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The Hardships Of War In Walt Whitman's Beat ! O Captain !

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The Hardships Of War In Walt Whitman's Beat ! O Captain !
One of the most credited poets throughout the Civil War period was Walt Whitman, who wrote about the hardships of war in his work. In particular, two of his poems are not only heavily intertwined based on topic, but in structure and used literary techniques. “Beat! Beat! Drums!” and “O Captain! O Captain!” both share many similar qualities among figurative, sound and structural devices that Whitman uses to help further enhance the theme of how negatively war can impact individuals.

At first glance, one can observe how orderly the structure in both poems are. Both works are split up into three separate stanzas, each poem using different tones to bring out the hardships of war. “Beat! Beat! Drums!” has a war marching tone to it, as it is rhythmic and adds to the sounds of war in addition to the sounds of beating drums and blowing …show more content…
beat! drums! — blow! bugles! blow!” This particular line is tied with anaphora, as it appears at the beginning of each stanza in the poem itself, further enforcing the wartime setting. The exclamation marks that are used in the poem’s title are symbolic of how soldiers will blindly follow each other and act on decisions without thinking, which is shown in the line “Make no parley — stop for no expostulation, mind not the timid — mind not the weeper or prayer...”. “O Captain! My Captain!” possesses a few of the same structural traits that the former poem does. For example, “O Captain! My Captain!” is also written in three separate stanzas and has an anaphoric title, but the stanzas of this poem are structured in a juxtaposed manner. The first two stanzas switch off from a positive song-like tone to a negative and shocked view about the war. This shows the mood changing
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