230 BIRDS AND POETS 



\like a pear? If you would have greatness, know 

 that you must conquer it through ages, centuries, — 

 must pay for it with a proportionate price. For 

 you, too, as for all lands, the struggle, the traitor, 

 the wily person in office, scrofulous wealth, the sur- 

 feit of prosperity, the demonism of greed, the hell 

 of passion, the decay of faith, the long postpone- 

 ment, the fossil-like lethargy, the ceaseless need of 

 revolutions, prophets, thunder-storms, deaths, hirths, 

 new projections, and invigorations of ideas and men." 

 The " Memoranda during the War " is mainly a 

 record of personal experiences, nursing the sick and 

 wounded soldiers in the hospitals : most of it is in 

 a low key, simple, unwrought, like a diary kept for 

 one's self; but it reveals the large, tender, sympa- 

 thetic soul of the poet, and puts in practical form 

 that unprecedented and fervid comradeship which is 

 his leading element, even more than his elaborate 

 works. It is printed almost verbatim, just as the 

 notes were jotted down at the time and on the spot. 

 It is impossible to read it without the feeling of 

 tears, while there is elsewhere no such portrayal of 

 the common soldier, and such appreciation of him as 

 is contained in its pages. It is heart's blood, every 

 word of it, and along with "Drum-taps" is the only 

 literature of the war thus far entirely characteristic 

 and worthy of serious mention. There are in par- 

 ticular two passages in the " Memoranda " that have 

 amazing dramatic power, vividness, and rapid action, 

 like some quick painter covering a large canvas. I 

 refer to the account of the assassination of President 



