Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman’s Cavalry Crossing a Ford takes several read throughs to understand the details and plot of the poem. Judging b the title, the poem is set in a time of war, the Civil War to be exact. Besides the title, a reader can find the war symbols through the horses, which were used to travel and fight the war, along with the sound of instruments.  Unlike an intense militia scene, Cavalry Crossing a Ford has a feeling calmness and tranquility. Whitman describes the horse as loitering and having them stop for a drink. The idea that the war was in a slow pace gives a sense of stillness to the poem. The poem also includes the instruments and the horses as a form of figurative language. These items attract to the reader’s eyes and ears, making them examples of imagery. Many of the characteristics in Walt Whitman’s poem remind me to those of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was well-known for incorporating nature into his work. In fact, his most famous novel is titled Nature. Walt Whitman’s description of the landscape was very detailed (Whitman). He mentions green islands and a silvery river. Whitman also describes the colors not only on the land, but also on the flags. His detail of the horse also adds to the description of nature (Whitman). While the descriptions and details in the poem are heavy, Cavalry Crossing a Ford has a deeper message. One critic attempts to explain the message, “Rather, we are presented with the war on a microscopic scale, as the daily experience of the soldiers. There is no sense of where the regiment is coming from, or where they are going, which is how the individual soldier often feels about military life” (Casale). As soldiers, the main characters in the poem are fighting for what they believe in which is the philosophies behind several of the Transcendentalist writers. Thoreau and Emerson both had strong feelings that the fought for through their own writings.

Casale, Frank D. "'Cavalry Crossing a Ford'." Bloom's How to Write about Walt Whitman. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, [c1900]; Bartleby.com, 1999.