In Review: American Literature Series - Poems of War and Conflict

This week in class, we are talking about war and conflict. Sadly, you can’t truly understand the nation or the literature of the nation without examining these concepts. In fact, do you know that it was only about five years ago that it occurred to me that not all nations were born from seeds of war. I read this simple fact somewhere, and it blew my mind. The circumstances of the origins of a nation, impact its progression immensely. I still can’t fathom it sometimes. Having been taught American History in school – k-12 and college alike – I still never gave thought to this. I suppose I expected that warring was the universal way to give birth to a nation. Being the diversity lover that I am, and not exactly being a stellar American patriot, I think it might surprise many people that I have fallen in love with American Literature. I have come to believe that such a young nation still has room to grow, and it is through examining the past and literally rewriting the future that we can achieve the visions we have for it. Therefore, I work from the perspective of a radical American scholar.

We were asked to read two poems and one short prose piece from a list. Although I plan to read them all, I have focused thus far on some of Walt Whitman’s Civil War Poetry and one of Emily Dickinson’s poem with which I was previously unfamiliar. I usually try to choose the writers to whom I have not had much exposure. Emily Dickinson has been one of my favorite poets since high school, but since I know more about her poetry of love and death, I thought it would be interesting to see her in a different light.

I’ll share and talk about two poems today (and I will save the prose piece for another post). The first poem I chose was Whitman’s Over the Carnage Rose a Prophetic Voice. The title simply spoke to my spirit instantly, as did the entire poem as I read it.

Over the Carnage Rose a Prophetic Voice

Over the carnage rose prophetic a voice,

Be not dishearten'd, affection shall solve the problems of freedom

yet,

Those who love each other shall become invincible,

They shall yet make Columbia victorious.

Sons of the Mother of All, you shall yet be victorious,

You shall yet laugh to scorn the attacks of all the remainder of

the earth.

No danger shall balk Columbia's lovers,

If need be a thousand shall sternly immolate themselves for one.

One from Massachusetts shall be a Missourian's comrade,

From Maine and from hot Carolina, and another an Oregonese,

shall be friends triune,

More precious to each other than all the riches of the earth.

To Michigan, Florida perfumes shall tenderly come,

Not the perfumes of flowers, but sweeter, and wafted beyond death.

It shall be customary in the houses and streets to see manly

affection,

The most dauntless and rude shall touch face to face lightly,

The dependence of Liberty shall be lovers,

The continuance of Equality shall be comrades.

These shall tie you and band you stronger than hoops of iron,

I, ecstatic, O partners! O lands! with the love of lovers tie you.

(Were you looking to be held together by lawyers?

Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?

Nay, nor the world, nor any living thing, will so cohere.)

The poem’s title alone sings of hope, but in line two Whitman strengthens the hope which he sends with this piece; “be not dishearten’d” is his message to his fellow Americans about this land that he loves. (Whitman). He continues in line four with “those who love each other shall become invincible.” (Whitman). How powerful is this thought…essentially, he is saying that the love of the “comrades,” “friends,” and “partners” he refers to in this poem is stronger than the carnage that he obviously saw enough of to use in his title. It’s no secret that Whitman is transcendental in his musings, and I’m sure it is not a surprise to my readers that the transcendental writers speak to me in a special way. This poem of hope has increased my fondness for not only Whitman, but also our sad little nation, for it is still trying to become something wonderful.

It was the title that drew me to my choice of Dickinson’s poems this week too. As some of you may know, many of Dickinson’s poems were not titled, but numbered, but we sometimes refer to them with their first line. No Rack Can Torture Me (From Part Four Time and Eternity XXXV) is the piece I have chosen because the ancient sense of war in that line seems to deliver a message that though war is inevitable among man, souls can escape suffering if they find means to set themselves free. Surely, many folks have known such a means of spiritual escape during times of war.

No Rack can Torture me

No rack can torture me,

My soul’s at liberty.

Behind this mortal bone

There knits a bolder one

You cannot prick with saw,

Nor rend with scymitar.

Two bodies therefore be;

Bind one, and one will flee.

The eagle of his nest

No easier divest

And gain the sky,

Than mayest thou,

Except thyself may be

Thine enemy;

Captivity is consciousness,

So’s liberty.

She speaks of her mortal body and her immortal soul when in stanza one, she states, “Behind this mortal bone There knits a bolder one.” I’m not sure if it is just because I am seeing the piece through my own Witch’s eyes, but it feels to me that she talks of a scenario like the Witch Trials as she mentions the types of torture that might be used. In her final stanza, she expresses that one can choose captivity or freedom, and makes note that with the power of that heavy choice, a person can be her own worst enemy – even worse that the one who physically tortures you.The two poems that I have reviewed this week speak of carnage, war, torture, and captivity…these issues interest me because there are the antitheses of freedom, and this, as you might have noticed, is one of my favorite topics to touch upon. As in all of life, to understand something, and to achieve it, you must know it’s binary. To know joy, we must know agony, to see darkness, we must have experienced light as a point of comparison. Therefore, to know peace, we must know war and conflict – which is why this is such an important study in American Literature and in History….because the ultimate goal is peace.

~Peace and Love, Tracey

© Tracey Love, 2015. All rights reserved.

Works Cited:Dickinson, Emily. “No Rack can Torture me.” Bartelby. np. 2015. Electronic.Whitman, Walt. “Over the Carnage Rose a Prophetic Voice.” Online Seminars. National Humanities Center.2010. Electronic.