Table of ContentsIntroductionWhitman's Use of the Light MetaphorConclusionIntroductionGlory, of Him who moves all things that are, enters the universe and then shines back, is reflected more in one part, less elsewhere. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay High in that sphere which takes away the most light from it I was – I was! – and I saw things there that no one knows how or will ever be able to repeat. For, drawing nearer to that which it desires most, our intellect sinks so far into the depths that no memory can follow it so far. The passage above is taken from Dante's Canto I. Alighieri's Paradise. In this third section of The Divine Comedy, Dante uses light as a metaphor for good; as objects get closer to God, they reflect more light. However, the metaphor of light also serves another purpose in the work. The divine light of Paradiso is so bright that at first the speaker cannot even bear to look at it in its entirety. His experience of visiting Paradiso is so intense that he is continually careful to use language to recount it accurately. In the quote, the speaker can only hope to convey "a shadow" of the great light to which he is exposed. Walt Whitman, in his Civil War poetry, is also aware of his ability to accurately describe what he observed during his visit to the Union. hospitals during the civil war. In the introduction to his Memorandums, written between 1862 and 1865, he writes: “Most of the pages of the present volume are textual renderings of these drawings made on site. Some have been erased from accounts I have heard and detailed while watching, waiting or caring for someone in the midst of these scenes. I have perhaps forty of these little notebooks left, which form for me alone a special story of those years, full of associations that can never be said or sung. I wish I could convey to the reader the associations which attach to these dirty and crumpled little deliveries, each consisting of one or two sheets of paper, folded small to be carried in the pocket, and fastened with a pin. In fact, Whitman uses Dante's metaphor of light and reflection in many of his poems about the Civil War. On the one hand, Whitman uses the concept of lighting to glorify images of soldiers. However, he also uses the concept of illumination to expose the horrors of war, including the bodies of dead and wounded soldiers. Additionally, Whitman uses the sparseness or reflection of light to express a literal absence of holiness, as well as his own preoccupation with depicting real images in poetry. Whitman's use of the metaphor of light The idea of ​​casting the shadow or reflection of a true image, introduced by Plato in 360 BCE and adapted by Dante in 1300 CE, resurfaced in the 1860s in Whitman's poetry as a result of increasing technological advancements in the field of photography. The first successful image (that is, an image reproduced on a surface sensitized by the action of light) was made in 1827, but the exposure time was around eight hours, limiting subjects to only landscapes. It was not until 1851, just ten years before the Civil War, that Frederick Scott Archer introduced a method known as the collodion process, in which exposure times were reduced to two or three seconds, thus opening new horizons for photography. At that time, the goal ofcapturing a realistic image in a photograph revived the age-old question of whether an image's shadow or reflection could accurately depict its true meaning. Photographs were used extensively during the Civil War to capture images of battlefields and dead and wounded soldiers. But just as people questioned whether photographs could truly depict the reality of their subjects, Whitman also questioned whether his poems could accurately describe his experiences. and observations to the greatest extent possible. This is why in many Civil War poems, the settings are often poorly lit and the soldiers are described as dark figures or shadows. Additionally, Whitman capitalizes on the qualities of the moon that capture the essence of the “light” metaphor; Although moonlight can produce a luminous effect, it is "photographic" in the sense that its rays are reflected by the sun. Whitman evokes this quality of moonlight in “Look Down Fair Moon.” On the one hand, Whitman commemorates fallen soldiers by requesting that the moon “bath this scene” and “pour gently.” On the other hand, the fact that Whitman uses moonlight rather than purer light suggests that he is aware that his poem cannot represent them accurately. The poem itself acts as a reflection of the true image of the soldiers, just as the moonlight that bathes them is a reflection of the sun. The romantic language at the beginning of the poem stops at the end of the second line with "horrible, swollen, purple faces", indicating that the poem is not solely about commemorating them. It is clear, as is the case in many of his poems about the Civil War, that Whitman intentionally draws the reader's attention to the bodies and physical appearance of the dead. Here he describes the dead soldiers as Christ-like figures, saying: "the dead on their backs, their arms outstretched." The image is not of soldiers lying peacefully, but rather of bodies strewn about as if they had died suddenly. Christ language suggests that these are martyrs or innocent people who died for their country. However, the fact that the bodies are not at peace and the faces are "horrible, swollen, purple" suggests that there is something horribly wrong with the image. The poem is indeed like a picture, the scene is still, and reading the poem gives the strange feeling of looking at a snapshot of a battlefield at night. In fact, the effect of reading the poem is very similar to the effect people have when looking at it. photographs taken during the war. The poem, like a photograph, is emotionally powerful; Yet Whitman is aware of the problem of trying to describe something so powerful in a poem, just as he is aware of the problem of capturing the essence of a real image in a photograph. Its intention is not only to shock the reader, but also to imprint the images of the dead in the reader's mind so that he does not forget the horrors of war. By using moonlight to illuminate the soldiers, Whitman commemorates them, while exposing the horror of their deaths and expressing his concern to depict them accurately. While Dante could only convey a shadow of light because it was too divine for words, Whitman presents a reflection of the true image in part because it is too horrible for words. The concept of light becomes a bit more problematic in “Dirge for Two Veterans.” "Whitman's movement from "Look Down Fair Moon" to "Dirge for Two Veterans" parallels the growing problems with photography in his time. As the moon shines on dead, still bodies in "Look Down Fair Moon" , there is a lot more movementin “Dirge for Two Veterans,” which raises the photographic problem of capturing a moving image. Whitman's attempt to ascribe meaning to the presence of the moon is well represented in the phrase: "Beautiful on the housetops, horrible, phantom moon", since he combines both "beautiful" and "horrible" in the same adjectival expression. At first the poem seems to be about "two veteran sons and father fallen together", but it quickly turns into a "strong dead march". The effect is that the father and son become representative figures, and the dirge is addressed to all the dead soldiers. Thus, in the last stanza, the "you" in "The moon shines on you" refers not only to the two veterans, but to all the dead who lost their lives unjustly in combat. By saying, "The moon gives you light," Whitman is referring to the moon acting as a force that glorifies their bodies as well as a force that unveils the horror of their death. The fact that the poem begins with the last ray of sunlight falling “from the finished Sabbath” also contributes to this duality. Just like the dead soldiers who lay on their backs like Christ figures, there is something extremely ungodly about the burial of father and son in the "newly built double tomb" on the Sabbath, the most holiest of the week. Its difficulty in reconciling commemoration and exposure of evil is paralleled by the "strong march of the dead" movement, which is more difficult to capture both photographically and poetically. Whitman's use of light becomes even more complicated in "A March in the Ranks Hard." -Prest and the Unknown Road." Fittingly, the setting of the poem is darker and vaguer than in others. Instead of the moon, Whitman uses the lack of light to represent the photographic problem of capturing moving images as well as the problem of balancing commemoration and exposure of the grotesque Since the poem deals more directly with what Whitman actually saw and recorded in Union hospitals, his concerns about. his ability to convey his observations accurately are well developed through the use of images of light and rare shadows Throughout the poem, things are described as poorly lit. retreating army comes upon the lights of a "dimly lit building. Inside he sees: a spectacle beyond all images and poems ever made, Shadows of the deepest black, the deeper, just lit by moving candles and lamps, And by a great poignant torch still with the wild red flame and clouds of smoke. and a dimly lit atmosphere emphasizes the very idea that what the speaker sees is "beyond all the pictures and poems ever created." Whitman's personal experience of seeing the piles of wounded soldiers is so intense that he cannot describe it clearly to the reader, nor can he fully capture it in a photograph, for that matter. Therefore, it is “beyond all the pictures and all the poems ever made.” This is why the images in the poem are vague and difficult to see. In essence, the words themselves are only shadows of the true forms from which they draw inspiration. Whitman mentions his own doubts about representing the experience through the nurse's voice, saying, "I quench the blood temporarily." In this case, Whitman portrays himself as ineffective as a nurse in order to express his concern about his ineffectiveness as a poet. The cleansing of blood is an ephemeral act, just as Whitman sees his poem as ephemeral and incapable of describing the experience. It reinforces the idea.