Posts
University of Madras
Syllabus
with effect from 2020-2021
BA English Literature
[2nd Year,
4th Semester]
American Literature –
I
UNIT 1: Poetry
1.5 "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night" by Walt Whitman
About Poet:
Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New York. He was
considered as one of the America’s most important poet. In 1855 he
self-published the collection Leaves of Grass, now a landmark in American
literature.
He founded a weekly newspaper, The Long-Islander, and later
edited a number of Brooklyn and New York papers, including the Brooklyn Daily
Eagle.
In 1873, Whitman suffered a stroke that left him partially
paralyzed and died on March 26, 1892.
About Poem:
"Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night" (1865) was first
published in Walt Whitman's Drum-Taps (1865). Later it was also
published in Leave of Grass.
Drum-Taps is a collection of poems in free verse, most on the
subject of the American Civil War.
The poem portrays death and relates a Civil War incident that
the poet may either have witnessed or experienced when he visited the front.
Poem:
Vigil strange I kept on the field one night;
When you my son and my comrade
dropt at my side that day,
One look I but gave which your
dear eyes return’d with a look I shall never
forget,
One touch of your hand to mine O boy, reach’d up as
you lay on the ground,
Then onward I sped in the
battle, the even-contested battle,
Till late in the night reliev’d
to the place at last again I made my way,
Found you in death so cold dear comrade, found your body son of responding
kisses, (never again on earth responding,)
Bared your face in the
starlight, curious the scene, cool blew the moderate night-wind,
Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around
me the battle-field spreading,
Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet
there in the fragrant silent night,
But not a tear fell, not even a
long-drawn sigh, long, long I gazed,
Then on the earth partially reclining sat by your
side leaning my chin in my hands,
Passing sweet hours, immortal
and mystic hours with you dearest comrade—not
a tear, not a word,
Vigil of silence, love and
death, vigil for you my son and my soldier,
As onward silently stars aloft,
eastward new ones upward stole,
Vigil final for you brave boy,
(I could not save you, swift was your death,
I faithfully loved you and
cared for you living, I think we shall surely
meet again,)
Till at latest lingering of the
night, indeed just as the dawn appear’d,
My comrade I wrapt in his
blanket, envelop’d well his form,
Folded the blanket well, tucking it carefully over
head and carefully under feet,
And there and then and bathed
by the rising sun, my son in his grave,
in his rude-dug grave I deposited,
Ending my vigil strange with
that, vigil of night and battle-field dim,
Vigil for boy of responding
kisses, (never again on earth responding,)
Vigil for comrade swiftly
slain, vigil I never forget, how as day brighten’d,
I rose from the chill ground
and folded my soldier well in his blanket,
And buried him where he fell.
Summary:
"Vigil Strange" begins and ends with a short line, bookending
the description in between. The lines
that begin with "vigil" and an inversion ("Vigil strange,"
"Vigil wondrous" and "Vigil final") in effect divide this
poem into three sections -- in plot terms, roughly that's the battle, the
vigil, and the burial.
The speaker of the poem, by the way, is obviously not Whitman, who was a
non-combatant during the war. (He was a nurse; his non- fictional war memoirs
comprise the interesting part of his prose work Specimen Days.)
The relationship between the speaker and the dead soldier is complicated
and ambiguous (another Whitman signature).
It's not altogether clear that they are, biologically speaking, father
and son, for there are too many other choices, in particular suggested by the
undeniable hints of eroticism. At the
very least, we can say that the boy (for obviously he was quite young)
represented many things to the speaker, who chooses a variety of words to
describe the relationship-"my son," "my comrade," and most
interestingly, "my soldier," as if the boy was the speaker's
protector. Mirroring this, the speaker's reaction to the death goes through phases:
near indifference in the face of the "even-contested battle,"
followed by the deepest sorrow of the all-night vigil, finally followed by
stoic acceptance: the burial is of
"my soldier," not "my son."
At the final analysis, the altogether personal reaction to a death just
retreats into the fabric of the war, the "battle-field spreading,"
and at daybreak the speaker must reluctantly bury his comrade/son/soldier where
he fell, and become once again a soldier himself.
The sadness in the poem is palpable, the moment the soldier gets shot and
dies is forever etched into the speaker’s memory. Readers who have been in
battle may identify with this, yet civilians who have never seen battle can
identify in that they feel the tragedy and sadness of death as well. Yet the speaker
returns to the fallen soldier and “found you in death so cold dear comrade…”
Whitman is using apostrophe to emphasize his grief and the familiarity he had
with the dead soldier. It may also be interpreted as a way of mourning, to
address the dead person as if they were still there.
Interesting how the night fits into things: The imagery of night and
stars is intertwined with the speaker's grieving: the dead boy's face is first
seen "in the starlight," as "cool blew the moderate
night-wind." Time during the vigil
is marked only by the revolution of the stars in the firmament. By contrast,
"bathed by the rising sun," the speaker abandons grieving and turns
to the practical matter of burial. It is
only at night, when not fighting, that the speaker can allow himself the luxury
of human emotions; during the day he is a soldier who cannot grieve.
Whitman then goes on to say that “(I could not save you, swift was your
death, I faithfully loved you and cared for you living – I think we shall
surely meet again)” which provides the “good death” and hope of life after death.
This continues as the speaker buries his fallen comrade. He first “Folded the
blanket well, tucking it carefully over head, and carefully under feet,” the
word carefully continues to provide the good death.
Whitman’s poem thus
provides a good swift death with no suffering and a decent burial with people
who cared about the fallen young man.
**********************************************************************
Follow and support our YouTube channel to get English Literature summaries, Communicative English and Language Through Literature Lesson explanations and Task Answers.
Click this link to Subscribe : 👉 Saipedia
0 comments:
Post a Comment
If you need summary for any topic. Just send it in comment.
Don't Forgot to follow me in Our Youtube Channel : Saipedia