Poets, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
[388] _Ib._, 12.
[389] _Wound-Dresser_, 32, 33.
[390] Camden, ix., 200.
[391] _Wound-Dresser_, 13.
[392] _Ib._, 42.
[393] _Ib._, 13; Calamus, 24.
[394] _Wound-Dresser_, 39.
[395] _Ib._, 30, 31.
[396] Donaldson, 153; _Comp. Prose_, 51.
[397] _Mem. During the War_, 3.
[398] _Recollections of Washn. in War Time_, A. G. Riddle, 1895. _See
Transcriber's Note._
[399] _Wound-Dresser_, 74, 84.
[400] _Comp. Prose_, 453, 454.
[401] _Ib._, 104.
[402] _Wound-Dresser_, 62, etc.
[403] _Wound-Dresser_, 79.
[404] _Ib._, 123; _Comp. Prose_, 70.
[405] Dr. T. Proctor in _Journal of Hygiene_, Feb., 1898.
[406] _Comp. Prose_, 38.
[407] Calamus, 31.
[408] _Wound-Dresser_, 112.
[409] _Wound-Dresser_, 156, 157.
[410] _Ib._, 159.
[411] _Ib._, 160.
[412] _Ib._, 161.
[413] _Wound-Dresser_, 139, etc.
[414] _Ib._, 37, etc.
[415] _Ib._, 198.
[416] Bucke, 38, 39.
[417] _Supra_, 181.
CHAPTER XIII
A WASHINGTON CLERK
While Whitman was at home, during the latter part of 1864, he doubtless
put the finishing touches to _Drum-taps_, which was printed at New
York early in the following summer. Several of the poems in this
collection had been written in that city during the two years which
had elapsed since the last publication of _Leaves of Grass_, before he
set out for Washington. The manuscript had remained at home, tied up
in its square, spotted, stone-colour covers,[418] but was sent on to
him, to be discussed in the Washington circle. Early in 1864 a friend
seems to have taken it the round of the Boston publishers, but without
success.[419]
If we are to understand Whitman's attitude towards the war, we must
glance at the little brown volume of seventy-two pages, _Walt Whitman's
Drum-taps_. Among the poems which preceded his visit to the capital
were probably the song of "Pioneers,"[420] with its cry of the West,
and the poem of the "Broadway Pageant,"[421] of 1860, celebrating the
Japanese Embassy, and forming a complementary tribute to the maternal
East. To these one may add the lines to "Old Ireland"[422] and the
noble "Years of the Modern".[423]
In this last he proclaims the growing consciousness of solidarity among
the peoples of the world. Artificial boundaries seem to be breaking
down in Europe, and the people are making their own landmarks--witness
the rise of a new Italy. Everywhere men among the people are awaking to
ask pregnant questions, and to link all lands together with steam and
electricity.
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