Cavalry Crossing a Ford

This poem by Walt Whitman is taking place during the Civil War. He was a medic during this war so he had the opportunity to see a lot of things that took place. This is the story of a group of soldiers who just finished a battle and were crossing a ford to move on to the next battle. "A LINE in long array, where they wind betwixt green islands;" (Whitman) I think this represents that they were traveling between the north and the south or the seperate green islands, because the country was divided into to halves. I think this small stream represents the barrier between the two side and the two different beliefs that the people in the country have. Slavery divided the country. I believe Emerson completely disagrees with slavery and the whole idea of this war probably bothered him greatly. He believed everyone was significant so I think he would disagree with slaves being treated as insignificant creatures. He would probably not like how the soldiers acted or were treated. They didn't think they were significant either. It says the soldiers ended up walking in unison as there guns and other equipment clanged at their sides. "The individual is the supreme strength of group thinking, not the other way around." (Brugman) This is Emerson's idea. The men were all individuals, of course, but they were working as one. According to Thoreau he sort of dislikes the soldiers. He considers them to be "robots." They don't have any ideas of their own and act how the government and their leaders want them to act. They even seem this way in the poem. It seems as if the scene was silent and then marched through to the next battle as one big group. They had no thoughts of their own and continued to do whatever they were told to do. I do agree with Thoreau that they were robots and could not decide anything on their own.

Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed.

Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts

On File, Inc

Whitman, Walt. "Cavalry Crossing a Ford." Classic Literature. About.com. Web. 2012.