"A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown" is American poet Walt Whitman's horrified look at the disasters of war. The poem's speaker, a soldier retreating from a lost battle, encounters a makeshift field hospital in an old church. The carnage he sees inside is so appalling that he feels he can hardly find words to describe it. Whitman, who served as a nurse during the American Civil War, based this poem on a soldier's first-hand account of the Battle of White Oaks Church, and on his own time working in military hospitals. He first published it in his 1865 collection Drum-Taps.
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The Full Text of “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown”
1A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown,
2A route through a heavy wood with muffled steps in the darkness,
3Our army foil’d with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating,
4Till after midnight glimmer upon us the lights of a dim-lighted building,
5We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted building,
6’Tis a large old church at the crossing roads, now an impromptu hospital
7Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made,
8Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and lamps,
9And by one great pitchy torch stationary with wild red flame and clouds of smoke,
10By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some in the pews laid down,
11At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of bleeding to death, (he is shot in the abdomen,)
12I stanch the blood temporarily, (the youngster’s face is white as a lily,)
13Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o’er the scene fain to absorb it all,
14Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity, some of them dead,
15Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the odor of blood,
16The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms, the yard outside also fill’d,
17Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in the death-spasm sweating,
18An occasional scream or cry, the doctor’s shouted orders or calls,
19The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the torches,
20These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odor,
21Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, fall in;
22But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile gives he me,
23Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
24Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks,
25The unknown road still marching.
The Full Text of “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown”
1A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown,
2A route through a heavy wood with muffled steps in the darkness,
3Our army foil’d with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating,
4Till after midnight glimmer upon us the lights of a dim-lighted building,
5We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted building,
6’Tis a large old church at the crossing roads, now an impromptu hospital
7Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made,
8Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and lamps,
9And by one great pitchy torch stationary with wild red flame and clouds of smoke,
10By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some in the pews laid down,
11At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of bleeding to death, (he is shot in the abdomen,)
12I stanch the blood temporarily, (the youngster’s face is white as a lily,)
13Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o’er the scene fain to absorb it all,
14Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity, some of them dead,
15Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the odor of blood,
16The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms, the yard outside also fill’d,
17Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in the death-spasm sweating,
18An occasional scream or cry, the doctor’s shouted orders or calls,
19The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the torches,
20These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odor,
21Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, fall in;
22But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile gives he me,
23Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
24Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks,
25The unknown road still marching.
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“A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Summary
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“A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Themes
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The Horror, Chaos, and Trauma of War
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown”
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Lines 1-5
A march in the ranks hard-prest, and the road unknown,
A route through a heavy wood with muffled steps in the darkness,
Our army foil’d with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating,
Till after midnight glimmer upon us the lights of a dim-lighted building,
We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted building, -
Lines 6-10
’Tis a large old church at the crossing roads, now an impromptu hospital
Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made,
Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and lamps,
And by one great pitchy torch stationary with wild red flame and clouds of smoke,
By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some in the pews laid down, -
Lines 11-12
At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of bleeding to death, (he is shot in the abdomen,)
I stanch the blood temporarily, (the youngster’s face is white as a lily,) -
Lines 13-19
Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o’er the scene fain to absorb it all,
Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity, some of them dead,
Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the odor of blood,
The crowd, O the crowd of the bloody forms, the yard outside also fill’d,
Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in the death-spasm sweating,
An occasional scream or cry, the doctor’s shouted orders or calls,
The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of the torches, -
Lines 20-25
These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odor,
Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, fall in;
But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile gives he me,
Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks,
The unknown road still marching.
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“A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Symbols
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The Dying Boy
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“A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Imagery
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Simile
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Repetition
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Parallelism
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Asyndeton
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“A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Ranks
- Hard-prest
- Foil'd
- Sullen
- Remnant
- Impromptu
- Pitchy
- Stationary
- Pews
- Stanch
- O'er
- Fain
- Obscurity
- Ether
- Death-spasm
- Resume
- Fall in
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Speaker
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“A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown”
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More “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown” Resources
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External Resources
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Drum-Taps — See images of a first edition of Drum-Taps, the important collection in which Whitman first published this poem.
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A Brief Biography — Learn more about Whitman's life via the Poetry Foundation.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to a moving performance of the poem.
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The Walt Whitman Archive — Visit the Walt Whitman Archive for a wealth of resources on Whitman's life and work.
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Some Background on the Poem — Learn about the conversation that inspired Whitman to write this poem.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Walt Whitman
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