Whitman's "Drum-Taps
43 poems addressing the Civil War (broken into thematic sections)
Much of the national discourse surrounding the Civil War was focused on making the war part of a grand national narrative; as opposed to being a part of a story about the nation's fracturin
Drum-Taps" as a cluster
As a cluster, "Drum-Taps" is more structured and builds an emotive wartime narrative
Progression of poems moves from militant exultation and mobilization; to actual experience of suffering and death; to demobilization; then to a justification of the war a
Double-sided purpose/tone of mobilization poems
Opening poems of "Drum-Taps" represent a call to arms (defend the Union)
"First O Songs for a Prelude" (p. 234-6)
"Beat! Beat! Drums!" (p. 237-8)
Arc of "Drum-Taps
Mobilization
"First O Songs for a Prelude" ("It's O for a manly life in the camp")
"Beat! Beat! Drums!"
Poems that confront suffering/death
"Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night" (p. 255-6)
*Some are journalistic, painterly, taken from notations in
In "The Wound-Dresser," how, specifically, does Whitman characterize the poet's vocation? What details in the poem contribute to this?
Whitman's speaker is characterized as an old veteran who recounts his time as an army nurse
"The Wound-Dresser" opens with children asking an old veteran to "come tell us old man" about his war experiences
The role of the poet in this regard is to make th
In "Over the Carnage Rose Prophetic a Voice," what does the voice say?
Those who love each other shall become invincible
To what cluster did this poem (Over the Carnage) originally belong?
All but the first and last lines of this poem were originally part of the 1860 "Calamus
How does this poem participate in the postwar effort to re-describe events so they fit a transcendent narrative of the nation's destiny?
Whitman hoped that the sentiment of "manly affection" would be the cohering principle of the nation in times of peril
Healing figure of men expressing affection for each other across formerly warring regions:
"One from Massachusetts shall be a Missourian'
What was Whitman's involvement in the Civil War? (See powerpoint)
Worked as a hospital attendant in the Civil War, thought to have a profound impact on him and his poetry