" This poem tells the story about a family who receives a letter from their son, Pete, who is fighting in the war. It soon becomes clear, however, that the letter is not from Pete at all. Whitman brilliantly draws this out by pointing out, from the perspective of one of the family members, that this does not seem to be Pete's handwriting. Eventually, the family comes to learn that Pete has been seriously injured in battle. By the end of the poem, it becomes clear that the family will never see their Pete again. Much of the emotional impact of the poem stems from Whitman's description of the Mother's tragic reaction to the news:
But the mother needs to be better,
She with thin form presently drest in black,
By day her meals untouch'd, then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking,
In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing, that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life escape and withdraw,
To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.
When reading such a poem, it quickly becomes clear that Whitman's war poetry is not merely a journalistic account of the battles between North and South; it also has universal implications that apply in many ways to the current war that is impacting the lives of many American citizens.
Even after the Civil War was won, the proud feeling of victory in the North would not last for long. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln brought the nation to its knees in mourning, and this sentiment was echoed in one of Whitman's best known poems,...
The captain, of course, is meant to represent Lincoln, who steered the ship towards victory but died in the battle, thus being denied the chance to enjoy the sensation of victory with the rest of the nation. At the same time, the poem is deeply personal, because while the rest of the onlookers appear content to celebrate the ship's victorious return, it is the speaker who feels strongest the tragedy of the captain's death.
In many ways, Walt Whitman's reaction to the major war of his era was typical of that of many poets and writers. In the beginning, poets and artists tend to be enthusiastic about the cause of war, as we would see a few decades later in
Europe, when many of the Modernists issued their enthusiastic proclamations at the onset of World War I, only to express their
pain and anguish at the aftermath. Once Whitman was able to see and experience the war firsthand - not only through his own involvement, but that of his brothers and friends - he began to focus his poetic energies on the more tragic side of battle. This would culminate in the
death of Abraham Lincoln, who Whitman clearly regarded as an irreplaceable hero of the Civil War. It is clear that a part of Whitman died when Lincoln was assassinated. By reading Whitman's war time poetry, we get a deeper, more intimate sense of the impact of the Civil War on an entire nation.
Works Cited
Whitman, Walt. "An Army Corps on the March." Retrieved April 16, 2008 at http://hometown.aol.com/gordonkwok/cwpoetry.html.
Whitman, Walt. "Beat! Beat! Drums!" Retrieved April 16, 2008 at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass/Book_XXI#Beat.21_Beat.21_Drums.21.
Whitman, Walt. "Bivouac on a Mountain Side." Retrieved April 16, 2008 at http://hometown.aol.com/gordonkwok/cwpoetry.html.
Whitman, Walt. "Come Up From the Fields, Father." Retrieved April 16, 2008 at http://www.civilwarhome.com/comeup.htm.
Whitman, Walt. "O Captain! My Captain." Retrieved April 16, 2008 at http://www.bartleby.com/142/193.html.
