"The Wound-Dresser"

"But in silence, in dreams' projections, / While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on, / So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the sand, / With hinged knees returning I enter the doors, / (While for you up there, / Whoever you are, follow without noise and be of strong heart."

My first thought is when when was that poem about footprints in the sand written? The poem that tells us that God walks with us, carrying us when times get tough. I am reminded of that poem when Whitman talks of the wave washing away the imprints of the sand. 

My second thought, as I try to think about Whitman's beliefs, is that he's talking to the unborn. He says, "In dreams projections" which to me is in the future. He realizes, as he tends the dying and the wounded, that someday, the ugliness of war would be forgotten. I think he is asking the unborn to bear witness to the tragedy of war. Sort of like, beware:  history repeats itself. I think the romantic democratic ideals of the poet have been altered in the face of death. I think he's become cynical and angry, but not for himself, for the loss of young lives. 

Drum-Taps is a hard section to study because of its sadness and focus on death. Up to this point, Whitman has seen death as the circle of life. He romanticized it. He talked of his body lying beneath booted souls, giving back to the earth. These poems see a different side of death.  I think I feel Whitman's anger, but sometimes it's hard to get the right tone.

Mostly I think I feel Whitman's grief.