Civil War Poetry and Prose

by Walt Whitman, Candace Ward (Editor)

Walt Whitman experienced the agonies of the Civil War firsthand, working, in his forties, as a dedicated volunteer throughout the conflict in Washington's overcrowded, understaffed military hospitals. This superb selection of his poems, letters, and prose from the war years, filled with the sights and sounds of war and its ugly aftermath, express a vast and powerful range of emotions.
Among the poems include here, first published in Drum-Taps (1865) and Sequel to Drum-Taps (1866), are a number of Whitman's most famous works: "O Captain! My Captain!" "The Wound-Dresser," "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," and "Come Up from the Fields, Father." The letters and prose selections, including Whitman's musings on the publication of his works, on the wounded men he tended, and his impressions of Lincoln traveling about the city of Washington, offer keen insights into an extraordinary era in American history.

Genres: Poetry, Civil War, History, Classics, War, Literature, American

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1872

About the author

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."

Reviews

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

preferred the letters and journal entries to the poetry.

[Chris St Laurent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a poetry fan and I did not care for the poems in this book. I did enjoy his essays and letters, Walt Whitman worked as a missionary in the hospitals for the wounded during the Civil War and I appreciated the historical significance of his first hand accounts of the wounded. There were many amputations and loss of life was also due to disease not just their war injuries. I also liked his descriptions of President Lincoln who he would see around on occasion and also Ulysses S Grant. Couldn’t help but snicker at his descriptions of congress, some things have not changed in 200 plus years!

[Ayne Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whitman experienced the Civil War in several ways, including serving as a volunteer hospital aide in Washington, touring battlefields, and searching for his brother, George, reported to be wounded in action. The impact of the war on the author was profound, and this collection of writings illustrates the horror, loneliness, and anguish of warfare as seen through the eyes of one of our greatest poets.

[Googoogjoob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume contains three sections.

The first half of the book is taken up by selected poems by Whitman on the subject of the Civil War. My reaction to Whitman's poetry, here and elsewhere, is a mixture of appreciation for Whitman's depth of feeling, and for his genuinely spectacular talents as a poet, and occasional nagging discomfort at his frankly egotistical identification of himself and his own ideals and prejudices with those of his imagined America. His war poems tend to waver between romantic-nationalist idealization of Union soldiers, grief and compassion for the dead and wounded, and a perhaps overly-naive view of the United States as an almost divinely-ordained, infinitely perfectible order.

The third quarter of the book is made up of selections from Whitman's Memoranda During the War, a later-cleaned-up-and-published set of journal entries and musings from the war. Whitman's prose, here at least, contains a lot less of the romantic breast-beating and idealization, and a lot more of the heartfelt compassion- he spent a lot of time comforting wounded soldiers, bringing them food, writing letters for them, etc- and as such is kind of more sympathetic than the war-poet Whitman exhibited in the poems. As a primary source, it's kind of limited, though, being of limited scope, and retrospectively edited to boot.

The final quarter of the book is comprised of selected letters Whitman sent in wartime. His love and compassion for the wounded men he spent time with is even more immediately evident here, and he comes across as pretty endearing (and only occasionally egotistical).

I don't quite know how to rate this, I guess. I recommend it as a nice little package of Civil War period flavor, at least.

[Melly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not big on poetry, but this was on my shelf. I enjoyed the prose ( journal entries and letters) for more.

[Julie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whitman's poetry style is not a favorite of mine, but you can not discount his passion. And, even if poetry's not your bag and you're not a Whitman fan, I bet you can't read the tribute poems to Abraham Lincoln without a hankie in your hand. But, aside from the Civil War poetry here, the second section of this little book is comprised of Whitman's journal entries and letters he wrote during the war. These are first-hand accounts of the war, stories from the make-shift hospitals and the recounting of Lincoln's assassination (Whitman actually saw the President regularly and was in town when it happened). I could not put down his journal entries, and I was incredibly moved by his personal contribution to history.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this little collection at a church book sale because it was too cheap to pass up. It contains poetry, letters, and prose in kind of an odd mish-mash. I think I found the letters the most fascinating, especially so soon after my other Civil War reading. It made me really want to read a biography of Whitman -- he led such an odd life.

Of course I liked the poetry as well, but I think I'll prefer reading Leaves of Grass and any other collections (if I ever get around to it -- jeez.) Juxtaposed with the letters I kept struggling to make narrative sense of them and connect them to his life story.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stark contrast to the Whitman of "Song of myself"; here he is sad, pensive and rather weary of life. The war has touched him deeply; but I venture to say that his poetic ability has not suffered. His work here can very easily rank among his best.

[Ellen Moth]

First (real) foray into Whitman—this guy rocks!

Poems (for returning):
- "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
- "Come Up from the Fields Father"
- "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night"
- "A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim"
- "The Wound-Dresser"
- "The Artilleryman's Vision"
- "Look down Fair Moon"
- "Reconciliation"
- "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
- "This Dust Was Once the Man"
- "Quicksand Years"
- "Ashes of Soldiers"
- "Pensive on her Dead Gazing"

[BJ Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the "Memoranda During the War" and browsed through the rest, the letters more than his poetry, on the recommendation of a friend who is interested in Whitman's sense and practice of "presence" to the wounded in the Civil War's hospitals.

Also read "Every Night for a Thousand Years" by Chris Adrian in The New Yorker, September 28, 1997.

[Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Captain my Captain! Good, but I expected better. So intimate, ever still.

[Sandra Oldfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never read a Whitman poem before so this was a good start.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It genuinely occasions on being so beautiful and heroic that he goes past any cynicism one may have about poetry written about war. You hope and know that somewhere there are brave men who laid in their blood-soaked cots knowing that they were going to die; but as their last assertion of autonomy, refused to give in to the weeping despair that it deserves.

[George Dibble · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Some amazing stuff here but also I struggled with the prose section unfortunately. But when Whitman is good he is the best. Some perfect poems in here. Still very excited to read his (earlier) Leaves of Grass. I love how he creates words. His writing influences mine. And even the way I think. My poetry has become way longer the past months or so. And way more narrative. And as much as I talk about Whitman I don't read as much of him as I should but I love how my poetry is becoming but also I miss how clear my narratives used to be and how easy it was for readers to understand it but I don't know I still think it's really fun to innovate and explore this aspect of my poetry. And I think I'll keep at it for a bit. We'll see. Sheesh! Awesome. I love writing.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't gotten through this cover to cover, but have sampled quite a bit. I've also listened to song adaptations of several of these poems.

As one professor portrayed to me in college, Walt Whitman came out of the Civil War a changed man. As one of the great eye-witnesses of the event, Whitman was moved him to write poems both stirring and haunting to commemorate the war and its victims. If you’ve only read “O Captain! My Captain!”, I recommend exploring further. Some of it strikes me as mostly brassy, blaring vamp. Still, Whitman has quite a poetic voice.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it contained graphic descriptions of the battlefield, wounds, and so on-- I found this book much more enjoyable to read than Bierce's. It felt much more real. This was partly due to the fact that it was written partially in a journal format (which is one of my favorite formats to read). His words are heartfelt, honest, and blunt.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought solely to own a printed copy of the long poem, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."

[Jonathan]

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