Wound-Dresser

To me, this poem was different from most of the poems by Whitman that we have read because it was not really confusing, so I was able to easily understand it. Br. Tom said that the Character in this poem was an older man telling younger people about his experiences as a wound-dresser. I easily saw this right away. Whitman describes the wounds that soldiers received while on the battlefield very well. How accurate this poem really is I do not know, but the detail with which he describe these injuries seems to confirm that this is an accurae poem. I know that Br. Tom said that Whitman actually did work at a military hospital, so I can only guess that this poem is, in fact accurate and that Whitman is drawing from his own experiences in this poem. I actually find this interesting because this is sort of a first hand account of some of the things witnessed by Whitman during this part of his life. Overall, I actually sort of liked this poem. If it really is based off of Whitman's experiences from the military hospital, then it is kind of cool to read what he actually witnessed. 1200699610

I also agree with the majority of what PSA had to say about this poem. I felt that it was very easy to understand in interpret, compared to the other past poems & writings we've read by Whitman. I noticed that indeed the poem was about an older, wiser, and much experienced man telling and explaing his knowledge and familarity as a wound-dresser with those with less of that, or in other words, a younger and unexperienced audience. Whitman was very descriptive about the battle and what had occured during the incident. He also seemed very open as to what happened to the people involved in the battle and how it affected them. I thought this poem was very interesting becuase I got to learn how Whitman may have dealt with very tragic things in his life such as witenessing so many tramutic events during the battle. And, it does seem as if he did indeed work or witness things in a military hospital which makes this poem so interesting to read.

1201114039