Leaves of Grass · Chapter
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night explained
A soldier keeps a solitary night vigil over the body of his fallen comrade, whom he addresses as 'my son and my comrade.' After a brief touch of hands during battle, he returns at night to find the young man dead.
What happens
A soldier keeps a solitary night vigil over the body of his fallen comrade, whom he addresses as 'my son and my comrade.' After a brief touch of hands during battle, he returns at night to find the young man dead. In the starlight, he sits beside the body through the night, experiencing a profound, silent communion of love and death. At dawn, he wraps the body in a blanket and buries him where he fell, ending his strange vigil.
Themes in this chapter
Comradeship and Love
The vigil is an expression of deep, tender love between comrades, marked by physical closeness and emotional devotion.
Death and Immortality
The speaker's hope of meeting again and the 'immortal and mystic hours' spent with the dead comrade suggest a belief in enduring connection beyond death.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Vigil strange I kept on the field one night; When you my son and my comrade dropt at my side that day”
I kept a strange watch on the battlefield one night, after you, my son and comrade, fell beside me during the day.
Establishes the setting and the speaker's relationship to the fallen soldier.
“Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me the battlefield spreading, Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet there in the fragrant silent night, But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh, long, long I gazed”
I stood there for a long time in vigil, the battlefield faint around me—a wonderful, sweet vigil in the fragrant, silent night. I did not weep or sigh, but gazed for a long time.
Describes the peaceful, tearless quality of the vigil.
“I think we shall surely meet again”
I believe we will definitely meet again.
Expresses hope for reunion after death.
“My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop’d well his form, Folded the blanket well, tucking it carefully over head and carefully under feet, And there and then and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited”
I wrapped my comrade in his blanket, covering his body completely, folding it carefully over his head and under his feet, and then, as the sun rose, I placed him in his roughly dug grave.
Describes the tender burial at dawn.