ANALYZE A whitman's poetry - Essay Example

In his figurative pieces were explored themes pertaining to the love of country, manhood, death, the enduring virtues of hope and courage, ideal state of heroism, conquest, and man’s state of nature. As Whitman’s poems bring across the essence of each theme, a critical reader may readily unfold the capacity of engaging in the poet’s realm of personal insights and profound understanding of the war that occurred not at all indifferent to him. To such a reader, Whitman would appear to be communicating a rich narrative in which he is a significant part of, for the imagery in his poems possesses the quality of concrete details and appropriate word choice that likely adheres to one’s recollection.

This is quite evident in the piece “A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim” that is substantiated by the lines “Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended lying, / Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woolen blanket / Gray and heavy blanket, folding, covering all” ( __ 16). . I saw with hand uplifted, menacing, brandishing, … The noble son on sinewy feet advancing, / I saw, out of the land of prairies, land of Ohio’s waters and of Indiana” (10).

While the ‘noble son’ seemingly refers to a man with heroic traits, the same goes for someone who, by all means, did not quit the battlefield no matter how ‘evil days’ or extreme situations befell him. ‘Sinewy’ calls for equivalent descriptions ‘vigorous’ or ‘muscular’ – something made of fiber with persevering strength and such is the poet’s thought of the armed men who crossed borders, state after state, to advance their cause and combat to triumph for it. Apparently, this suggests a type of courage that is subject to the extent of man’s will which, to Whitman’s perception, seemed to have remained steadfast.

On addressing the theme of nationalism, similarly, Whitman’s creation of elegy “O Captain! My Captain!” could prove to be the closest, if not the most, thematically relevant piece about a man’s love for his nation. Written in honor of Abraham Lincoln, after the president’s death in 1865, Whitman treats Lincoln the ‘captain’ in command of ship at an exclamatory tone of pride. It is as though the ship is used as a metaphor to the divided country whereas the ‘fearful trip’ embodies the Civil War and all the revolutionary efforts which the U.S. back then had to go through.

Lincoln is known as the leader who championed the passing of the 13th Amendment which primarily aimed to abolish black slavery, being the root cause of secession by the South or to which separatism which identified the Union from Confederacy owed its painful existence. Though the poet conveyed no specific historical account of the war and the president’s accomplishments, the