Walt Whitman and Drumtaps Essays

"Reconciliation" is a poem that was meant to open the eyes of the reader to the effects the war had after it was over. It is written through the eyes of a dead soldier who has seen what the war has done. This soldier has the blood of many men on his hands and will always remember the death. Where "Editha" showed the significance of war in relation to a person's love of their country, "Reconciliation" tells in a few strong lines, the somber mood of a country that has lost many lives. Whitman writes, "For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead"(Whitman 129). It is not said what side this "divine" man fought for but it shows that no matter what side the men fought on they were fighting for what

Whitman’s point throughout the story is that in war there is more suffering than there is glory or bravery. This can be seen in the first section of this poem:

“War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” (80)

Walt Whitman, a democratic poet, celebrated himself and his connection with the world by writing “Song of Myself” in 1855. According to Eric Forsythe, “Throughout the poem, Whitman probes the question of how large the new democratic self can become before it dissipates into contradiction and fragmentation, and each time he seems to reach the limit, he dilates even more” (Forsythe). The poem shaped the idea of what it meant to be an American, by bringing citizens together. It also foreshadowed the Civil War, which began in 1861, through a symbol of grass. In “Song of Myself,” Whitman’s themes of individualism and carpe diem developed from the transcendentalist movement.

I related the overall war to everyday life. Sometimes it goes smoothly and other times there are “battles”. Whether the battles are mental, physical, or emotional and if you win depends on you and how hard you are willing to push back. Sometimes you get wounded. “I was shot twice…I almost smiled, except then I started to I might die” (180). “…when I was released from the 91st Evac Hospital, they transferred me over to Headquarters Company-S-4” (182). Sometimes in life there are challenges, but eventually with determination, you can preserve and in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. It’s about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow” (81). I think that it’s important that you take in the little things, because that’s what life’s about. It is about taking chances and making the most out of life. Life’s about going through the struggles and hard times in order to make the good ones even better than they would’ve been

“War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” —O’Brien, page 76

War is a horrible thing that comes out of hatred in people’s hearts and produces tragedy around it. War comes and goes but in its path are people who have to suffer through the hardships it brings. Two of the most notable aspects of war is that war is a fight for power and that produces loss of family.

I consider myself a lucky person because I never had the chance to live a real war events. I learned in school about wars involving my country, I read many books about wars, I watched many movies about wars, but I never have experienced the emotions of war. Anyway, there have been wars since the beginning of the world and continues to exist today. In my family there are few members who have experienced the horrors of war and even my parents told me about the negative effects of war seen through the eyes of children. I understood how bad war can bring both to a human life and in the life of a nation. But most of the time, I thought only the negative effects of war in terms of economic, social, loss of lives, and less on the

Similarly to trees who are cut down only to be replaced by another the soldiers were constantly being replaced by another because they were dying rapidly for a war that wasn't going anywhere. This proves the theme that the immature can fight, it takes true maturity to settle ones’ differences because, had the people been mature enough to settle their problems reasonably the soldiers wouldn't be piling up and they would instead be bearing fruit that would have actually worked to better the nation, instead of dying to settle an old feud. Diction/ Tone “People scorned the…” -Europe line 13 By using the word “scorned” to describe the Peoples feelings Whitman creates a disappointed tone toward his fellow americans.

In the next lines, Whitman makes the assertion that both soldiers vividly know the price of war. He describes it as “hot contention of opposing fronts”, “the long maneuver”, and “red battles with their slaughter”. These observations about battle illustrate that both soldiers have seen the difficulty of the fight and how both sides try to out strategize the other. The red battles of slaughter, illustrate the death toll that those strategies and contentious battles have created.

Walt Whitman was born in 1819, a second son to a housebuilder and one of 9 children. He worked as a printer at an early age, this is where he became enamored with the written word. Working as a printer in New York until a fire devastated the printing section of the city he was self-taught reading the works of Homer, Dante and the Bible. Whitman worked as a teacher for several years before becoming a journalist, full-time and establishing the paper The Long Islander. He worked as an editor for several papers before moving to New Orleans to become the editor of The Crescent where he first experienced the reality of the slave trade. Returning to his hometown of Brooklyn in Long Island he founded the newspaper the Brooklyn Freeman and continued

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island, New York. He was the second of six children. From 1825-1830, he attended public school in Brooklyn. After his years of education, Walt Whitman experimented with many different jobs. From 1836-1838, Whitman taught at several schools in Long Island. After teaching, Walt Whitman returned to printing and editing in New York. During this time he edited many papers such as the Aurora (daily newspaper), Evening Tattler, Brooklyn Weekly Freeman, Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the Brooklyn Times. In addition to editing, he also wrote for the Long Island Star. From 1850-1854, Whitman owned and operated a printing office and a stationary store. During

“The actual soldier, North and South, with all his ways, his incredible dauntlessness, his superb strength and lawless gait, will never be written. No future age can know, but I well know, how the war resided in the unnamed, unknown rank and file, and the brunt of its labor of death was volunteered” (Whitman, www.dentistry.com/cwrt/cwrtlink.html). This view of Whitman’s clearly illustrates that he believed that he understood the emotional and psychological aspects of the soldiers well enough to probe deeper their minds in order to find a truth yet untold. It is these strikingly different imageries that set the mood for the poem: that of an unobtainable peace that cannot be grasped but for a fleeting second. The next lines of the poem take the contrasting landscapes and add a human element into the poem in order to symbolically represent not the presence of human beings, but their emotion and thought. The fifth line, "The numerous camp-fires scatter'd near and far, some away up on the mountain", I believe not only gives the reader an image of the scene being depicted in the poem, but also is representative of a typical soldier's feeling and psyche during the war. Numerous journal accounts reveal that often during the time of war, the soldiers' thoughts would "scatter" with things both near and far to them, with images of returning home, of peace, and of seeing their loved ones for the

Walter G. Whitman traveled to the East with his family between the years 1925 and 1926. His destination was China, though he spent some time visiting India. Among the places in India he saw were Jaipur and Bombay. He did not linger in India long and there is only a short section in Whitman’s memoir of his time in India. What he did bring back from India was a sizable collection of postcards.

There are only two probable outcomes in the battlefield; either your enemy overpowers and takes your throne and glory to themselves or you humble them by subduing them. Regardless of the aftermath, there is a cost to pay which ordinarily involves tears, sweat, and pain. Even those who have won will tell of the many times they failed which serves as valuable lessons to them and others. War is an agonizing moment; the torment, scares and the products are obviously not something to smile about. Nevertheless, the positive thing is that war begets peace.