description Drum-Taps Overview
Drum-Taps is Walt Whitman's 1865 poetry collection responding to the American Civil War. Its poems reflect his experiences in hospitals and camps around Washington, where he visited and aided wounded soldiers. A later Sequel to Drum-Taps added works on Abraham Lincoln's death, including 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' and 'O Captain! My Captain!' The material was later incorporated into expanded editions of Leaves of Grass.
help Drum-Taps FAQ
When was Walt Whitman's Drum-Taps published?
Drum-Taps was first published in 1865, during the final months of the American Civil War. Whitman subsequently added a Sequel to Drum-Taps later that same year, which included his major Lincoln elegies written after the president's assassination in April 1865.
What inspired Whitman to write the poems in Drum-Taps?
Whitman's experiences visiting and aiding wounded soldiers in military hospitals around Washington, D.C., profoundly shaped the collection. He first traveled to the front in 1862 to find his wounded brother George after the Battle of Fredericksburg, and stayed to work as a volunteer nurse caring for casualties.
What famous poems are included in Drum-Taps and its Sequel?
The collection includes 'Beat! Beat! Drums!,' 'The Wound-Dresser,' and the Lincoln elegies 'O Captain! My Captain!' and 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,' the latter two appearing in the Sequel. 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' is widely regarded as one of the greatest elegies in American literature.
Was Drum-Taps originally part of Leaves of Grass?
Drum-Taps was initially published as a standalone volume in 1865 before being incorporated into later editions of Leaves of Grass. Whitman continued to revise and reorganize the Civil War poems across multiple editions throughout the rest of his life.
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