Whitman, unlike his southern brethren, does not see the war as anything of moral value, he sees it as a necessity brought on attempted secession, and a tragic thing to have to do. Beat! Beat! Drums concerns itself not with politics or ethics, but only with those ways in which war affects common people living their lives, and even the memories of those passing on,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
Whitman explicitly directs those terrible drums "Into the solemn church", "Into the school", and denies husbands, farmers, traders, lawyers and brokers their daily work. Every class and creed are taken from their niches by this war, according to Whitman's poem.
Contrast this outlook with reasonably representative excerpts of Timrod's Cotton Boll, describing his homeland and the glory, at whatever price, soon to be had by his country's forces:
And as the tangled skein
Unravels in my hands,
Betwixt me and the noonday light,
A veil seems lifted, and for miles and miles
The landscape broadens on my sight
Oh, help us, Lord! to roll the crimson flood
Back on its course, and, while our banners wing
Northward, strike with us! till the Goth shall cling
To his own blasted altar-stones, and crave
Mercy; and we shall grant it, and dictate
The lenient future of his fate
Timrod has no reservation about calling on divine help to roll northward and crush the foe. He does, however, appreciate the beauty of lands around him. Like Whitman, he is not eager for blood to stain the soils of lands he loves.
Breaking with Withman, however, Timrod views the war as a moral struggle for his country. Not necessarily to retain the capacity of holding slaves, but to retain essential freedom itself.
1 comment:
While I certainly agree with your claim that Whitman views the war as a necessity and as something that is tragic, I feel that, in your interpretation, you are missing an integral part of the poem. To me, this poem is a satire, in which Whitman assumes the role of one commanding an army, and reinforces the progress of war. His commands to go ‘into the solemn church’ and ‘into the school’ are mocking the underlying commands of urging the procession of war.
I also feel that this poem, contrary to your claim, does concern itself with ethics. I think that Whitman, through this poem, is forcing people to question the necessity of war, and to stop and think about whether or not it is it ethical. Is it right, is it just (Whitman seems to be indirectly asking in this poem) that these innocent people’s lives are disrupted through war?
On a similar vein, I don’t feel that Timrod is ‘breaking with Whitman’ in viewing the war as a moral issue; I just think that the two poets have drastically different views on what moral issues are important. To Timrod, the freedom of the South is his prominent moral concern, while to Whitman the necessity of war in general is his main moral dilemma.
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