"Beat! Beat! Drums!

After reading ""Beat! Beat! Drums!" the first time it seemed as though Whitman was literally talking about drums but further reading made me think that he was using the drums as a metaphor for something bigger. Given that the piece is Civil War related, the drums may symbolize freedom. He writes that the drums should beat and the bugle blow "into the solemn church....into the school..." and "over teh traffic of cities....over the rumble of wheels in the streets..." If it is freedom he is talking about then this seems an appropriate metaphor. It brings to mind Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech where he said to let freedom ring over various places. If interpreted this way, Whitman is saying that freedom should penetrate everything, everywhere, and everyone. It should trump everything and should be so loud as to "let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties...".

It is not perfectly clear that Whitman's drums do indeed symbolize freedom. The fervor or intensity that the poem has for the drums could also represent Whitman's strong feelings about the Civil War. It would be an assumption that Whiman would be pro Union based on the fact that he grew up and spent alot of time in the North. But that being said, it is interesting also that the poem does not necessarily seem to take a stance on war itself. It appears to simply say that whatever the drums do symbolize, possibly freedom, should be an overwhelming force in people's daily lives and activites and also that this symbol is something that is so powerful that people cannot resist it or turn away from it.