Analysis Of Walt Whitman's A March On The Ranks Hard Prest

The Ranks Unveiled

War is hell. It is something universally known to the inhabitants of the world. No matter what time period, location, or nation, war has always existed in different forms, and no more merciless that it has always been. The main victim of war has always been the common man, for he is the one who fights, who kills, and who dies. In Walt Whitman’s “ A March on the Ranks Hard Prest, and the Road Unknown”, he describes just how terrible the effects of a war are. In Whitman’s eyes, war is traumatizing and painful, but America will shine and push through the darkness.

The poem begins with a solemn tone, a soldier’s army is retreating after a crushing defeat. They fall back into a church, made into a makeshift hospital. What Whitman

He gives the reader no margin for error, this poem is about the horror of war. Whitman was forty two years old when the civil war started, and the war proved to be a major part of his poetic career. Although he never fought in the war, he realized and knew fully what traumatizing events transpired during the many battles over the years of the war. Although he did not serve his country in arms, he served it in words and writings. He wrote soaring ballads of America, but also wrote gritty tales of battles such as “A March in the Ranks Hard Prest, and the Road Unknown”. He had seen wounded soldiers one day when he was lost in New York, and after he had witnessed their pain, he found new inspiration to write about what soldiers like those had to go through. Whitman wanted to share how brave these soldiers were, and what they had to endure on a day to day basis while fighting the war.

In conclusion, Whitman writes “A March in the Ranks Hard Prest, and the Road Unknown” to show just how brutal war can be. Everyone knows war to some extent, but not all know the terrifying truths of it. Young men are slaughtered and wounded, families are separated, and nations divided . But America does not fall victim. She will always push through the dark, gritty times, and emerge victorious no matter what challenge lay