Drum-Taps

poetry by Whitman

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Article History

Drum-Taps, collection of poems in free verse, most on the subject of the American Civil War, by Walt Whitman, published in May 1865. The mood of the poetry moves from excitement at the falling-in and arming of the young soldiers at the beginning of the war to the troubled realization of the war’s true significance. The disillusion of the Battle of Bull Run is reflected in “Beat! Beat! Drums!” while an understanding of the depth of suffering of the wounded informs “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night.”

Sequel to Drum-Taps, published in the fall of 1865 (the title page reads 1865–66), includes “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” and Whitman’s poems on the death of Abraham Lincoln, “O Captain! My Captain!” and the elegy “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Both Drum-Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps were incorporated into the fourth (1867) edition of Leaves of Grass.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.