Living a War Twice Veterans are people who have fought for their country and have to experience the horrors of war, come home and act like nothing happened. Viet Thanh Nguyen said, “All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.” Veterans all have a similar experience when it comes to reliving a war, but some deal with dreams, flashbacks, or PTSD. Veterans are all brave, it does not matter how they served, they could have been fighting in the army or being a war nurse. In the poem “The Wound-Dresser” by Walt Whitman, it follows the memory of a nurse from the Civil War. The Veteran nurse has to relive his memories of the war through dreams, he finds himself in a hospital during his time in the Civil War, “Thus in silence in dreams’ projections, / Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals, / The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand, / I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young, / Some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad” (Whitman Lines 40-44). …show more content…
Although the nurse in “The Wound-Dresser” by Walt Whitman has finished his time as a nurse in the Civil War, he has to see all the young soldiers that lost their lives that he was not able to save. Flashbacks, which can also go along with PTSD, are another way that veterans have to refight a
Nevertheless, we would all like to go without it. In the clinical setting, pain and suffering are two words that are used in conjunction. “The Wound Dresser,” by Walt Whitman and “The Nature of Suffering and Goals of Medicine,” by Eric J Cassel addresses the issue of pain and suffering in the individual, and how caregivers should care for those suffering. In “The Wound Dresser,” Walt Whitman describes his experiences as a caretaker to the wounded during the civil war, and the pain and suffering he witnessed
A person should be loved for who they are and everyone should have the opportunity to be themselves. Another poem, “The Wound-Dresser”, goes against the two first stories that I picked. This poem talks about a medic in the war and you get a sense of how gruesome war really is. This medic is just as important to the men carrying guns. The man recalled his horrific memories of
A Discussion of The Wound-Dresser and Leaves of Grass During the late romantic period, two of history’s most profound poets, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, emerged providing a foundation for, and a transition into Modern poetry. In its original form, their poems lacked the characteristics commonly attributed to most romantic poets of the mid to late nineteenth century who tended to utilize “highly stylized verses, having formal structures, figurative language and adorned with symbols” (worksheet)
the Theme of Death in His Poetry Walt Whitman uses the theme of death in his poetry. Whitman's use of death is unlike any other poets. He draws upon his own experiences with death and this makes his poetry real. Whitman spent time as a wound-dresser during the Civil War. During this time, Whitman learned and saw so much. The death that he saw during this time provided him with inspiration in his poetry and ideas and thoughts about death. Throughout Whitman's poetry, the reader can witness
They have formulated death as a positive yet ambiguous state. In Dickinson's "Narrow Fellow in the Grass" and Whitman's "Wound-Dresser", there exists a link in both poets ideas of death through each individuals style of writing. Both poets, through their distinct voice and word-choice, arrive at the same conclusion of death being a good and positive thing. Whitman's "Wound-Dresser" tells the story of an old man remembering his war-tales of watching soldiers die. These dying soldiers resemble Jesus
substance and coherence. Through an examination of a specific poem, "The Wound Dresser", the claims of James and other negative critics can be refuted. The broadest and most general critiques can be dismissed most readily. Henry James accuses Whitman of refusing to deal with challenging moral questions in his poetry. Whitman speaks of the evils of war, suffering, and senseless death in graphic detail in "The Wound Dresser", but to James these evils are obvious targets for lesser poets.
cultural experience, the heritage of the Civil War connects them, throwing a bridge across the darkness, allowing them, unilaterally, to dispel notions of glorious battles and heroic honorable deaths. By examining Crane's Henry Fleming and the wound dresser from 'Whitman's poem of the same name, both fundamental literary differences and essential thematic consistencies emerge. In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming was drawn to enlist by his boyhood dreams. His highly romanticized notion
War, while it directly affects the soldiers fighting, also has immense influence over larger society’s everyday life. This is due to its ability to stretch well beyond the battleground, whether that means the sheer emotion behind each side or the economic strain it causes. During the genesis of America, the country was no stranger to war and its effects. From the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812, the nation both forged itself and reinvented its values in order to settle into a lasting peace.
Death in Poetry Numerous themes are found in poetry. One recurring theme that we have encountered this year is death. It is the main focus of Stevens' "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," Frost's "After Apple-Picking," and Whitman's "The Wound-Dresser" and is hinted at in many other poems. This essay will discuss how the different poets treat the subject differently in relation to various aspects of composition, such as style, form, theme, tone, imagery, metaphor, and diction. Whitman describes
through this poem. The poem is astonishing for its lack of overstated descriptions of discomfort and sorrow. However, the consideration to detail and the illustration of pictures is very complex for a poem written in the nineteenth century. “The Wound Dresser” is an explanation of what Whitman believed was significant to the nursing job at the time when the poem was created. Also, the accounts of the wounded soldiers in the poem are very dependable because Whitman has had an abundantly amount of nursing
Walt Whitman was an unconventional poet. He developed free-verse poetry and wrote about sex and other ‘obscene’ topics. Perhaps his most interesting poems are those he wrote about war. During the Civil War Whitman was a nurse. One would expect war to be an important theme in Whitman’s poetry and indeed it is. He wrote a series of poems titled Drum Taps. Through these poems we can see Whitman’s progression as an enthusiastic citizen, an enlightened observer, and an anguished war nurse. In the beginning
The Civil War era serves as a significant literary period in the United States and throughout the world. The monumental period evolves the merging of literature with historical events; sparking the genuine, artistic heart of American literature. One of the first and most prominent Pre-Civil War court case, Amistad versus United States, influence the relations of the Civil War by exploiting the harsh, controversial, and debatable accounts of slavery and personal rights. Subsequently, inspiring the
Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition Volume 2”. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company 2013. Print • Whitman, Walt. “Song Of Myself.” Retrieved from: Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2013. Print: Pages 24-66 • Whitman, Walt. “The Wound Dresser.” Retrieved from: Norton Anthology of American Literature, 2013. Print: Pages 71-73 • Whitman, Walt. “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Retrieved from: Norton Anthology of American Literature, 2013. Print:Pages 73-78 • “Transcendentalism”
I was awaken out of my sleep by the sound of my alarm going off. It was eight o’clock on the dot. Today was the day. Moving day. The day I finally get to move out of my cramed little studio apartment, and into my very first house. I could not wait any longer. Everything I owned had been packed up into boxes except for the furniture and of course my basic necessities like some clothes, toothbrush, laptop, etc. I sprung up from my bed and ran into the bathroom and into the shower. I proceeded to get
The poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson changed the world of poetry in the mid-nineteenth century with their profoundly different styles. Poetry before Whitman and Dickinson had the diction and poetic form of the contemporary British models, but a movement towards a strictly American expression in writing started to appear in the 1800s. Both poets broke free from the traditional styles with their own very distinctive techniques. Walt Whitman created a name for himself through his long, winding