Drum-Taps: Collection of 43 Civil War poems (Annotated)

Drum-Taps: Collection of 43 Civil War poems (Annotated)

Annotated Content • Historical Context • Detailed 19th Century Historical Map Drum-Taps , collection of poems in free verse, most on the subject of the American Civil War, by Walt Whitman , published in 1865. The poems in Drum Taps represent Walt Whitman's firsthand account of the Civil War. Drum-Taps, the most powerful and enduring poetry to come from America's most tragic conflict, also contributed to the development of a new, modern war poetry that is not just a sombre witness to combat but also a patriotic exhortation. Drum-Taps is thus a key work not only of the Civil War but of our war-torn times. Synopsis The mood of the poetry moves from excitement at the falling-in and arming of the young soldiers at the beginning of the war to the troubled realization of the war’s true significance. Walt Whitman worked as a nurse in an army hospital during the Civil War and published Drum-Taps, his war poems, as the war was coming to an end. Beside the injured and dying men on the battlefields, Whitman soberly experienced a new America – one with great suffering and bloodshed. One of the early works published after the American Civil War, Drum-Taps reflects a personal and national transition from innocence to experience.