Audiobook · read by volunteers
Dirge for Two Veterans
Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
Read by Catharine Eastman, Esther, Jc Guan, Karen Savage, Lee Ann Howlett, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), Leon Mire, Michael Sirois, radioreader, Mary Mac · 12 chapters · 27 min
About the book
Walt Whitman wrote this short poem as the Civil War drew to a close, and it is one of his most moving. Two soldiers, a father and a son, are buried together in a single grave at the end of a day of mourning. As the funeral procession passes under the evening sky, the poet watches, listens to the drums and the bugles, and finds that the moon and the night itself seem to join the procession. The poem is only a few minutes long, but it holds a great deal of grief and a rare tenderness for ordinary lives lost to war. In this collection, twelve different LibriVox volunteers each give the poem their own voice, pace and emphasis. Listening to several in a row is a fascinating way to hear how the same words can sound quiet, solemn, rough or hushed. A brief and affecting listen for any day of remembrance.
Introduction
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 and died in 1892. He is often counted among the founding voices of American poetry, celebrated for free verse, long lines and an inclusive, democratic outlook that broke with the formal habits of earlier writers. During the Civil War he worked as a volunteer nurse in military hospitals in Washington, and what he saw there shaped some of his most compelling work.
Dirge for Two Veterans dates from 1865 and appeared in his collection of war poems, Drum-Taps. It is a funeral song in a few stanzas, shaped by the rhythm of a slow march. Whitman does not describe the battle that killed the father and son; he gives us the burial instead, and lets the details of moonlight, drums and trumpets carry the weight of mourning.
This recording belongs to the weekly poetry project of LibriVox, and was made to mark Memorial Day in the United States in 2007. Twelve volunteers contributed separate versions, so the collection has twelve short tracks and lasts about half an hour in total. Each reading is complete, and the differences between them show how much an interpreter brings to a poem.
You might listen to a single version, or play several in turn and note where the readers breathe, speed up or fall silent. Either way, it is a compact and powerful way to meet one of Whitman’s best-loved shorter works, and an apt companion for any moment of remembrance.
Public domain
Walt Whitman died in 1892: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text