1. THINK, DISCUSS AND ANSWER:
1. Read about Union efforts to enlist troops
for the War. Create a poster to illustrate the recruit-
ing poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!"
2. Analyze one of the poems written in response to the
death of Abraham Lincoln: "O Captain! My Captain!"
or "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d". Indi-
cate how the content and style of the poem reflect
the impact of the President’s life on the nation as
well as grief over his loss.
3. How accurate was Whitman as a national prophet?
Find a poem which you feel describes contemporary
America, fulfilling the poet’s vision of the future.
1_
2_ On one hand, the repetition of the phrase “fallen cold and dead” always at the end of the
stanzas give us the idea of a sad ending. So, such words are written with the purpose of
illustrate the deep feeling of sadness that the nation suffered because Lincoln’s death. On the
other hand, the poem express the admiration that the population had towards Lincoln, it is
Alvarado Puebla, Cristian – Gauna, Anabel – Gomez Siber, Emilce

2. also expressed how they loved their “Captain”, such an effect is produced by the use of certain
words and phrases, for example: “O Captain! My Captain!”, “for you the flag is flung” (2nd
stanza 2nd verse), “My father” (3rd stanza 2nd verse), among other.
3_ Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. Whitman is among
the most influential poets in the American literature. His work was very controversial in its time
because of his style and sexuality. As the American Civil War was beginning, Whitman
published his poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!”
Whitman was considered to be a national prophet because of his writings about the civil war. It
was really accurate because he faced the reality of the war, first when he supposed that his
brother died in the war and then as a voluntary nurse. Furthermore, he idealized American
leaders and workmen, chronicled Civil War battles, praised 19th Century technology, and
memorialized Abraham Lincoln. While his perspective changed as the nation developed,
Whitman’s poems retained their democratic spirit and faith.
Alvarado Puebla, Cristian – Gauna, Anabel – Gomez Siber, Emilce