On American Boys Dying in 1863, in Virginia, and Later Elsewhere by Eli Siegel

Aesthetic Realism Online Library Poetry by Eli Siegel

On American Boys Dying in 1863, in Virginia,
and Later Elsewhere

The uniform is gray
Of bodies lying still.
The battle of that day
Is Chancellorsville.

Americans lie dead
An evening of May.
It hasn't yet been said
They all were right that day.

From THE POEMS LOOKED AT: or, NOTES

On American Boys Dying in 1863, in Virginia, and Later Elsewhere. 1967 ...Some Americans, this poem says, must have been wrong at Chancellorsville, for only Americans fought there. This deeply questions the statement: America is fighting—this is all we need to know. How Americans disagreed with Americans in May 1863! The quatrains of the poem cannot conceal this at all.