Arm'd year! year of the struggle!
No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year!
Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisping cadenzas
piano;
But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing,
carrying a rifle on your shoulder,
With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands—with a knife in
the belt at your side,
As I heard you shouting loud—your sonorous voice ringing across the
continent;
Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities,
Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the workmen, the
dwellers in Manhattan;
Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and
Indiana,
Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and descending the
Alleghanies;
Or down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on deck along
the Ohio river;
Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at
Chattanooga on the mountain top,
Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing
weapons, robust year;
Heard your determin'd voice, launch'd forth again and again;
Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp'd cannon,
I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.
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1 - 9 of 9
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I love this piece, it describes in away that flows yet doesnt appear to. The lines really work together and the emotion inspires you. This is amazing!
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yeah, I agree that it IS REALLY SCARY that the young kids or possibly even grown-ups commenting on this poem do not realize it is about the Civil War. They better listen the up because history has a way of repeating itself.
Edited on Feb 09, 7:48 because ''. -
Wow- this is such a powerful poem about the American Civil War, I'm British so I didn't understand all the references until they were explained to me on Allwrite and by you Smilingspider, but I understood this was about war and also the reference to the blue uniforms. A poem about a terrible war, I like how he wrote this with such style.
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No offence but the above comments scare me, that the American youth do not know when their own civil war started is shocking.
The title, look at the title!
The first line 'Arm'd year.
'But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes,' Doesn't this line say it all?
'Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing weapons, robust year;'
Read the words drink them in, then read them again and again, then again then hopefully you will understand them. -
This is a fantastic personifying piece, making his horrible, rough year to be have characterstics similar to human ones. I think the repition of the "Or" is just Whitman's way of listing the different types of ways the year had done him wrong. To me, it just seems like a rant. I hope Whitman had some resolutions for the following year
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Oh my, i cant believe my comment is in BLUEGUYS user. I hate being in a friends house. Anyways, just to tell that i'm in my friends houes (bLUEguys) and i thought my user is on, oh my i worked hard searching for the name and all the pnts will go to him, bwawawahahahaha. I cant believe i'm clumsy, i will never some to his house anymore...
- R3Dd46 -
wow it started out seemingly like a person who was going through a bad time then escalated to a person who started to basically blame anything or everything possible for it so that it made hime feel better this is a good writing piece to study from i think because it shows the collideing thoughts springing from an overwhelming emotion
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What a great work, very inspirational.
- R3Dd46 -
Wow, I had to read this about 4 or 5 times to really understand it but each time I did read it I liked it even more and more! This really does sound like a horrible year to live through. Very creatively written!
Mercedes
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