Lyric Poem · War & Remembrance
Adieu to a Soldier
by Walt Whitman
1ADIEU, O soldier!
2You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,)
3The rapid march, the life of the camp,
4The hot contention of opposing fronts—the long manoeuver,
5Red battles with their slaughter,—the stimulus—the strong, terrific game,
6Spell of all brave and manly hearts—the trains of Time through you, and like of you,
7 all
8 fill’d,
9With war, and war’s expression.
10Adieu, dear comrade!
11Your mission is fulfill’d—but I, more warlike,
12Myself, and this contentious soul of mine,
13Still on our own campaigning bound,
14Through untried roads, with ambushes, opponents lined,
15Through many a sharp defeat and many a crisis—often baffled,
16Here marching, ever marching on, a war fight out—aye here,
17To fiercer, weightier battles give expression.
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“Adieu to a Soldier” by Walt Whitman — quilloak.com/poems/adieu-to-a-soldier
Quick facts
- Poem
- Adieu to a Soldier
- Poet
- Walt Whitman
- Length
- 17 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- War & Remembrance, Love, Peace
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 17 lines · 2 stanzas of 8–9 lines
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Walt Whitman1819–1892
- Source record
- PoetryDBAdieu to a Soldier by walt-whitman, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 3ef451fcb3b38d61…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.