive me some vision of the future;
Give me, for once, its prophecy and joy.
O glad, exulting, culminating song!
A vigor more than earth's is in thy notes!
Marches of victoryman disenthrall'dthe conqueror at last!
Hymns to the universal God, from universal Manall joy!
A reborn race appearsa perfect World, all joy!
Women and Men, in wisdom, innocence and healthall joy!
Riotous, laughing bacchanals, fill'd with joy!
War, sorrow, suffering goneThe rank earth purgednothing but joy
left!
The ocean fill'd with joythe atmosphere all joy!
Joy! Joy! in freedom, worship, love! Joy in the ecstacy of life!
Enough to merely be! Enough to breathe!
Joy! Joy! all over Joy!
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