As I have previously mentioned, the focus on Whitman’s war poetry has been of great interest to me.  In his Songs of Parting, the titles are enough to send chills, and they did.  But as I read on, the poems took on a life of their own.  In them, I could see the faces of all the men (and women) who have fought in the various wars throughout history.  I think that is what I find most inviting about Whitman; his poetry stands the test of time and speaks for more than just the Civil War.

This is the poem that touched me most in the Songs of Parting:

The sobbing of the bells, the sudden death-news everywhere,
The slumberers rouse, the rapport of the People,
(Full well they know that message in the darkness,
Full well return, respond within their breasts, their brains, the
    sad reverberations,)
The passionate toll and clang—city to city, joining, sounding, passing,
Those heart-beats of a Nation in the night.

For the first time this semester, Whitman’s writing brought tears to my eyes.  Lately, I have been thinking so much about war, feeling practically immersed in it.  Many of my family members have fought in war, as well as many of my friends.  We were so lucky recently to welcome home another soldier close to us.  But the horrible reality, is that we aren’t all so lucky.  And that is what this poem spoke to me.

“The sudden death-news everywhere” and “those heart-beats of a Nation in the night” really begin and end the poem in a way that tears at one’s emotional strings.  I actually, as much as I was enjoying it, found the poems tough to read and at times had to walk away from it.  Overall though, I feel Songs of Parting is some of Whitman’s best work.