Blog #3

Walt Whitman was a nurse in the Civil War, and his poem Cavalry Crossing a Ford describes the scenes of a cavalry of troops crossing a ford. First of all, I would like to say that a ford is a stream because if you do not know what a ford is this poem makes no sense. In this poem, he talks about a group of troops that are crossing a ford, winding in and out between islands (Whitman). He talks about how the group of troops marched together at the same rhythm and how they stopped and loitered in the middle of the stream (Whitman). From reading this poem, I thought that Whitman seemed to be very patriotic. For example, at the very end of his poem he says "Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white, The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind." (Whitman 7-8). I think that both Whitman and Emerson both valued and supported freedom, but they believed in different kinds of freedom. For example, the freedom that Emerson worked for was more of an individual type of freedom and the freedom that Whitman wrote about was freedom for his country. Something that I found interesting about this poem was that Whitman never talked in first person or referred to a single soldier, it was always as a group (Whitman). For example, he says "-- their arms flash in the sun--" and "behold the brown-faced men--each group, each person, a picture--" (Whitman 1-4). I think that this poem can be interpreted in many different ways, but the way I chose to look at it made it seem to be very patriotic. I think that Walt Whitman was very supportive of the Civil War because he was a nurse and because he helped the wounded soldiers. Something that all men had in common is their dislike for slavery. In writings from all of them they discuss freedom, and they did not like slavery because that takes away freedom.

Bibliography

Whitman, Walt. "118. Cavalry Crossing a Ford. Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass."Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 09 Feb. 2012.