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Posted by Nit Whit on February 06, 1998 at 14:01:59:
In Reply to: War and Wound Dresser posted by Michael on February 01, 1998 at 21:38:33:
Michael:
I don't think Whitman can be characterized as
being anti-war.
When the Confederacy seceded from the
northern states, Walt vigorously supported the
fight to preserve the Union. In THIS DUST WAS
ONCE THE MAN he described the secession
as "the foulest crime in history known in any
land or age". In THE WOUND-DRESSER he
describes himself as "arous'd and angry",
ready to "urge relentless war".
But then he saw the Civil War first-hand, and
he understood the horrors even as he continued
to support the Union's fight to stop the
secession of the Confederate states. In LONG,
TOO LONG AMERICA he tells his country that
in the past it "learn'd from joys and
prosperity only, But now, ah now, to learn from
crises of anguish...".
After the war, he understood the need to
forgive, as exemplified in the poem
RECONCILIATION. He understood that in a
war of real people, no one is less human. "Was
one side so brave?" he asks in THE
WOUND-DRESSER. "The other was equally
brave..." is his reply.
I will conclude with one of the most
interesting facts about Walt's life. After the war,
Whitman's feelings of reconciliation must have
been complete, because Peter Doyle -- the love
of Walt's life -- was a former rebel soldier (see
Kaplan, pages 311 and 313).