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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page essay which examines how 'Drum-Taps,' a slim volume of poetry concerning the American Civil War by Whitman, reflected the historical situation of that time. The writer argues that Whitman's poetry reflects an evolution of consciousness that reveals that emotions experienced by the American public as it goes from a patriotic war fever to a realization of the horror and reality of war. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Whitwar.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Civil War and feeling it from the standpoint of a participant are two totally different experiences, yet this is what Whitmans poetry gives to the astute reader. Still, the question
remains as to exactly what Whitman hoped to accomplish with this work at the time of its publication. Davis believes Walt Whitman looked at the horror of the American Civil
War-at unimaginable devastation and loss-and attempted to recreate through the use of his art a social unity that the war had so utterly destroyed and he also states that Whitman
was attempting to "resolve the conflict between the wars sublime and terrible aspects" (163). There is no doubt that the American Civil War affected Whitman deeply, on a personal level
and as a poet. This is illustrated by the fact that Whitmans brother George was wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg and Whitman, himself, went to the battlefield to nurse
him (Monarch PG). His poems regarding this conflict were collected in a slim volume which contained fifty three poems published in 1865 called "Drum-Taps." In a letter to William OConnor
written in January of 1865, Whitman outlined his own evaluation of this war poetry in "Drum-Taps." He wrote: "It is in my opinion superior to Leaves of Grass-certainly more perfect
as a work of art, being adjusted in all its proportions . . . But I am perhaps mainly satisfied with Drum-Taps because it delivers my ambitions of the task
that has haunted me . . . Drum-Taps has none of the perturbations of Leaves of Grass . . . but there are a few things I shall carefully eliminate
in the next issue, & a few more I shall considerably change . . . I have in it only succeeded to my satisfaction in removing all superfluity from it,
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