“Beat! Beat! Drums!” by Walt Whitman is definitely supporting Mark Neely’s assertion that Whitman concerns seemed to lie more in liberation and contentment for the Union rather than emancipation for the slaves. “Into the school where the scholar is studying....would the singers attempt to sing? Would lawyers rise in the court to state his case before the judge?” (3-16). All throughout Whitman’s poem it seems as if he is mentally traveling through the town and observing the different scenes that the beat of war drums would disturb and none of these scenes involve the slaves; the scene focus on places in which one would imagine White people to be at (such as the lawyer at the court house). Whitman is insinuating that the beating of these war drums and the blowing of these war bugles are going to greatly disturb the everyday lives of the people, however he seems to leave out a very large group of people, who this war is going to affect more than anyone else: the slaves. Whitman’s omission of the slaves rightful rises eyebrows from scholars and historians, because he is known to be a man greatly concerned about the nation and seems to really push for democracy and freedom, however the plight of the slaves is absent from his expressive writings.
“Mind not the timid-mind not the weeper or prayer, mind not the old man beseeching the young man, let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties.” (17-19). Whitman is concerned about the child, the old man, the religious, the shy, and the emotional, however where is his concern for the slave? The cotton picker? The Negro? The powerless? Those searching for liberation? All of these people are overlooked and not mentioned, even though it would be expected to see some plea for them, because the war was truly over their place in America; however as Neely suggested it seems that Whitman is more concerned about the unity of the of the country, rather than equality for all, because he completely ignores the issue of slavery. It is this issue that makes Whitman’s poem comparable to Timrod’s poem “The Cotton Boll”. Both Timrod and Whitman both ignore the issue of slavery in their poems and focus on the North and South, respectively. Timrod is glorifying the South and its cotton, while Whitman is rehashing all of the wonderful people in his home town that will be disastrously disturbed from their daily routine with the Civil War. As evidenced by their poems, both authors are making the Civil War seem as if it is not about the issue of slavery, but rather a compromise that needs to be made between the North and the South for mutual respect and freedom for both.
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When I was reading Whitman's writing, I saw interpreted it as almost the exact opposite of how you did. I also understood that Whitman was writing about soldiers marching through a town, beating drums and shouting orders. However, in no way does this depict any sense of liberation during war time. I get the sense of intimidation when I read about children crying in the arms of their mothers or lawyers not even gutsy enough to speak out in court. This makes me think that there are forceful measures being dealt out to the people throughout the town they are invading. To me, the drums represent some kind of wake up call that is supposed to let the town know that they are under control by these soldiers, and in no way can this be related to liberation. Captivity is more like it.
Also, I think Whitman does address slavery by the way he characterizes a forceful tone for the soldiers and a powerless attitude for the townspeople. I see this poem trying to exemplify all the characteristics of the black man when Whitman says “Mind not the timid-mind not the weeper or prayer, mind not the old man beseeching the young man, let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties.” This passage from the poem does not only apply to white men in America, but is just how anybody of any race would act if soldiers came marching into their town trying to take control during war. I think Whitman uses the invasion as a double meaning to show that war was intimidating for all races, including the blacks, even though the war was being fought in their respect. Whitman targets slavery as he writes this poem during the Civil War, and I agree that Neely says he is focused on uniting the country. But I also think that Whitman is trying to unite the country by uniting whites and blacks, not just the North and the South.
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