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Walt WhitmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Whitman’s dramatic monologue opens with inverted syntax: “Vigil strange I kept on the field one night” (Line 1). This inversion of the traditional sentence structure—which might read, “I kept a strange vigil on the field one night”—unsettles readers and makes them feel the disorientation of battle, especially during the American Civil War. Similarly, the speaker blends his relationship with his fallen friend in Line 2, calling him “my son and my comrade.” Most contemporary scholars agree that the use of the word son is designed to show the bond between the two men—not to indicate an actual familial relationship.
The men share one last look, “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” (Lines 3-4). While avoiding mawkish sentiment, these lines are indicative of the tenderness between the men in their final moment together. The war must go on, however, and the speaker “sped in the battle, the even-contest battle” (Line 5), which introduces one of the poem’s most noteworthy conventions: repetition. The word vigil is repeated 12 times in the poem, and many other words and phrases also recur, as the word “battle” does in Line 5.
By Walt Whitman
A Glimpse
A Glimpse
Walt Whitman
America
America
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Walt Whitman
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Walt Whitman
For You O Democracy
For You O Democracy
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
I Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman
I Sing the Body Electric
I Sing the Body Electric
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Song of Myself
Song of Myself
Walt Whitman
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Walt Whitman