Walt Whitman's "The Wound-Dresser"

Walt Whitman's "The Wound-Dresser"

In his poem, Walt Whitman describes the experience of an old military Civil War doctor.He begins by showing the doctor's sorrow for his patients and describing the outrage of their pain. This doctor is always among the dead and dieing youth of the army. Shifting from his first stanza, Whitman begins to describe how these men die.He states that through their bravery and their high hopes they run quickly into battle and are just as quickly slain and sent to the hospital.He reemphasizes his point of how quick and insignificant each of there actions are by comparing it to an analogy stating that no matter how large a mark they make in the beaches of time, they will eventually be washed away and forgotten.He continues by describing how through constant works of treating the dieing, he (the wound-dresser) no longer misses them and each work that he does becomes a habitual action of which he must continue to perform despite the sad fate that most of his patients will experience. However despite his habitual actions he still maintains a sense of sadness and empathy for each individual.Following these expressions, Whitman re-emphasizes the gruesome work of the wound dresser by describing a few of his patients.Finally Whitman concludes by describing the sorrow which the wound dresser feels following each patient whom the wound dresser tries to help,but most are young and therefore are also too innocent for death,but he still has to move on despite his sorrow.

In this poem, Whitman quite clearly seems to criticize war. This can be seen from a number of different quotes in which Whitman states that despite how great the actions of war seem,they will neither last nor will they be worth the pains that result. At the end of his poem, the Whitman mourns the death of his patients. This mourning emphasizes the outrage of the suffering of these men. He also talks about bravery, which he criticizes by saying,"was on side so brave? the other was equally brave;" (line 8). Here he criticizes the idea of being bravery stating that no one stands out in bravery. He follows this point saying that all of the individuals will then be forgotten. He states this by saying that, "So soon what is forgotten,and waves wash the imprints off the sand. No matter how much these people do, they and their works will still be forgotten eventually. Therefore as long as war persists, the wound dresser will be a sorrowful job in which the wound dresser must work to save but then forget those who died to the "bravery" of war.

If, as Whitman previously stated in one of his poems, all matter eventually returns to its original state and the same men which the wound dresser treats would still die anyway, then why should the wound dresser care about the individuals? Why should he feel sorrow for each of their deaths?