Drum-Taps Final Words

This section of poetry was a new era in Whitman's life and he embraced it. He wrote of death in a new way. Death was no longer a process of life, it also had an effect on the living. Besides the tragedy that went along with war, Whitman wrote poems based on the stories of soldiers. He sat at campfires, bedsides, tents and he listened, and he wrote. He captured the memories of others so honestly and poignantly. As I read some of these poems, I felt I was standing inside the picture. I still feel like Whitman did some growing during this time, like he became more adult like. This poetry seems to lack the ego that is written in his other poems. I find I still have questions. There were times I felt that Whitman was like the journalist of today--right smack dab in the front lines, but that was not Whitman's style for this war. He was the listener. He captured the stories of others, not the story for himself. This seems to be a change from his journalism days. Was this Whitman's selfishness? Was it that he stayed clear of the actual fighting, out of harms way? I don't know. I'm glad he sat beside the wounded and dying. They needed someone to watch over them and it seems to me that Whitman gave them comfort.