1861 Analysis

ARM'D year! year of the struggle!
No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year!
Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisping cadenzas
piano;
But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing,
carrying a rifle on your shoulder,
With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands--with a knife in
the belt at your side,
As I heard you shouting loud--your sonorous voice ringing across the
continent;
Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities,
Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the workmen, the
dwellers in Manhattan;
Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and
Indiana,
Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and descending the
Alleghanies;10
Or down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on deck along
the Ohio river;
Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at
Chattanooga on the mountain top,
Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing
weapons, robust year;
Heard your determin'd voice, launch'd forth again and again;
Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp'd cannon,
I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.

.: i find my own analysis :.

Interesting. I was looking for one, and it turns out to be mine.

1861 is the beginning of the civil war. it was a chaotic year, since the union suffered many defeats. in here, the speaker personifies the year, describing it as more manly and warlike than "dainty" or "sentimental." the references to places like manhattan and pennsylvania show union troop movements, from where they originate from to where they will head.

anyways, the first 3 lines describe what 1861 is not. the next 4 describes the year as a brave soldier heading out to war. the next 5 lines describe where the soldier is heading to. finally, the last few lines are where the speaker wishes for a quick return to peace.

there, i gave my two cents worth for this poem.

| Posted on 2005-05-23 | by Approved Guest