Throughout Ashes of Soldiers by Walter Whitman, Whitman uses a multitude of different words that help create a feeling of regret for the dead soldiers of the Civil War. Walter Whitman’s syntax and diction throughout Ashes of Soldiers accentuates the feeling of sympathy and loss, versus Whitman’s typical yearning for sexual pleasure, captures the feelings of a country overturned by war. Walter Whitman served as a nurse during the Civil War and the experience of seeing so many men with rotting, sweltering flesh created a mentality for the soldiers that was separate from his views of other men. Whitman’s typical feeling of lust towards men became replaced by an eerie feeling of anguish for those killing the soldiers and a nonsexual tenderness …show more content…
After working with the men that fought in the Civil War, Whitman clearly believed that they were underappreciated and deserved better than what they received. Whitman’s use of words that depict a sense of appreciation and gratitude for the men, “Shroud them, embalm them, cover them all over with tender pride.”, this puts into perspective the feeling that Whitman has for those who gave their lives in order to fight for the causes that they believe in (600). Although Whitman does recognize that the soldiers are ascetically pleasing by calling them his “My handsome tan-face horsemen!”, his defiance of using anything other than a cliché average description of them alludes to the fact that Whitman does not see these men as anything other than as men that fought for the United States in a way that he very much respected …show more content…
Whitman uses the absence of the soldiers as a way to emphasize how those who fought for the country are forgotten and not remembered as the heroes that they are. The poem talks of gathering all of the dead soldiers around him, all of the forgotten and selfless who have received no glory or fame from their sacrifice. Whitman states that the men are “Unseen by the rest and voiceless,” which very accurately depicts the situation that the soldiers were in (599). These men had given their lives for the country and had received no recognition for what they had done, causing turmoil to Whitman because he believed that they deserved more than that, claiming that he wrote this poem in order to tribute it “In the name of all dead soldiers,” (599). The experiences that Whitman went through, watching many different soldiers die, seeing his brother unable to help himself, all influenced the way that Whitman looked at the war and the soldiers of the war. When Whitman describes anything about the soldiers, he consistently mentions the absence of them talking about them as “Phantoms of countless lost,” instead of as a soldier or ghost they are memorialized within Whitman’s poem as the absence of a person (599). Although Whitman intended to give the soldiers of the Civil War a voice, he also felt the need to pay homage in a
“...Put your pistol to your head and go to Fiddlers’ Green.” Throughout literary history, epic stories of heroes dying for their gods and their countries have called men to battle and romanticized death, but Langston Hughes approaches the subject in a different way. He addresses death as a concept throughout much of his work. From his allusions to the inevitability of death to his thoughts on the inherent injustice in death, the concept of human mortality is well addressed within his works. In Hughes’ classic work, “Poem to a Dead Soldier,” he describes death in quite unflattering terms as he profusely apologizes to a soldier sent to fight and die for his country.
Through the evident contradictions listed in this excerpt, Whiman displays the diversity of the country. He shows that a great nation is filled with a multitude of races and ethnicities, not just one. Whitman brings the southerners and the northerners together and briefly shows his prophetic gifts. The southerner soon becoming the northerner is Whitman saying that soon the south will take on the values of the north in abolishing slavery. He sees slavery ceasing thus leading to a “house” that stands because of no division.
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak and Grim written by Walt Whitman, an american poet focuses on a soldier walking through the hospital tent at camp. The soldier examines three deceased soldiers, one old, one young and one who is not young nor old. The poem was written during the Civil War and thus the setting of the poem is a campsite in the Civil War. Although a recognized American poet, essayist, and journalist Walt Whitman had little to no formal education, this however proved to be a defining characteristic in his work. This short poem seems to be simple and straight to the point but it actually lends itself to a deeper meaning.
Walt Whitman was a famous American poet who wrote many great poems during the Civil War. Though he originally worked for printing presses and newspapers, he later became a famous poet. During the Civil War, Whitman wrote many patriotic poems that supported the ideas of the North. Whitman’s poems will forever be linked to the American Civil War era of poetry. Walt Whitman was an iconic American poet with an interesting life that later impacted his works of poetry.
Throughout the history of war poetry, no aspect of war can be said to feature more prominently than the representation of death and dying. While such representations are constant in their inclusion in war texts, the nature of the representation varies greatly, be it as a noble act for ones country, or as the defining negative of war. Poems such as Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ and Seaman’s ‘Pro Patria’ are strong examples of the former; while others such as ‘Dolce et decorum est’ by Owen and ‘The Rear Guard’ by Sassoon best exemplify the latter. The question remains however as to why these representations of death and dying differ so, and whether there is a relevant relationship between the type of depiction and the time period or conflict, as well as the author’s proximity to death’s harsh reality.
It is inevitable when dealing regularly with a subject as brutal as war, that death will occur. Death brings grief for the victim’s loved ones, which William Faulkner depicts accurately and fairly in many of his works, including the short story “Shall Not Perish” and The Unvanquished. While the works differ because of the time (The Unvanquished deals with the Civil War while “Shall Not Perish” takes place during World War II) and the loved ones grieving (The Unvanquished shows the grief of a lover and “Shall Not Perish” shows the grief of families), the pain they all feel is the same.
In Whitman’s poem, “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” he writes about a Cavalry marching off to war. From my research, Whitman recreates a scene from [Union General Lovell H.] Rousseau's raid through Alabama in July 1864, when his troops were crossing the Coosa River at Ten Islands Ford. He brings to life his poem by describing many details about the Cavalry’s surroundings by using lots of visual imagery. It has much visual imagery considering the length of the poem. Whitman also writes using free-verse. The speaker in the poem is taking his time to view nature; he isn’t in a rush to go to war. War is not what the speaker wants to think about. He wants to savor what may his last moments. For he knows that when he crosses the ford, he may not return home alive.
Walt Whitman is considered one of the famous American writers who lived in the 19th century. The author is primarily known for his poetry, and also best known for his masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, which was published in 1855 as a collection of 12 poems. Whitman’s poems were different from those written during the era, and this is because they had a unique style, as well as a concentration of commonplace subjects. The use of commonplace subjects led to many people calling the author the “poet of democracy.” This paper compares Pre-war Whitman and Post-war Whitman. However, this is done through comparing the Song of Myself, Beat! Beat! Drums!, and The Wound Dresser. In addition, the essay also focuses on other facets of the poet.
The way he writes the poem shows how he was in love with the president on how Lincoln conducted himself during the war. He refers to Lincoln as the captain of the ship which is the Union, throughout the poem he begins to call out to the Captain acting like the president was never shot. Through this all, it seems like Whitman could never bring himself to acknowledge the assassination of the late president. He also wrote it as a way to express the grief of losing the beloved commander and chief, and also explain to the American people how Booth killed the man who helped bring the Union together once again. However, he makes the metaphor in this poem explain why he would have wrote it, it shows that through an imaginary situation that things begin to seem alright in the world. Finally, Whitman deals with the pain through the metaphor to cover up the hurt America feels even if he despised the poem later on in
Throughout the span of this semester, much of the literature discussed revolved around the so-called renaissance of American literature and its impact upon both the nation and its people. Of all the authors studied in this time period, Walt Whitman may well be known as the quintessential American author. Famous for breaking every rule known to poetry in the inimitable compilation, Song of Myself, Whitman provided a fresh and insightful commentary upon the dualistic nature of society, love, and life itself. Through defining these essential aspects of humanity, Whitman indeed composed one of the most accurate and enduring definitions of the individual self that literature, American or otherwise, has ever seen. Specifically, this was done through
The chronologically earlier poems celebrate the coming hostilities, expressing Whitman’s "early near-mindless jingoism" (Norton 2130). As one progresses through the work, he finds a less energetic, sorrowful, jaded narrator who seems little like the exuberant youth who began. Understandable so, "[Whitman] estimated that over the course of the war, he had made ‘over 600 visits or tours, and went. among from some 80,000 to 100,000 of the wounded and sick, as sustainer of spirit and body in some degree, in time of need’" (Murray).
Whitman’s approach to poetry is a reflection of his thought. These thoughts are free and wild, and his typical run-on sentences and his endless litanies of people and places represent the thoughts trying to be conveyed. The overall effect of these run-on sentences provides the reader with a feeling of greatness and of freedom. All of the feelings that are evoked from Whitman’s style can be classified as quintessentially American democratic feelings. The belief that Whitman had no style would imply that Americans as a society have no style, a statement that not only Whitman but Emerson and Thoreau as well fought against through their writings. Whitman and Emerson fighting for the same cause is not coincidental, Whitman has often been viewed as the “child” of Emerson, his work being greatly influenced by Emerson. Whitman’s technique of looking at everything as a whole and always opposed to breaking up the whole can be linked to his belief of unity within our country and the reason why he took the Civil War extremely hard and personal.
“The real war will never get in the books” Walt Whitman, who had volunteered as a nurse in army hospitals, famously claimed in Specimen Days (1892) (Whitman). The American Civil War represents a decisive and far-reaching turning point in the development of the United States as a nation. But how much of the “real war” can actually be conveyed via literary narrative? The gruesome experiences of the soldiers and the aftermath of battle? What about the establishment of a national identity and the transformation or disintegration of national ideals and ideology? Writers such as Ambrose Bierce, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Francis Lieber, or Henry W. Bellows did attempt to provide representations of war experiences and provide interpretations of the conflict. Mid 19th-century American nationalism tended to employ literature as a means of sustaining national ideals, evoke patriotic feeling and provide meaning in the face of unprecedented human tragedies. A comparison between two essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 can provide an assessment of the role of literature during the war. These texts have been chosen not as a comprehensive representation of political, social or perhaps aesthetic attitudes regarding the Civil War and its meanings, but rather as an indication of the various, often contradictory, responses the war provoked. A close reading of the essays will enhance our understanding not only of public interpretations of the Northern war aims, but also the conflicting views on national promise and idealized hopes for the future along with the notion of national crisis – or a possible crisis in art and representation.
The soldiers that fought during the civil war were fighting for their livelihood. The northern soldiers needed to bring the south back to the north, and the southerners were fighting to keep their way of life. Whitman was amazed at how far each side was willing to go and was amazed at the sacrifices that the men gave to their causes. The soldiers according to Whitman went through hell just to get to battle which if in the case of Gettysburg was even worse. Food was hard to come by, their clothes were tattered, they marched through heat, cold, rain, through mud, and anything that they needed to to get to where their next battle was, only to march on again once the battle has past (Whitman 333). While Whitman worked as a nurse, he was moved by how strong the soldiers were, and when he was going from Fredericksburg to Washington D.C., he wrote to the wounded soldiers families, as he felt that this was one of the best was he could comfort soldiers as they traveled to hospitals (Home). Whitman’s dedication to these wounded soldiers shows how even if he couldn’t fight in the war, he could help in the recovery of the injured. Walt Whitman thought that the way that the developing culture of the arts was beginning to take shape in what was going on around America. Claiming wilderness for fertile farmland, being able to ship goods anywhere along the coast and further, and expanding the railroad so it could touch the furthest reaches of the Louisiana Purchase allowed new ideas to flow and mingle in the new areas and then be condensed into literature and
Walt Whitman was arguable one of the most influential poets during the Civil War era. Though never directly involved in war, Whitman was able to talk about the war in a more insightful way than many poets at the time could. Whitman was most active in writing during the times before and after the war, choosing to dedicate himself to helping wounded soldiers during the war instead. Walt Whitman’s poetry reflects the progression of his philosophy of America: his initial view of America was uplifting, represented in his Pre-Civil war poems and while the Civil War poetry presents the degradation of American society, Whitman’s final poetry returns to a realistic, optimistic view for America.