AN ARMY HOSPITAL WARD

In this passage, Whitman is talking about a typical encounter with an army hospital. I was particularly interested in this section of his writing because I think, despite Whitman's reputation for writing about nature, he writes about the human condition with just as much gravity and grace. He writes: "You may hear groans or other sounds of unendurable suffering from two or three of the cots, but in the main there is quiet -- almost a painful absence of demonstration; but the pallid face, the dull'd eye, and the moisture on the lip, are demonstration enough." The silence Whitman uses to describe the soldier's suffering speaks louder than most other words could. The reader is painfully aware of Whitman's opposition to the war that is tearing his nation apart. He writes: "Look at the patient and mute manner of our American wounded as they lie in such a sad collection; representatives from all New England, and from New York, and New Jersey, and Pennsylvania -- indeed from all the States and all the cities..." The reader senses Whitman's distress at the lack of unity being displayed by his nation. It is a stark contrast to the sense of unity (between men, and between men and nature) that pervades his "Song of Myself," and his writing in general.