In fact, the line “Beat! beat! drums!-blow! bugles! blow!” is repeated as the opening line for each of the poem’s stanzas, the refrain creating a repetition of sound and rhythm steady and war-like. The poem begins by calling forth familiar sounds of war: the beat of the drums and the blow of the bugle. Whitman would remain connected to the war and the Union’s efforts throughout its duration. Even in these early months, Whitman had a personal investment in the war as his brother, George, volunteered to enlist in the Union Army. At the time that Whitman published this poem, the Civil War was only a few months old, having started in April of the same year with the Confederates’ firing on Fort Sumter. In 1865, the poem was included in Whitman’s Drum-Taps, a collection of poems in which Whitman attempted to provide an account of the Civil War. The twenty-one line poem “Beat! Beat! Drums!” first appeared in the September 1861 issue of Harper’s Weekly, and the newspaper the New York Leader, and was reprinted in newspapers across the United States. So strong you thump O terrible drums-so loud you bugles blow. Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,

Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties,

Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,

Mind not the timid-mind not the weeper or prayer, Make no parley-stop for no expostulation, Then rattle quicker, heavier drums-you bugles wilder blow. Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge? Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing? No bargainers’ bargains by day-no brokers or speculators-would they continue?

Over the traffic of cities-over the rumble of wheels in the streets Īre beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds, So fierce you whirr and pound you drums-so shrill you bugles blow. Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain, Leave not the bridegroom quiet-no happiness must he have now with his bride, Into the school where the scholar is studying, Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation, Through the windows-through doors-burst like a ruthless force,

The drums m4a