IndexIntroductionWhitman's use of the metaphor of lightConclusionIntroductionGlory, from Him who moves all things that are, penetrates into the universe and then shines, reflected more in one part, less elsewhere. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay High in that sphere that takes from Him more light I was – I was! – and saw things there that no one who descends knows how or will ever be able to repeat. Because as we approach what we most desire, our intellect sinks so low that no memory can follow it there. The above passage is taken from Canto I of Dante Il Paradiso by Alighieri. In this third section of the Divine Comedy, Dante uses light as a metaphor for goodness; as objects get closer to God, they reflect more light. However, the metaphor of light also serves another purpose in the work. The divine light in Heaven is so bright that at first the speaker cannot even bear to look at it in its entirety. His experience of visiting Paradise is so intense that he is continually aware of using language to accurately describe it. In the quote, the speaker can only hope to convey "a shadow" of the great light to which he is exposed. Even Walt Whitman, in his Civil War poetry, is aware of his ability to accurately describe what he observed while visiting the Union. hospitals during the civil war. In the introduction to his Memoranda, written between 1862 and 1865, he writes: Of the present volume the majority of its pages are verbatim reproductions of such pencil drawings on the spot. Some were erased from tales I heard and detailed as I watched, waited, or cared for someone in those scenes. I have perhaps forty such notebooks left, which form a special story of those years, just for me, full of associations that can never be said or sung. I would like to be able to convey to the reader the associations that connect with these dirty and crumpled little livraisons, each composed of one or two sheets of paper, folded small to be carried in the pocket and fixed with a pin. Indeed, Whitman uses Dante's metaphor of light and reflection in many of his Civil War poems. In one aspect, Whitman uses the concept of lighting to glorify images of soldiers. However, he also uses the concept of illumination to expose the horrors of war, particularly the bodies of dead or wounded soldiers. Furthermore, Whitman uses the scarcity or reflection of light to articulate a literal absence of sanctity, as well as his own concern with representing real images in poetry. Whitman's use of the metaphor of light The idea of ​​casting the shadow or reflection of a true image, introduced by Plato in 360 BC and adapted by Dante in 1300 AD, resurfaced in the 1860s in Whitman's poetry as a result of increasing technological advances in photography. The first successful image (i.e. the image reproduced on a surface sensitized by the action of light) was made in 1827, but the exposure time was about eight hours, limiting the subjects to landscapes only. It was only in 1851, ten years before the Civil War, that Frederick Scott Archer introduced a method known as the Collodion process, in which exposure times were reduced to two or three seconds, thus opening up new horizons for photography. At that time, the goal of capturing a realistic image in a photograph revived the age-old question of whether a shadow or reflection in an image could accurately describe its true meaning. The photographs were widely usedduring the Civil War to capture images of battlefields and dead and wounded soldiers. But just as people wondered whether photographs could truly portray the reality of their subjects, Whitman also wondered whether his poems could accurately describe his experiences. and observations to the greatest extent possible. This is why in many Civil War poems the settings are often dimly lit and the soldiers are described as dark figures or shadows. Furthermore, Whitman exploits the qualities of the moon that capture the essence of the "light" metaphor; although moonlight can provide an illuminating effect, it is "photographic" in the sense that its rays are reflected by the sun. Whitman evokes this quality of moonlight in “Look Down Fair Moon.” On the one hand, Whitman commemorates the dead soldiers by asking that the moon "wet this scene" and "pour softly." On the other hand, the fact that Whitman uses moonlight rather than a purer type of light suggests that he is aware that his poetry cannot accurately represent them. The poem itself serves as a reflection of the true image of the soldiers, just as the moonlight that bathes them is a reflection of sunlight. The romantic language of the beginning of the poem stops at the end of the second line with "horrible, swollen, purple faces", indicating that the poem is not just for the purpose of their commemoration. It is clear, as in many of his Civil War poems, that Whitman intentionally calls the reader's attention to the body and physical appearance of the dead. Here, he describes the dead soldiers as Christ-like figures, saying, "the dead on their backs with their arms wide open." The image is not of soldiers lying peacefully, but rather of bodies strewn about as if they had suddenly died. Christian language suggests that these are martyrs or innocent people who died for their country. However, the fact that the bodies are not at peace and that the faces are "horrible, swollen, purple" suggests that there is something horribly wrong with the image. The poem is really like a picture where the scene is still and reading the poem gives the eerie impression of looking at a snapshot of a battlefield at night. In fact, the effect of reading poetry is very similar to the effect people had when looking at photographs taken during the war. Poetry, like a photograph, is emotionally powerful; however Whitman is aware of the problem of attempting to describe something so powerful in a poem, just like the problem of capturing the essence of a true image in a photograph. His intention is not only to shock the reader, but also to imprint images of the dead in the reader's mind so that he does not forget the horrors of war. By using the moonlight to illuminate the soldiers, Whitman commemorates them, but at the same time exposes the horror of their deaths and expresses his concern in depicting them accurately. While Dante could convey only a shadow of the light because it was too divine for words, Whitman presents a reflection of the true image partly because it is too horrific for words. The concept of light becomes a bit more problematic in “Dirge for Two Veterans.” Whitman's movement from “Look Down Fair Moon” to “Dirge for Two Veterans” parallels the growing questions about photography of his time. While the moon shines on dead, still bodies in “Look Down Fair Moon,” there is much more movement in “Dirge for Two Veterans,” which poses the photographic problem of capturing a moving image. Whitman's attempt to assign meaning to the moon's presence is well represented in the line: "Beautiful above the housetops, ghostly, phantom moon", as it combines both "beautiful" and "horrific" in the same adjectival phrase. At first, the poem seemstalk about the "two veterans, the son and the father, fallen together", but it soon turns into a "strong dead march". The effect is that the father and son become representative characters and the dirge is for all the dead soldiers. Thus, in the final stanza, the "you" of "The moon gives you light" refers not only to the two veterans, but to all the dead who unjustly lost their lives in battle. By saying, "The moon gives you light," Whitman refers to the moon acting as a force that glorifies their bodies and at the same time reveals the horror of their deaths. Further contributing to this duality is the fact that the poem begins with the last ray of sunshine falling "from the finished Saturday". Just like the dead soldiers who lay on their backs like Christ figures, there is something extremely unholy about the burial of father and son in the "newly made double grave" on the Sabbath, the holiest time of the week. His difficulty in reconciling commemoration and exposure of the wicked parallels the "strong dead march" movement, which is more difficult to capture both photographically and poetically. Whitman's use of light becomes even more complicated in "A March in the Ranks Hard." -Prest and the Unknown Road." Appropriately, the setting of the poem is darker and vaguer than in others. Instead of the moon, Whitman uses the scarcity of light to represent the photographic problem of capturing moving images, as well as the problem of balancing commemoration with the exposure of the grotesque. Because the poem deals more directly with what Whitman actually saw and recorded in Union hospitals, his concerns about being able to accurately convey his observations are well developed through the use of imagery with poor light and shadows. Throughout the poem, things are described as dimly lit. In the third and fourth lines, the retreating army comes across the lights of a "dimly lit building." of all the paintings and all the poems ever made, Shadows of the deepest, deepest black, dimly lit by moving candles and lamps, And by a great fixed pitch torch with the wild red flame and clouds of smoke. and the dimly lit atmosphere emphasizes the very idea that what the speaker sees is "beyond all the pictures and poems ever made." Whitman's experience of seeing the piles of wounded soldiers is so intense that he cannot describe it clearly for the reader, nor can it be captured entirely in a photograph, for that matter. Thus, it is "beyond all the pictures and poems ever made." This is why the images in the poem are vague and difficult to see. In essence, the words themselves are mere shadows of the true forms from which they are inspired. Whitman mentions his doubts in portraying the experience through the nurse's voice by saying, "I temporarily stop the blood." In this case, Whitman presents himself as ineffective as a nurse to express his concern that he is ineffective as a poet. The accumulation of blood is an ephemeral act, just as Whitman believes his poetry to be ephemeral and incapable of describing the experience. It reinforces the idea that he cannot effectively narrate the experience using vague and anonymous language, as in the phrase: “faces, varieties, postures beyond description.” Continuing the sense of duality in “Look Down Fair Moon” and “Dirge for Two Veterans,” Whitman incorporates the commemoration of soldiers alongside the denunciation of the wicked. “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest” takes place in “a large old church at the crossroads, now a makeshift hospital.” The fact that the soldiers are in a church suggests that they are somehow sacred and worthy of praise. However, there is a bitter irony in their position, much like the way the dead soldiers are depicted as figures.