CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=7YQSqjSh" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.bartleby.com:80/229/1044.html","20060506024207","https://web.archive.org/","web","https://web-static.archive.org/_static/", "1146883327"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=p7PEIJWi" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />   <title>44. Home-Made Music. Specimen Days. Whitman, Walt. 1892. Prose Works</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="description" content="44. Home-Made Music. Specimen Days. Whitman, Walt. 1892. Prose Works"> <meta name="keywords" content="44. Home-Made Music. Specimen Days. Whitman, Walt. 1892. Prose Works"> <meta name="bart_colls" content="col229, colNonfiction, colWhitmnW"> <style type="text/css"> .FormLt1 { font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 12px; color: #000000; font-weight: normal; background-color: #ffffff; } .sizeLt1 { font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; } </style> </head>  <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#003366" text="#000020" alink="#888645" vlink="#888645" alink="#888645"> <map name="Tabs"> <area shape="rect" coords="8,8,220,47" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/"> <area shape="rect" coords="509,32,589,48" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/nonfiction/"> <area shape="rect" coords="424,30,505,47" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/fiction/"> <area shape="rect" coords="340,29,414,49" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/verse/"> <area shape="rect" coords="253,29,329,47" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/reference/"> </map> <map name="Links"> <area shape="rect" coords="252,3,318,16" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/usage/"> <area shape="rect" coords="189,2,247,16" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/quotations/"> <area shape="rect" coords="133,3,185,16" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/thesauri/"> <area shape="rect" coords="75,4,127,16" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/61/"> <area shape="rect" coords="4,3,68,17" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/65/"> </map> <map name="Links2"> <area shape="rect" coords="5,3,37,16" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/"> <area shape="rect" coords="45,3,89,17" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/subjects/"> <area shape="rect" coords="133,3,175,16" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/authors/"> <area shape="rect" coords="96,3,126,16" href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/titles/"> </map> <table align="center" width="770" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td valign="TOP">  <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" align="center"><tr><td align="center"><iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207if_/http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=bartlebylibrary&o=1&p=40&l=ur1&category=holiday&banner=0K3GRKHPCV6NR4MMCMG2&f=ifr" width="120" height="60" scrolling="no" border="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe></td> <td align="center">  <center> <script language="JavaScript"> var bnum=new Number(Math.floor(99999999 * Math.random())+1); document.write('<SCR'+'IPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" '); document.write('SRC="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207/http://servedby.advertising.com/site=62058/size=468060/bnum='+bnum+'/optn=1"></SCR'+'IPT>'); </script> <noscript> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207/http://servedby.advertising.com/click/site=62058/bnum=16721052" target="_blank"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207im_/http://servedby.advertising.com/site=62058/size=468060/bnum=16721052/bins=1/rich=0" width="468" height="60" border="0" alt="Click to learn more..."> </a> </noscript> </center>  </td></tr></table>   <script language="javascript"> </script>  <form method="GET" action="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/sitesearch"> <table align="center" width="603" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">  <tr bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><td><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/top_nav.gif" width="603" height="50" border="0" usemap="#Tabs"></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1" align="left"><td height="33" align="center"> <table width="602" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left"> <tr><td valign="top" width="194" bgcolor="#F2F1ED"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/great_books.gif" width="193" height="33"></td> <td bgcolor="#F2F1ED" align="left" valign="middle" class="sizeLt1"> <select name="FILTER" class="FormLt1" size="1"> <option value="">Select Search</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="">All Bartleby.com</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="colReference">All Reference</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="col65">Columbia Encyclopedia</option> <option value="col67">World History Encyclopedia</option> <option value="col59">Cultural Literacy</option> <option value="col151">World Factbook</option> <option value="col69">Columbia Gazetteer</option> <option value="colAM">American Heritage Coll.</option> <option value="col61">Dictionary</option> <option value="colThesaurus">Roget's Thesauri</option> <option value="col62">Roget's II: Thesaurus</option> <option value="col110">Roget's Int'l Thesaurus</option> <option value="colQuotations">Quotations</option> <option value="col100">Bartlett's Quotations</option> <option value="col66">Columbia Quotations</option> <option value="col63">Simpson's Quotations</option> <option value="col73">Respectfully Quoted</option> <option value="colUsage">English Usage</option> <option value="col64">Modern Usage</option> <option value="col68">American English</option> <option value="col116">Fowler's King's English</option> <option value="col141">Strunk's Style</option> <option value="col185">Mencken's Language</option> <option value="colCamb-Hi">Cambridge History</option> <option value="col108">The King James Bible</option> <option value="colShakespe">Oxford Shakespeare</option> <option value="col107">Gray's Anatomy</option> <option value="col87">Farmer's Cookbook</option> <option value="col95">Post's Etiquette</option> <option value="col81">Brewer's Phrase & Fable</option> <option value="colBulfinchT">Bulfinch's Mythology</option> <option value="col196">Frazer's Golden Bough</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="colVerse">All Verse</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="colAnthology">Anthologies</option> <option value="colDickinsoE">Dickinson, E.</option> <option value="colEliot-Th">Eliot, T.S.</option> <option value="colFrost-Ro">Frost, R.</option> <option value="colHopkinsG">Hopkins, G.M.</option> <option value="colKeats-Jo">Keats, J.</option> <option value="colLawrencDH">Lawrence, D.H.</option> <option value="colMasters">Masters, E.L.</option> <option value="colSandburg">Sandburg, C.</option> <option value="colSassoon">Sassoon, S.</option> <option selected value="colWhitmnW">Whitman, W.</option> <option value="colWordswthW">Wordsworth, W.</option> <option value="colYeats-Wi">Yeats, W.B.</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="colNonfiction">All Nonfiction</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="colHC">Harvard Classics</option> <option value="col109">American Essays</option> <option value="col173">Einstein's Relativity</option> <option value="colGrant-Ul">Grant, U.S.</option> <option value="colRsvltT">Roosevelt, T.</option> <option value="col86">Wells's History</option> <option value="col124">Presidential Inaugurals</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="colFiction">All Fiction</option> <option value="">-----</option> <option value="colSF">Shelf of Fiction</option> <option value="col166">Ghost Stories</option> <option value="col195">Short Stories</option> <option value="colShaw-Geo">Shaw, G.B.</option> <option value="colStein-Ge">Stein, G.</option> <option value="colStvnsnR">Stevenson, R.L.</option> <option value="colWells-HG">Wells, H.G.</option> </select></td><td bgcolor="#F2F1ED" align="left" valign="middle" class="sizeLt1"> <script language="JavaScript">  </script> <noscript><input name="query" type="TEXT" maxlength="40" size="17"></noscript> </td><td bgcolor="#F2F1ED" align="left" valign="middle" class="sizeLt1"><input width="22" height="23" type="IMAGE" src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/go.gif" border="0"></td></tr></table></td></tr>   <tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1"><td height="1"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/horiz_bar602.gif" width="602" height="1"></td></tr> <tr valign="top" align="center"><td height="27" bgcolor="#B1B1B1"><table width="601" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#F2F1ED"><tr bgcolor="#F2F1ED"><td align="left" valign="middle" height="27"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/bar_z.gif" width="176" height="19" border="0" usemap="#Links2"></td><td align="right" valign="middle"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/bar_r.gif" width="321" height="19" hspace="12" border="0" usemap="#Links" alt=""></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1"> <td height="1"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/horiz_bar602.gif" width="602" height="1"></td></tr>    <tr><td valign="MIDDLE" height="25"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="-1"> <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/nonfiction/">Nonfiction</a> > <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/people/WhitmnW.html">Walt Whitman</a> > <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/">Prose Works</a> > I. <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/index.html#I">Specimen Days</a> > 44. Home-Made Music</font></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1"><td height="1"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/horiz_bar602.gif" width="603" height="1" alt=""></td></tr><tr><td> <table width="601" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr><td align="LEFT" height="25" width="1%" valign="MIDDLE"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1043.html"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/lt.gif" border="0" width="8" height="17"></a></td> <td align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="-1">  <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1043.html">PREVIOUS</a></font></td> <td align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="-1"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1045.html">NEXT</a>  </font></td> <td align="RIGHT" width="1%" valign="MIDDLE"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1045.html"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/gt.gif" border="0" width="8" height="17"></a></td></tr></table></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1"> <td height="1"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/horiz_bar602.gif" width="603" height="1"></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER" valign="BOTTOM" height="25"><font size="-1"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/">CONTENTS</a> · <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/br/229.html">BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD</a></font></td></tr> </table></form>  <table align="CENTER" width="601" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#ffffff">  <tr><td align="CENTER">Walt Whitman <font size="-1">(18191892).</font>  Prose Works. <font size="-1">1892.</font></td></tr> <tr><td>  </td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"><font color="#9C9C63" size="+1">I. Specimen Days</font></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"><font color="#9C9C63" size="+2"><b>44. Home-Made Music</b></font></td></tr> <tr><td>  </td></tr>  </table> <table align="CENTER" width="601" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#ffffff">  <tr><td><i>August 8th.</i>T<font size="-1">O-NIGHT,</font> as I was trying to keep cool, sitting by a wounded soldier in Armory-square, I was attracted by some pleasant singing in an adjoining ward. As my soldier was asleep, I left him, and entering the ward where the music was, I walkd half-way down and took a seat by the cot of a young Brooklyn friend, S. R., badly wounded in the hand at Chancellorsville, and who has sufferd much, but at that moment in the evening was wide awake and comparatively easy. He had turnd over on his left side to get a better view of the singers, but the mosquito-curtains of the adjoining cots obstructed the sight. I stept round and loopd them all up, so that he had a clear show, and then sat down again by him, and lookd and listend. The principal singer was a young lady-nurse of one of the wards, accompanying on a melodeon, and joind by the lady-nurses of other wards. They sat there, making a charming group, with their handsome, healthy faces, and standing up a little behind them were some ten or fifteen of the convalescent soldiers, young men, nurses, &c., with books in their hands, singing. Of course it was not such a performance as the great soloists at the New York opera house take a hand in, yet I am not sure but I receivd as much pleasure under the circumstances, sitting there, as I have had from the best Italian compositions, expressd by world-famous performers. The men lying up and down the hospital, in their cots, (some badly woundedsome never to rise thence,) the cots themselves, with their drapery of white curtains, and the shadows down the lower and upper parts of the ward; then the silence of the men, and the attitudes they tookthe whole was a sight to look around upon again and again. And there sweetly rose those voices up to the high, whitewashd wooden roof, and pleasantly the roof sent it all back again. They sang very well, mostly quaint old songs and declamatory hymns, to fitting tunes. Here, for instance:<table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1"><tr><td>        </td><td>My days are swiftly gliding by, and I a pilgrim stranger,</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>Would not detain them as they fly, those hours of toil and danger;</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>For O we stand on Jordans strand, our friends are passing over,</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>And just before, the shining shore we may almost discover.</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>  </td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>Well gird our loins my brethren dear, our distant home discerning,</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>Our absent Lord has left us word, let every lamp be burning,</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>For O we stand on Jordans strand, our friends are passing over,</td></tr> <tr><td></td><td>And just before, the shining shore we may almost discover.</td></tr> </table></td><td valign="top" align="right"><font size="-2"><a name="1"><i>   1</i></a></font></td></tr> </table>   <table align="CENTER" width="601" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr><td><br></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER" valign="BOTTOM" height="25"><font size="-1"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/">CONTENTS</a> · <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/br/229.html">BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD</a></font></td></tr><tr><td><br></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1"><td height="1"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/horiz_bar602.gif" width="601" alt="" height="1"></td></tr> <tr><td><table width="601" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#ffffff"><tr><td align="LEFT" height="25" width="1%" valign="MIDDLE"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1043.html"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/lt.gif" border="0" width="8" height="17"></a></td> <td align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="-1">  <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1043.html">PREVIOUS</a></font></td> <td align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="-1"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1045.html">NEXT</a>  </font></td> <td align="RIGHT" width="1%" valign="MIDDLE"><a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/229/1045.html"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/gt.gif" border="0" width="8" height="17"></a></td></tr></table></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1"> <td height="1"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/horiz_bar602.gif" alt="" width="603" height="1"></td></tr>   <tr><td> </td></tr> <tr><td><table align="CENTER"> <tr><td align="CENTER">  <center> <form method="get" action="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207/http://www.google.com/custom" target="_top"> <table bgcolor="#ffffff"> <tr><td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top" align="left" height="32"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207/http://www.google.com/"> <img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/include/Logo_25wht.gif" width="75" height="32" border="0" alt="Google" align="middle"></img></a> <input type="text" name="q" size="20" maxlength="255" value=""></input> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search"></input> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-5691076175788952"></input> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;"></input> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en"></input> </td></tr></table> </form> </center>  </td></tr> </table></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER" height="25" width="1%" valign="MIDDLE"><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="-1">Click <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/bookstore/WhitmnW.html">here</a> to shop the <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/bookstore/WhitmnW.html">Bartleby Bookstore</a>.</font></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#B1B1B1"> <td height="1"><img src="/web/20060506024207im_/http://www.bartleby.com/images/newsite/horiz_bar602.gif" alt="" width="603" height="1"></td></tr>  <tr valign="bottom" align="center"><td> <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/sv/welcome.html" target="_top"><font color="#0b074f" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Welcome</font></a> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">· <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/press/index.html" target="_top"><font color="#0b074f">Press</font></a> · <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/sv/advertising.html" target="_top"><font color="#0b074f">Advertising</font></a> · <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/link/" target="_top"><font color="#0b074f">Linking</font></a> · <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/sv/terms.html" target="_top"><font color="#0b074f">Terms of Use</font></a> · © 2005 <a href="/web/20060506024207/http://www.bartleby.com/" target="_top"><font color="#0b074f">Bartleby.com</font></a></font> </td></tr> <tr><td> </td></tr>  </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" align="center"><tr><td align="center"><iframe src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207if_/http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=bartlebylibrary&o=1&p=40&l=ur1&category=holiday&banner=0K3GRKHPCV6NR4MMCMG2&f=ifr" width="120" height="60" scrolling="no" border="0" style="border:none;" frameborder="0"></iframe></td> <td align="center">   <center> <script language="JavaScript"> var bnum=new Number(Math.floor(99999999 * Math.random())+1); document.write('<SCR'+'IPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" '); document.write('SRC="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207/http://servedby.advertising.com/site=62058/size=468060/bnum='+bnum+'/optn=1"></SCR'+'IPT>'); </script> <noscript> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207/http://servedby.advertising.com/click/site=62058/bnum=16721052" target="_blank"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207im_/http://servedby.advertising.com/site=62058/size=468060/bnum=16721052/bins=1/rich=0" width="468" height="60" border="0" alt="Click to learn more..."> </a> </noscript> </center>  </td></tr></table>   </td><td valign="top" rowspan="2">  <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207js_/http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script>  <br><br>  <script language="JavaScript"> var bnum=new Number(Math.floor(99999999 * Math.random())+1); document.write('<SCR'+'IPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" '); document.write('SRC="https://web.archive.org/web/20060506024207/http://servedby.advertising.com/site=80405/size=120600/bnum='+bnum+'/optn=1"></SCR'+'IPT>'); </script>  </td></tr></table> </body> </html>