Leaves of Grass · Chapter
Come Up from the Fields Father explained
A family receives a letter about their son Pete, wounded in a cavalry skirmish.
What happens
A family receives a letter about their son Pete, wounded in a cavalry skirmish. The mother's grief is immediate and profound, and despite reassurances, the poem reveals that Pete is already dead, leaving the mother in a state of deep mourning and longing to join him.
Themes in this chapter
Death and Immortality
The poem centers on the death of a son in war and the mother's desire to escape life to be with him, exploring themes of mortality and the longing for reunion beyond death.
America and Its People
The setting in Ohio and the depiction of a farming family receiving news of a soldier's death highlight the personal cost of war on the American people.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Come up from the fields father, here’s a letter from our Pete, And come to the front door mother, here’s a letter from thy dear son.”
Father, leave the fields and come to the front door; mother, come quickly—there is a letter from our beloved son Pete.
The opening lines summon the parents to receive news from their son.
“Open the envelope quickly, O this is not our son’s writing, yet his name is sign’d, O a strange hand writes for our dear son, O stricken mother’s soul!”
As the mother opens the letter, she realizes the handwriting is not her son's, though his name is signed—someone else wrote for him, and her soul is stricken with fear.
The mother's dread upon seeing unfamiliar handwriting in the letter.
“While they stand at home at the door he is dead already, The only son is dead.”
Even as the family stands at the door, Pete is already dead—their only son has died.
The revelation that Pete has already died, despite the letter's hopeful tone.
“O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life escape and withdraw, To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.”
The mother longs to slip away from life unnoticed, to escape and follow her son into death, to be with him.
The mother's deep desire to die and join her deceased son.