Whitman’s poem “A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim” recounts an experience he had while serving as an unofficial nurse in a military hospital during the height of the civil war and was published in the Union newspaper titled Drum-Taps in 1865. Writing for a Union newspaper gave Whitman an outlet to share his experiences and thoughts about the war with the families who weren’t being directly affected at home. Fathers, sons, grandsons, and countless other men were experiencing the carnage of war while their families were raising funds or sitting idly wondering or worrying about the men at war, and Whitman, contrary to consoling families, detailed the grim truth and the result of the battle.
Contrasting what families were experiencing at home, Whitman narrates his experience and takes them, as spectators, into this dim, gray hospital tent full of wounded soldiers. With just a few lines, Whitman sets the scene by describing what he sees when he walks out of his tent and into the hospital tent: there are no hard structures such as buildings or rooms, there are only tents, the sun doesn’t rise, but instead is, “gray and dim,” then he echoes a, “sleepless,” night that many soldiers face during times of war. Intimately, he describes the air using touch and smell as being, “cool,” and, “fresh,” which is almost calming to …show more content…
One is old with gray hair, one is young with rosy cheeks, and one is neither young nor old and Whitman concludes the poem by comparing him to Jesus Christ because of Christ’s sacrifice for humanity, which, in this case, is the soldier sacrificing himself for the Union. Consequently, by taking the wounded from the medic tent and putting them into the homes of the public using his poem as a vehicle, Whitman is able to evoke sympathy and support simultaneously because of his ability to make this issue apply to