THE HELIOTYPE PRINTING CO. BOSTON
From a Photograph by Gardner, Washington
THE
WOUND DRESSER
A Series of Letters
Written from the Hospitals in Washington
During the War of the Rebellion
By
WALT WHITMAN
Edited by
Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D.
One of Whitman’s Literary Executors
Boston
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
1898
Copyright, 1897, by Small, Maynard & Company
| But in silence, in dreams’ projections, While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on, So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the sand, With hinged knees returning I enter the doors, (while for you up there, Whoever you are, follow without noise and be of strong heart.) I onward go, I stop, With hinged knees and steady hand to dress wounds, I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable, One turns to me his appealing eyes—poor boy! I never knew you, Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you. I am faithful, I do not give out, The fractur’d thigh, the knee, the wound in the abdomen, These and more I dress with impassive hand, (yet deep in my breast a fire, a burning flame.) Thus in silence, in dreams’ projections, Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals, The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand, I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young, Some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad, (Many a soldier’s loving arms about this neck have cross’d and rested, Many a soldier’s kiss dwells on these bearded lips.) The Wound Dresser. |
PREFACE
As introduction to these letters from Walt Whitman to his mother, I haveavailed myself of three of Whitman’s communications to the press coveringthe time during which the material which composes this volume was beingwritten. These communications (parts of which, but in no case the whole,were used by Whitman in his “Memoranda of the Secession War”) seem to meto form, in spite of certain duplications, which to my mind have theforce, not the weakness, of repetition, quite an ideal background to theletters to Mrs. Whitman, since they give a full and free description ofthe circumstances and surroundings in the midst of which those werecomposed. Readers who desire a still more extended account of the manhimself, his work and environment at that time, may consult with profitthe Editor’s “Walt Whitman” (pp. 34-44), O’Connor’s “Good Gray Poet”(included in that volume, pp. 99-130), “Specimen Days” (pp. 26-63,included in Walt Whitman’s “Complete Prose Works”), and above all thesection of “Leaves of Grass” called “Dru