Interpolation Sounds

Over and through the burial chant,
Organ and solemn service, sermon, bending priests,
To me come interpolation sounds not in the show⁠—plainly to me, crowding up the aisle and from the window,
Of sudden battle’s hurry and harsh noises⁠—war’s grim game to sight and ear in earnest;
The scout call’d up and forward⁠—the general mounted and his aids around him⁠—the new-brought word⁠—the instantaneous order issued;
The rifle crack⁠—the cannon thud⁠—the rushing forth of men from their tents;
The clank of cavalry⁠—the strange celerity of forming ranks⁠—the slender bugle note;
The sound of horses’ hoofs departing⁠—saddles, arms, accoutrements.

Where this text comes from

First published in Good-Bye My Fancy (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1891). Printed in Good-Bye My Fancy, whose title page calls it the 2d Annex to Leaves of Grass, and gathered in as the Second Annex in 1891–92, which is the arrangement the corpus text follows. First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-12.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/walt-whitman_leaves-of-grass, goodbye-my-fancy.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L8.

Cite this poem

Walt Whitman (1819–1892). “Interpolation Sounds.” First published in Good-Bye My Fancy (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1891). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/walt-whitman/interpolation-sounds/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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