Whitman's Ford

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, on Long Island, New York, to Quaker parents. He moved to Brooklyn with his parents, where he attended public school. He ended up moving back to Long Island with his parents where he started his own news paper. He then started to edit papers and write his own poems. One of his poems is called "Calvary Crossing At the Ford"; the very poem I will be analyzing. The first line of the Poem mentions the Calvary; the "they" refers to the soldiers that make up the Calvary. The scene as a whole portrayed is quite broad; it is as if the scene is being viewed from afar at a point higher than that of the Ford. In this poem, first person is to be implied even there is no "I" to be found in the verse. The speaker is situated at the point high above and afar and is gazing down at the Calvary crossing the Ford and explains his view in vivid detail. He is unbiased and nonjudgmental towards what he sees. The soldiers the speaker sees are just soldiers and nothing more. They have no identity but they are still important to the action taking place; they are part of the long serpentine line that crosses the Ford on the obvious task of war. There is a bit of symbolism to be seen from this poem; the serpentine line and brown faces. A serpentine pattern is an obscured line which represents the river that the brown faced men cross. The brown faces represent the backdrop of nature or more appropriate, the trees. The guidon that is held and flown is also identified with nature as it is said to be "snowy". Because the scene is viewed from afar, everything is seen as part of nature, hence the natural symbolism and lack of identity for the soldiers of the Calvary that cross the ford.