Beat Beat Drums
When a country is at war it is the common
people who suffer. In Walt Whitman’s
poem, "Beat! Beat! Drums," the speaker
signifies the sounds of war. The
speaker, listening to the banging of war
drums and shrill sounds of bugles,
relates the interruption these war sounds
have on the harmony of people’s
lives. Whitman uses the sounds of drums as an
audible image to show its effects
on the common people. Whitman uses two
types of imagery to express the cold
indirect and direct effects of war.
Whitman using the loud banging of drums and
the blows of bugles creates a war
atmosphere throughout the whole poem. He
brings in the sounds of war at the
beginning and end of every section to ensure
the reader has a feeling that
the drums are never ending. For example, Whitman
starts the first section
with: "Beat! beat! drums – blow bugles blow", and
ends the first section with
a feeling that the drums are only getting louder:
"So fierce you whirr
and pound you drums – so shrill you bugles blow.
Whitman writes of how
the war is felt on two different levels: one as a
community, and the other as
personal. Using imagery, the sounds travel"through the windows-through
doors-burst like a ruthless force," as if the
drums and bugles are shattering
through the homes of the common people. In the
first section Whitman shows of
how the sounds of war effect the personal lives
of the common people. Whitman
uses imagery to show how the drums and bugles
interrupt everyday life. This
is evident in the lines: "Into the solemn
church, and scatter the
congregation Into the school where the scholar is
studying; Leave not the
bridegroom quiet-no happiness must he have with his
bride, Nor the peaceful
farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his
grain," These four
lines expressed by Whitman have an underlying meaning in
each image he
presents. Whitman uses the image of a "solemn church" to show
how people must
go through each day, with an empty feeling in their souls,
knowing their
lives’ are at risk. Using the image of a "school" being
disrupted; Whitman is
able to express the idea that during a time of war no
education is able to
take place. His underlying meaning, having no education in
a child’s life
only leads to an uneducated group of people in the future.
Again Whitman
is able to create an image of how war effects peoples’ lives
both directly
and indirectly. "Leave not the bridegroom quiet- no happiness
must he have
with his bride," Whitman uses the image of a "bridegroom"
leaving his wife to
show how young men during this time are called off to duty
to defend their
country or side. The underlying meaning of this is that new
families are
unable to be started because of the separation of husbands and
wives. "Nor
the peaceful farmer any peace," Whitman uses the image of a
farmer to express
the idea that no food will be grown because of war taking
place. People’s
everyday work life is effected by this war only creating
problems for the
future. Whitman uses wonderful images to show how the war
affects peoples’
jobs. "No bargainers by day- no brokers or
speculators-would/ they continue?"
The speaker expresses how even the rich
persons of the community cannot carry
on with their jobs. Whitman’s underlying
meaning is that because of the war
an economic depression might happen in the
future. Whitman takes every
section and turns them into a part of the war. Each
section is how a war
would take over a particular community. In the first
section Whitman talks of
all quiet and peaceful places; "church",
"school", and "field." These
show how the drums are easy to disrupt
these calming places. Then Whitman
finishes the first section as the drums are
getting louder or the war is
getting bigger, "So fierce you whirr and pound
your drums- so shrill you
bugles blow." This line states that the speaker can
start to feel the sounds
of the drums and not only hear them. The second section
the speaker knows
that after a war hit the quiet aspects of life it takes on the
noisy. The
second section shows how the drums are so loud they can be heard
through
large cities, "Over the traffic of cities- over the rumble of wheels
in the
streets;" this shows how the war has evolved to something that not
only
disrupts churches and schools but something that disrupts whole cities.
The
speaker then uses good images of jobs in the big city to further his
notion that
that war is taking over all aspects of the common people’s lives.
"Would the
talkers be talking? Would a singer attempt to sing? / Would the
lawyer rise in
court to state his case before the judge?" Whitman uses a
sense of sarcasm in
these two lines. He is stating would these people
continue on with their lives
even though they have this terrible feeling
disrupting their day. The speaker
finishes off the second section with the
drums and bugles getting louder and
heavier, "then rattle quicker, heavier
drums-you bugles wilder blow." In the
third section, Whitman gets into the
feelings of the drums and the drive behind
the war. The next few lines
indicate: "Make no parley -- stop for no
expostulation, 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," Whitman
uses a sense of sarcasm in these four lines.
Make no "parley" or truces
and keep fighting even if you are ruining
everyday life. Whitman is trying to
express the fact that the war has no desire
to stop and will keep on going
until it has to. Who cares about the "timid"
or the weak, who cares if people
are in "prayer" to stop the war; the war
will keep going and people will have
to keep their lives on hold. Whitman uses
an "old" man and a "young" man to
show that the war takes on all kinds
of people and affects every age group.
Whitman uses a great amount of sarcasm in
the line: "Let not the child’s
voice be heard, nor the mother’s
entreaties," he tries to get the point
across that the drums will stop for no
one and the war will keep going until
its resolved. Whitman uses wonderful
imagery to show the cold terrors of war.
This poem "Beat! Beat! Drums" is a
poem to show the horrible effects of war.
War not only has negative effects on
the common people but negative effects
on the future.