pieruccm

Walt Whitman is so genuinely interested in the well being of all of the men to whom he refers – the wounded, the frail, the dying…it is never out of the question for Whitman to be so deeply invested in caring about the humanity that he has come to know and love. In Whitman’s descriptions of the men and “the drapery of white curtains” (756) that surrounded them, I, as the reader, felt as if I was seeing the death in front of my eyes, just as Whitman had experienced.

Whitman seemed to be so affectionate for the men whom he described, like Oscar F. Wilbur, featured in “A New York Soldier” on Page 154. What struck me the most about this particular soldier was his request of Whitman, and then Whitman actually complying to the request that was made – reading from the New Testament!?! Wasn’t Whitman totally against religion? Or organized religion? Or God? I can’t remember off the top of my head where it was that Whitman drew the line in what he believed but I’m sure that reading any part of a highly religious text of a highly popular religion at the time had to be somewhat painful…that is figuratively, not literally, of course. Honestly though, he could have been completely against it and maybe suggested something else to pass the time  to get Oscar’s mind off of the fact that he was dying, but he didn’t do that. Whitman decided that this man’s life (or I guess what was left of it) was far too important to think of his own selfish desires or his pride. Oscar struck me in particular for the fact that he not only wanted to hear about Christ’s crucifixion but also of his resurrection. I suppose he needed something to look forward to, or at least suggest to himself that he was dying for a noble cause, just as Jesus did and perhaps his own resurrection would be in heaven or even further, just in a state of peace after death, which would be better than suffering with the wound and diarrhea.

Another point that I noticed in Whitman’s descriptions of the men and Abraham Lincoln as well was their faces – the color, the description of their faces, and the depth of their eyes, almost as if he could see into their souls and was sharing with the readers the importance of being able to see such a vision. Whitman says of the young man in “Death of a Wisconsin Officer,” “The poor young man is stuffling painfully for breath, his great dark eyes with a glaze already upon them, and the choking faint but audible in his throat.” This description as well as so many others is at points unbearable for me to read. I can just feel the pain and the sorrow jump out of the page. Whitman’s way of writing is so intense in Specimen Days because he is relentless in his descriptions. However, this unbreaking nature is exactly the engagement in Whitman’s writing that I love – being able to see through his eyes and also into his kind heart that otherwise we may have never known.