Walt Whitman's changing perceptions of the effects of the American Civil War and its impact on his poetry

This paper seeks to examine the way that Walt Whitman’s perceptions about the American Civil War changed in Drum-Taps, his book of poems written about the war. The book attempts to capture the emotions of the Northern public throughout the war, without discussing any easily recognizable event of the war, thus creating an emotional record of it. The opening poems are jingoistic, declaring the justness of the war and the hope that it will be over soon with minimal casualties, but about midway through the tone of his poetry shifts into one of cautious optimism. After the shift Whitman’s loyalties to the Union are still very apparent, but he has begun to emphasize the toll that the war has taken both on citizens and soldiers as a way to remind the public of what they have been fighting for.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Pearcy, Andrew

Contributors dc:contributor

• Guy, Matthew W.
• Stuart, Christopher J.; Jones, Rebecca
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Criticism and interpretation

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/361

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1501