Beat Drum By Walt Whitman

The year is 1861, a war to keep the United States together and to bring an end to slavery had begun. The sound of gunshots disturb the sound of once bustling streets. The sound of drums blare the battlefields as soldiers have to fight against their fellow Americans. The Civil War had left a dramatic impact on America, and the people there during the fighting. The impact of the Civil War can be seen in the writing that came at the time of the war. One example is “Beat! Beat! Drums!” by Walt Whitman. Whitman was 42 years old when the civil war started and though he never fought in the war, it was a big part of his life. Whitman uses many literary devices to bring the image of war to the reader's mind and adds to poems meaning. Whitman, through
the use of imagery and allusions, was able to construct a poem about the beginning of the Civil War and what Whitman thought of how the war was happening. Whitman used the drums and the bugles to symbolize the Civil War and used that symbolism to describe what Whitman thought of how the war was affecting everyone.
Whitman chooses to use drums as a symbol of the war as drums were often brought to battles to play during the fighting. Whitman uses that allusion in order to state what Whitman had seen happening to the United States as the war began. The loud drums represent how America saw that this war was the most important thing at the time, this representation can be seen with the line “Over the traffic of cities -- over the rumble of wheels in the streets;”(9). The speaker stating that the drums must be heard over the sounds of everyday life, states that the war is a top priority. The drums drowning out everyday life could mean that was disrupting everyday life. Whitman through the use of allusion and representation uses drums as a means to communicate to the reader on how important the war was to the American public at the time, and how it was disrupting everyday
life.

Throughout the poem, Whitman uses several literary devices the make the reading experience better and allow the reader to better visualize what was happening during the war and the poem.
The poem is in free verse, which is a style of poetry Whitman created. This poem uses repetition as each stanza starts with the line “Beat! beat! drums! -- blow! Bugles! Blow!”(1). This line is repeated throughout the poem to emphasize the idea of the war and how important it was. The poem uses onomatopoeia to describe the sound of the drums, words such as “thump,” and “pound”. The poem also uses personification to describe certain sceneries an example would be “Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,”(3). All of those allow the reader to better visualize what was happening in the poem and what it represents to the
author.