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Whitman's 'Song of Myself.'.(Walt Whitman's poem)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 19990101
Author:Egan, Hugh

The 36th section of the poem 'Song of Myself' by Walt Whitman describes the emptiness and horror of a victory in a sea battle wherein the victor's ship is not only sinking but is the site of injured seamen undergoing amputations under the hands of a war surgeon. The hero, John Paul Jones, does not wear a triumphant expression, but a pallor comparable to the corpses surrounding him. The poem's last phrase 'these so, these irretrievable' refers to the complete loss of human body parts, as well as the poet's inability to escape from the images of human suffering.

Stretch'd and still lies the ...

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