{"id":640,"date":"2010-04-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/walt-whitman-poem-1861.html"},"modified":"2017-02-06T13:36:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T18:36:22","slug":"walt-whitman-poem-1861","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/walt-whitman-poem-1861.html","title":{"rendered":"1861 by Walt Whitman"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>1861 &#8211; Secession Completes and the Bloodshed Begins<\/h2>\n<p class=\"post1861\">The poem <em>1861<\/em> by Walt Whitman.<\/p>\n<p>South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. In 1861, the Confederate States of America would gain its full roster of states. Here is a list of the seceding states and their dates of secession from the Union:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>South Carolina \u2013 December 20, 1860<\/li>\n<li>Mississippi \u2013 January 9, 1861<\/li>\n<li>Florida \u2013 January 10, 1861<\/li>\n<li>Alabama \u2013 January 11, 1861<\/li>\n<li>Georgia \u2013 January 19, 1861<\/li>\n<li>Louisiana \u2013 January 26, 1861<\/li>\n<li>Texas &#8211; February 1, 1861<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Virginia\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/category\/virginia\">Virginia<\/a> \u2013 April 17, 1861<\/li>\n<li>Arkansas \u2013 May 6, 1861<\/li>\n<li>North Carolina \u2013 May 20, 1861<\/li>\n<li>Tennessee \u2013 June 8, 1861<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Confederate States of America now exists. The blood of the Civil War starts flowing on April 12, 1861 as the Confederates fire on Fort Sumter. The Civil War begins.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_1563\" style=\"width: 205px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Walt-Whitman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1563\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Walt-Whitman.jpg\" alt=\"Walt Whitman\" width=\"195\" height=\"274\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1563\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1563\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walt Whitman<\/p><\/div>For me, Whitman&#8217;s <em>1861<\/em> poem shows he knew the year of 1861 brought about a sea change. Before then, it was all about attempts at compromise, politicians debating and arguing, rattling of swords, and talk, talk, talk.<\/p>\n<p>Now the year 1861 brings about bloodshed and death with the gathering of men; &#8220;<em>clothed in blue<\/em>&#8221; and of &#8220;<em>well-gristled body, and sunburnt face and hands,<\/em>&#8221; with &#8220;<em>a knife in the belt at your side<\/em>,&#8221; and &#8220;<em>bearing weapons<\/em>.&#8221; Whitman says there should be &#8220;<em>No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses<\/em>&#8221; for this &#8220;<em>terrible year<\/em>,&#8221; of 1861. War and all of its evil, has arrived for North and South.<\/p>\n<p>It is for the reader to analyze and interpret Walt Whitman&#8217;s poem titled <em>1861<\/em>, as he or she sees fit.<\/td>\n<h2>1861 &#8211; Walt Whitman<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>\nARM&#8217;D year! year of the struggle!<br \/>\nNo dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year!<br \/>\nNot you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisping cadenzas<br \/>\npiano;<br \/>\nBut as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing,<br \/>\ncarrying a rifle on your shoulder,<br \/>\nWith well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands&#8211;with a knife in<br \/>\nthe belt at your side,<br \/>\nAs I heard you shouting loud&#8211;your sonorous voice ringing across the<br \/>\ncontinent;<br \/>\nYour masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities,<br \/>\nAmid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the workmen, the<br \/>\ndwellers in Manhattan;<br \/>\nOr with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and<br \/>\nIndiana,<br \/>\nRapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and descending the<br \/>\nAlleghanies;<br \/>\nOr down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on deck along<br \/>\nthe Ohio river;<br \/>\nOr southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at<br \/>\nChattanooga on the mountain top,<br \/>\nSaw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing<br \/>\nweapons, robust year;<br \/>\nHeard your determin&#8217;d voice, launch&#8217;d forth again and again;<br \/>\nYear that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp&#8217;d cannon,<br \/>\nI repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>A commentary about Walt Whitman by EnglishGuyinTexas.<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/EnglishGuyinTexas\" target=\"_blank\">EnglishGuyInTexas<\/a><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><object width=\"500\" height=\"405\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/v\/1CGHdX_YU9A&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;border=1\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"500\" height=\"405\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/v\/1CGHdX_YU9A&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x006699&amp;color2=0x54abd6&amp;border=1\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/the-civil-war-poet-walt-whitman-was-born-on-this-day-in-1819.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Another post with information about Walt Whitman&#8230;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heard your determin&#8217;d voice, launch&#8217;d forth again and again; Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp&#8217;d cannon, I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,105,9,18,29,68,19,27,1,8,221,13],"tags":[198,130,113,200,201,129],"class_list":["post-640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16","category-before-war","category-confederate","category-fort-sumter","category-other","category-profiles","category-secession","category-states","category-uncategorized","category-union","category-video","category-virginia","tag-198","tag-civil-war","tag-confederate-states-of-america","tag-fort-sumter","tag-secession","tag-walt-whitman"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1564,"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions\/1564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nellaware.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}