Walt Whitman’s 2020

by Sarah Hughes

Walt Whitman’s Civil War Poetry and Prose ages well for all the turbulence of 2020. Here are some quotes from poems and letters to remind the modern reader what’s old is new, and allow reflection on the past year’s tensions.

Normal abruptly stops

/How you sprang – how you threw off costumes of peace with indifferent hand,/

/How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were heard in their stead,/ (1)

/The mechanics arming, (the trowel, the jack-plane, the blacksmith’s hammer, tost aside with precipitation,)/ 

/The lawyer leaving his office and arming, the judge leaving the court,/ 

/The driver deserting his wagon in the street, jumping down, throwing the reins abruptly down on the horses’ backs,/ 

/The salesman leaving the store, the boss, the book-keeper, porter, all leaving;/ (2)

/Leave not the bridegroom quiet – no happiness must he have now with his bride,/

/Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,/ (4)

/No bargainers’ bargain by day – no brokers or speculators – would they continue?/

/Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?/

/Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?/ (4)

Pent up turbulence

/Forty years as a pageant, till unawares the lady of this teeming and turbulent city,/

/Sleepless amid her ships, her houses, her incalculable wealth,/ 

/With her million children around her, suddenly,/

/At dead of night, at news from the south,/

/Incens’d struck with clinch’d hand the pavement./ (1)

Year of the struggle

/Arm’d year – year of the struggle,/

/No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you terrible year,/ (3)

“with all their large conflicting fluctuations of despair & hope, the shiftings, masses, & the whirl & deafening din” (80)

New fashion and pounds

/With the pomp of the inloop’d flags with the cities draped in black,/

/With the show of the States themselves as of crape-veil’d women standing,/ (28)

“I miss you all, my darlings and gossips, Fred Gray, and Bloom and Russell and everybody. I wish you would all come here in a body – that would be divine (we would drink ale, which here is the best). My health, strength, personal beauty, etc., are, I am happy to inform you, without dimunition, but on the contrary quite the reverse. I weigh full 220 pounds avoirdupois, yet still retain my usual perfect shape – a regular model.” (64)

Longing for loved ones and focusing on simple things

“Dearest son: it would be more pleasure if we could be together just in quiet, in some plain way of living, with some good employment and reasonable income, where I could have you often with me, than all the dissipations and amusements of this great city – O I hope things may work so that we can yet have each other’s society – for I cannot bear the thought of being separated from you – I know I am a great fool about such things but I tell you the truth dear son.” (75)

Meaning in turmoil

“When I found dear brother George, and found that he was alive and well, O you may imagine how trifling all my little cares and difficulties seemed – they vanished into nothing.” (60)

“there is something that takes down all artificial accomplishments” (75)

“I do not feel to fret or whimper, but in my heart and soul about our country, the forthcoming campaign with all its vicissitudes and the wounded and slain – I dare say, mother, I feel the reality more than some because I am in the midst of its saddest results so much.” (77)  

“I will write you a few lines – as a casual friend that sat by his death-bed.” (82)

Whitman writes surrounded by death, commenting on the circumstances of his world and missing loved ones, even writing some letters while sick. It’s as if life has halted for war and injuries of war.

Of course, Whitman is writing about the Civil War, so images of agitations are more dire and tragic, even if they bear resemblance to current day.

Walt Whitman’s Civil War Poetry and Prose is available in Dover Thrift Edition via Books-A-Million and Amazon.