The Artillery Man's Vision Summary

In the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” Whitman compares the Civil War to a trip. “...our fearful trip is done” (1). The Civil War was one of the nations scariest wars. It was scary to the nation because no matter who won we were losing as a unit. During the war no matter who won the country was losing lives because every single soldier in the war was from the U.S.A. If the south won the nation hurt because they would secede and slavery was still intact, if the north won the nation was not as badly hurt but we still lost countless lives but ended slavery and secession. It could also be compared to a trip because what people thought was going to last a day if that lasted almost 5 years. In conclusion Whitman’s metaphor depicted the Civil War exceptionally.

This essay will begin by examining the importance of O’Flaherty’s description of the setting in his short story “The Sniper”, and how his description of the setting emphasizes the reality of war. From the beginning of the story, O’Flaherty portrays a dark and dull setting of war. “Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey.” (O’Flaherty) In this passage, O’Flaherty describes the setting of a simple street in Dublin at dawn. This creates a dreary tale to read. The setting in this short story emphasizes how tedious war can really be and how sometimes there can be no action for a long period of time. Usually, when there are wars in movies or novels, the plot does not focus on the

Through journals and diaries, Mary Chesnut, Warren Goss, and Randolph Mckim provide diverse views of the civil war and no military and that time period. Because of the perspectives of the authors, their views vary in both subject matter and opinion, Chesnut was not affected by the war, only would be if the south loses, Warren goss told us about the military, through his experience in the military. Mckim illustrates what life is like is like on the battlefield. Based on these differences, Mckim provides the most compelling and accurate account of life during this time period.

In the Battle of the Wilderness, he describes, Rebel troops that could produce entrenchments and palisades that were impressive in both scale and build time. In that same skirmish, Grant was described as exasperated by his subordinates who, because of the reputation that followed Lee, were somewhat overly jumpy in their desire to know Lee’s next move. Further, aside from the descriptive analysis of in-war feats and failures, Grimsley also covers the political emotions felt by the American citizenry. Northern reactions fluctuated. When the match at Mule Shoe took place, for example, the tone within accounts bounced from elation to dejection. Southern war responses, according to the volume, “remained upbeat throughout the campaign.” Whether giving account of the war efforts, the political atmosphere of the war, or of civilian reactions, Grimsley paints a picture that generates a sense of coexistence with these national ancestors. His work is thoroughly researched and he provides personal glimpses into the minds and thoughts of those who influenced or were touched by the war through newspaper articles, letters and diary

The Battle of Gettysburg, within the writings of Michael Shaara, is written in a narrative form retelling the events of the battle giving the reader the ability to visualize each scene as it unfolded in the past. The Battle of Gettysburg can be defined as the turning event during the Civil War. One of the bloodiest battles fought on American soil, Shaara explains the Battle of Gettysburg through the brutality the war brought. The Confederates fought on the offensive side and the Union defended the high ground. The foretelling of these events is told through the eyes and minds of the Generals, Colonels, and soldiers. In The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara explains in detail the plans, the execution of those plans, and how the soldiers reacted during each day. Shaara explains the means to which men will justify their actions during war to use tactics that show glory and how the idea of winning leads to a blindness towards other possibilities. He justifies this claim by giving an insight into the feelings and justification for the actions between the Union and the Confederates, the emotions of the Generals and Colonels to emphasize the reality of war, and the impact an offensive assault from the Confederates had on the morale of the Confederate and Union armies.

Shaara is able to convey the overall emotion and thoughts of the armies and soldier’s personal feelings of the main characters involved. During a scene Pickett’s men are discussing the cause and reasoning behind the war and later Chamberlain is able to relate to their discussion with confederate prisoners. The confederate prisoners don’t seem to comprehend what everyone is fighting for, Chamberlain and Longstreet are stumbled in thought of the exact cause. In illustrating the rounded view points of reasoning behind the

Picture a scene of complete and utter chaos, a scene of terror and fear. Now imagine that you are in the thick of it, except that scene is the Siege of Petersburg. Around you are the sounds of muskets firing, hundreds at a time, their smoke clouding your vision, the smell of burning gunpowder filling the air, and the boom of artillery as it reigns down around you. You are a Confederate soldier hiding behind the fortifications of what remains of Petersburg, vastly outnumbered by the seemingly never-ending supply of Union Yankees. You wonder whether you will make it out with your life, or become yet another rebel casualty to the failing Confederate cause. “When will this end?” you ask yourself. Little do you know, it is far from over…291...291 more days of the brutality that we call war. However horrific, war brings good things as well. In the case of Petersburg, forcing the Confederate surrender.

causes the poem to flow, and thus lightens up the dark and serious issue of war. The lines "But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place." are easy to read; however, their meaning is extremely

These are the true cold harsh realities of war. It in all its painful and bloody visceral imagery is something that was Whitman's forte. Whitman told the true story of what it was like to be in the middle of war. Although Whitman himself was never in the army, His visual style can sometimes make it seem as though he was right there on the front lines fighting the enemy:

In Walt Whitman’s poem, “The Wound Dresser,” the moments expressed throughout take place during the Civil War and are experienced by an old, devoted wound-dresser. The poem begins with the wound dresser having to make a choice on whether he should tell a group of children what he went through “or silently watch the dead” (17). Through the poem, the narrator captures the internal struggles he faces when dealing with a numerous amount of wounded soldiers day by day while at the same time trying to do his job. It is when the narrator is having these inner struggles that the poem distinctively uses punctuation and diction to fully capture unforgotten flashes imbedded in the mind of the narrator.

Since the emergence of written history, many fables regarding war have encompassed a significant portion of prosodic literature. Two of the foremost war poets of the 19th and 20th century—Emily Dickinson and Rupert Brooke—have both written about profound implications of war on society and also upon the human spirit albeit in two very different styles. The book, Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, theorizes through Allie, that Emily Dickinson was indubitably the superior war poet. Furthermore, when we analyze their works as well, we realize the invariable fact that Dickinson’s work delves into war with a much more holistic approach as well. She not only honours the soldiers for their valiant efforts, but also deftly weaves notions of liberty and civilian duty in regards to war as well as compared to Rupert Brooke who carried a romanticized imagery of martyrs within his poetry. In summation, Emily Dickinson is a superior war poet for her incisive analysis of death, and human nature in correspondence to war as compared to the patriotic salvos of Rupert Brooke’s poetry.

Use of free verse in this poem creates a lack of structure that appears to parallel the soldier’s own lack of structure and direction in his own life after he leaves the war. The poem begins with the image of a soldier's and his squadron raiding a farmhouse:

Poets frequently utilize vivid images to further depict the overall meaning of their works. The imagery in “& the War Was in Its Infancy Then,” by Maurice Emerson Decaul, conveys mental images in the reader’s mind that shows the physical damage of war with the addition of the emotional effect it has on a person. The reader can conclude the speaker is a soldier because the poem is written from a soldier’s point of view, someone who had to have been a first hand witness. The poem is about a man who is emotionally damaged due to war and has had to learn to cope with his surroundings. By use of imagery the reader gets a deeper sense of how the man felt during the war. Through the use of imagery, tone, and deeper meaning, Decaul shows us the

From Peter boyer to his father it shows how intense and disorienting the battle must have been. He went wherever the generals told him to go and when he was in his breast works it shook them from the shear force of the cannons and muskets. He also shows that even during this the man to right and left is the most reassuring thing you can hope to

"The Wound Dresser" by Walt Whitman reveals the way of life for soldiers during the Civil War by reporting the way they suffered, the lack of nurses and medical assistance, and the sacrifices the soldiers made. Since the poem takes place during a time of war, there was a numerous amount of suffering and death. Suffering was a major focal point in a soldier's life and was something they had gotten used to. On a daily basis the soldiers were constantly struggling to battle for their lives. Whitman voices, "Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life struggles hard, (Come sweet death! Be persuaded O beautiful death! In mercy come quickly)" (1081). The suffering that the soldiers experienced was so intense that they were