Drum Taps

Drum-Taps, is a collection of poetry written by American poet Walt Whitman during the American Civil War, published in 1865. Eighteen more poems were added later in the year to make Sequel to Drum-Taps. In the first group of poems, Whitman shows both eagerness and doubts in regard to the close conflict. These poems also reveal Whitman's trust that this war is a good thing for American ideals. It is the complete Civil War poem collection, including the celebrated, "Oh, Captain, My Captain!" and expanded with Whitman's essays from the period on subjects such as Secession, Abraham Lincoln, working in the Civil War hospitals, and the murder of the president. Whitman begins in a glorious mode. These victorious poems seem to reflect an excitement in the nation as a whole that evil would be defeat by good. Drum-Taps perhaps comes closest to naming the concern that Whitman feels for his country and for his society. It included poems that bother witness to the violence of war with a sense of closeness and fear. The mood of the poetry moves for enthusiasm at the falling-in and equipping of the young soldiers at the beginning of the war to the disturbed recognition of the war's true importance.