Poem: Adieu to a Soldier

Adieu To A Solider

ADIEU, O soldier!

You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,)

The rapid march, the life of the camp,

The hot contention of opposing fronts--the long manoeuver,

Red battles with their slaughter,--the stimulus--the strong, terrific

game,

Spell of all brave and manly hearts--the trains of Time through you,

and like of you, all fill'd,

With war, and war's expression.

Adieu, dear comrade!

Your mission is fulfill'd--but I, more warlike,

Myself, and this contentious soul of mine, 10

Still on our own campaigning bound,

Through untried roads, with ambushes, opponents lined,

Through many a sharp defeat and many a crisis--often baffled,

Here marching, ever marching on, a war fight out--aye here,

To fiercer, weightier battles give expression. 

Walt Whitman's Adieu to a Soldier is the exploration of himself and a soldier fighting on opposite sides of a war. The poem portrays Whitman as being the perseverant soldier contrary to his fellow comrade fighting in the trenches. Through ambushes, muddy roads, and many crises the soldiers trudge on for the good of their country. The speaker is a soldier himself talking about his experiences on the "Opposing fronts", and "Red [bloody] battles (line 3,4)." This poem is a dedication to the warriors on the front lines their battle heroines of their nation.

The poem can also have the symbolic underlying layers of the battlefield representing life.  The one who passes away has a new more peaceful journey than the living who must stay on earth and often be uncertain of why life leads them on the twists and turns that it does.

On a literary level, Whitman used a common technique of his known as cataloging. With this device, Whitman will refer to long catalogues of lists. In this case, it was the vivid descriptions of battle life and what it is like to fight on. Whitman has a varied line length, some of which are quite long while others may have a single word, which gives it more emphasis. Whitman uses repetition with the word “adieu."  The word “adieu” itself has an effect on the poem, as it is a more formal, formal expression than using the more casual word “goodbye”.  There is no rhyme scheme or set form as it is a free verse poem.

Whitman’s poem “Adieu to a Soldier” is on first sight a fairly simple poem, but when it is read and analyzed, it is clearly an artistic and thoughtful portrayal of the ironic role of soldiers, the image of one dying on the battlefield contrasted with the one who lives only to have to continue to fight and kill.