e Wound-Dresser, l 63). In the hospital tents the dead and dying “lie on the ground after the battle...their priceless blood reddens the grass” (The Wound-Dresser, ll 27-28). The misery can be associated with the soldier who’s “eyes are closed, his face is pale, he dares not look on the bloody stump” (The Wound-Dresser, l 48). This is the reality of the war, there is nothing romantic about it; it brings nothing but absolute evil. Whitman provide comfort for those soldiers who’s “loving arms about this neck have cross’d and rested, Many a soldier’s kiss dwells on these bearded lips” (The Wound-Dresser, l 64-65). As soldiers died, Whitman was one of those wonderful people who stood by and provided reassurance so that they might rest in peace; Whitman witnessed these traumatic and tragic events first hand. Whitman “could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you”; this divulges the grief he undergoes while alleviating the grief of others. The anguish of the soldiers was a direct result of civil warfare, and worst of all, there was no purpose to it. The war: “makes no parley-nor stops for no expostulation, Minds not the timid-minds not the weeper or prayer, Minds not the old man beseeching the young man, Lets not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties,” (Beat! Beat! Drums! ll 14-17).All these people have been affected in one way or another, whether a relative having gone off the fight, having been bombed, attacked or sacked, they have experienced a full scale war. How constantly “the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil’d world”, killing those who do not deserve death in such an atmosphere of sheer horror. The devastation that the War of the States has caused to the people who experienced it is shown through Whitman’s description of their suff...
