Dickinson’s ‘To Fight Aloud’

By Scott Horton

To fight aloud, is very brave –

But gallanter, I know

Who charge within the bosom

The Cavalry of Woe –

Who win, and nations do not see –

Who fall — and none observe –

Whose dying eyes, no Country

Regards with patriot love –

We trust, in plumed procession

For such, the Angels go –

Rank after Rank, with even feet –

And Uniforms of Snow.

–Emily Dickinson, To Fight Aloud in Poems. Series One, i, xvi (1886)