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Poets of the Civil War

Dozens of poems by 33 poets More

Edited by J. D. McClatchy

“McClatchy’s selection has not only breadth of representation but fine choices within forms, causes, and poets.”—Sewanee Review

Overview
News & Views
Table of Contents
Contributors

Overview

News Library of America remembers Life Trustee J. D. McClatchy, 1945–2018
April 5, 2022

Interviews LOA celebrates Herman Melville’s 200th birthday with his Complete Poems
September 23, 2019

News Happy 200th birthday, Walt Whitman
May 31, 2019

Writers on both sides of the American Civil War “brought to the crisis” (in editor J. D. McClatchys’ words) “poetry’s unique ability to stir the emotions, to freeze the moment, to sweep the scene with a panoramic lens and suddenly swoop in for a close-up of suffering or courage.” This vibrant collection brings together the most memorable and enduring work inspired by the conflict: the masterpieces of Whitman and Melville, Sidney Lanier on the death of Stonewall Jackson, the anti-slavery poems of Longfellow and Whittier, the front-line narratives of Henry Howard Brownell and John W. De Forest, the anthems of Julia Ward Howe and James Ryder Randall. Grief, indignation, pride, courage, patriotic fervor, ultimately reconciliation and healing: the poetry of the Civil War evokes unforgettably the emotions that roiled America in its darkest hour.

J. D. McClatchy (1945–2018) was the author of many books of poetry and essays, including Plundered Hearts: New and Selected Poems (2014), and the editor of nine Library of America publications. He wrote the libretto for Ned Rorem’s operatic version of Our Town, taught at Yale University, and served as editor of The Yale Review.

About the American Poets Project
Elegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today’s most discerning poets and critics.
News & Views

News Library of America remembers Life Trustee J. D. McClatchy, 1945–2018
April 5, 2022

Interviews LOA celebrates Herman Melville’s 200th birthday with his Complete Poems
September 23, 2019

News Happy 200th birthday, Walt Whitman
May 31, 2019

Interviews Walt Whitman speaks!—embraces multitudes, and becomes our contemporary
May 31, 2019

News J. D. McClatchy & Erica Lennard: Inside Walt Whitman’s “little old shanty” in Camden
May 31, 2019
Table of Contents

Introduction by J. D. McClatchy

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) | The Death of Slavery
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) | Boston Hymn
William Gilmore Simms (1806–1870) | Ode—“Do Ye Quail?”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) | The Witnesses | The Warning | The Cumberland | Killed at the Ford
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) | A Word for the Hour | The Battle Autumn of 1862 | Laus Deo | Anniversary Poem | Barbara Frietchie
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) | To Canaan
Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) | Battle-Hymn of the Republic
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) | Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration
Herman Melville (1819–1891) | The Portent | The March into Virginia | Shiloh | Malvern Hill | The Armies of the Wilderness | The College Colonel | Inscription | A Meditation
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) | Cavalry Crossing a Ford | Bivouac on a Mountain Side | The Artilleryman’s Vision | Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night | A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown | The Wound-Dresser | Reconciliation | Spirit Whose Work Is Done | O Captain! My Captain! | When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
Margaret Junkin Preston (1820–1897) | Hymn to the National Flag | A Grave in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond
Henry Howard Brownell (1820–1872) | The Bay Fight
Thomas Buchanan Read (1822–1872) | Sheridan’s Ride
Francis Orray Ticknor (1822–1874) | The Virginians of the Valley | Little Giffen
George Henry Boker (1823–1890) | “Blood, blood! The lines of every printed sheet” | “Oh! Craven, craven! While my brothers fall” | Dirge for a Soldier
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911) | The Slave Auction
John W. De Forest (1826–1906) | from Campaigning | The Storming Column
Ethel Lynn Beers (1827–1879) | All Quiet Along the Potomac [The Picket Guard]
Francis Miles Finch (1827–1907) | The Blue and the Gray
Henry Timrod (1828–1867) | Ethnogenesis | Carolina | Charleston | Carmen Triumphale | The Unknown Dead | Lines
Fitz-James O’Brien (1828–1862) | The Soldier’s Letter
Silas Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) | How the Cumberland Went Down
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) | “Of Bronze–and Blaze–” | “If any sink, assure that this, now standing–” | “It feels a shame to be Alive–” | “When I was small, a Woman died–” | “My portion is Defeat–today” | “He fought like those Who’ve nought to lose–”
Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) | Vicksburg—A Ballad
Augusta Cooper Bristol (1835–1910) | The Crime of the Ages
Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) | Fredericksburg | By the Potomac
Bret Harte (1836–1902) | John Burns of Gettysburg | Relieving Guard | A Second Review of the Grand Army
Abram Joseph Ryan (1838–1886) | The Sword of Robert Lee
James Ryder Randall (1839–1908) | Maryland
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841–1906) | Near the Front | The Marksman’s Work | The Merry Truce
Kate Brownlee Sherwood (1841–1914) | Thomas at Chickamauga
Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) | The Dying Words of Jackson
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) | To E. S. Salomon | A Year’s “Casualties” | The Hesitating Veteran
Contributors

Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Ethel Lynn Beers
Ambrose Bierce
George Henry Boker
Augusta Cooper Bristol
Henry Howard Brownell
William Cullen Bryant
John W. De Forest
Emily Dickinson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Francis Miles Finch
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Bret Harte
Paul Hamilton Hayne
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Julia Ward Howe
Sidney Lanier
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
James Russell Lowell
Herman Melville
Silas Weir Mitchell
Fitz-James O’Brien
Margaret Junkin Preston
James Ryder Randall
Thomas Buchanan Read
Abram Joseph Ryan
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
Kate Brownlee Sherwood
William Gilmore Simms
Francis Orray Ticknor
Henry Timrod
Walt Whitman
John Greenleaf Whittier

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ISBN: 978-1-931082-76-1 238 pages

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