The Return of the Soldiers

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, I mourned—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I loved.

All went to seed—only a few said, “We still rise.” We scatter solid seeds across the earth, and bring the spring, Absorbing the quiet Earth.

• Walt Whitman