Walt Whitman and Herman Melville were both affected by the Civil War to such an extent that they each published a volume of poems concerning the conflict. While both men address similar issues and feelings, particularly in their poems about death, they do so through means as significantly different as each man's Civil War experience. Whitman spent much of the war visiting wounded soldiers in Washington, witnessing their physical and emotional devastation, and speaking with them about their experiences. He wrote letters home on behalf of those who couldn't, and sometimes even wrote to inform parents of their son's death. Meanwhile, Melville, although emotionally involved during the conflict, waited until the final stage of the war to begin gathering information, which was gleaned largely from newspaper accounts (Garner 388). Their different approaches, as well as the name of each author's collection of Civil War poems, are very indicative of what is printed within it. Whitman's Drum Taps, named after the tune played at military funerals, is largely concerned with the profound effects of war on individuals, a technique made more powerful by the reader's awareness that each individual is representative of countless others who have been touched in ways similar. . Melville's Battle-Pieces, however, is a chronological volume that primarily uses historical events as a basis for understanding the emotions of war. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay An ominous darkness permeates the setting of Whitman's "A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown." After marching past midnight through a dark forest, the battered troops come across a church, dimly lit but shimmering in the surrounding darkness. Once inside this “makeshift hospital,” the dim lighting becomes more disturbing, as it is barely enough to illuminate “a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made.” Between “Shadows of the deepest, deepest black” and “clouds of smoke,” the speaker, engulfed by the smell of blood, witnesses a miserable assortment of “bloody forms,” some in “postures beyond description.” Amid the bloody chaos, a wounded soldier commands the speaker's focused attention. The young man's face, "lily white" with blood loss, provides perhaps the boldest contrast to the overwhelming darkness of the poem. Unfortunately, this young man's pure whiteness is only a precursor to his surrender to the shadows, as he peacefully slides to his death, freeing the speaker to "fast forward into the darkness." This scene, so darkly mysterious and heartbreaking that the speaker struggles to describe it, is ultimately just another brief stop on the "unknown road." While the speaker in "A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown" observes the carnage of men living and dead and stays with a soldier as he passes from one to the other, the speaker in "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night" stays with his son after the boy dies. This poem is also characterized by darkness. In "The Battlefield-Dim", the speaker returns to the spot where his friend was killed to see the dead soldier's face lit only by starlight. He spends the entire night with his fallen son, recalling their final physical bond and the deep emotional one that the speaker believes will transcend death, stating, "I think we will definitely meet again." In addition to the lack of light in the poem, sound and movement are also missing. The speaker is so still and contemplative that he doesn't even release onetear or sigh and explicitly note any change in posture from standing to lying down. The poem laments the bloodshed of war while praising the courage of soldiers and celebrating the transcendent power of love to overcome the most merciless carnage. At the end of the poem, the sun is rising, symbolizing new hope for the deceased. The speaker rises "as the day brightens," ending the "mystical and immortal" hours of his vigil. The idea of ​​love conquering darkness is examined once again by Whitman in “Dirge for Two Veterans.” The poem is set as "the last ray of the sun falls lightly" and a beautiful but "horrible phantom moon" ascends. A funeral procession, or "dead march", approaches to place a father and son in a double grave. Once all daylight has disappeared, the moon grows brighter, taking on the aura of a mother's face, "brighter and brighter in the sky," almost watching over them as they begin a new life in its celestial kingdom. As he provides light to the soldiers in an otherwise black night, he calms the speaker, who passionately declares his love to his fallen men. Whitman not only faces painful war zone scenes, but the boundless emotional consequences of incidents like theirs. The effects ripple across the country. The bucolic tranquility of his parents' Ohio home in "Come Up From the Fields Father" stands in stark contrast to the bloody world of soldiers where death has become the new norm. The rhythms of nature are uninterrupted as the generous colors of autumn frame the sweet scent of ripening apples and grapes, while bees flutter peacefully over the buckwheat. But this vibrant sensory stimulation quickly fades when a mother opens an envelope, distressed: “Oh, this is not our son's handwriting, and yet his name is signed.” Immediately sensing disaster, his vision "flashes black" which obscures all but the main words of the letter. Despite the letter's and daughter's assurances that her son will recover from the gunshot wound, the mother senses that her son is dead. The poem slides further into darkness as the mother dresses in black and sleeps restlessly “In the midnight watch, crying, wishing” that she could leave this life and join her beloved son for eternity. The death of young people is also considered in Melville's works. In an early battle piece, "The March into Virginia, Ending in the First Manassas. (July 1861)," Melville marvels at the "confidence and cheerfulness" of the soldiers at the start of the war. Speaking in terms of "youth" rather than individual soldiers, he comments that wars are waged with the "ignorant impulse" of the young, who scorn "the warnings of the wise." Their enthusiasm takes on an almost celebratory tone as "the banners blow and the trumpets blow" under a generously blue sky. He compares their joy to that of picnickers or berry pickers happily walking through the woods. But this carefree atmosphere is suddenly overshadowed when the poet notes that some of the boys with this "cheerful mood" will soon die. But only when the "violent glare" has illuminated them both physically and mentally will they realize their wrong conception of war. It will be too late for those who died, and the survivors will only feel "shame" for having outlived their dear friends. Although the speaker's age allows him to see the perceptual error of the young soldiers, he does not scold. It merely comments on the nature of youth and its unfortunate end in the war, a sentiment articulated more clearly in one of the later Battle-Pieces. In “On the Slain Collegians,” he writes, “North or South? / Each went away with..