This Dust Was Once the Man Analysis

In this poem, "This Dust Was Once the Man," written by Walt Whitman, we see a very meaningful and a very short poem. It talks of the civil war and how the Union was saved by the Civil War. But there is also a deep message of murder and controversy surrounding the war. "This dust was once the man,/ Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,/ Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,/ Was saved the Union of these States" (Whitman). This is the poem. You can tell however the meaning of the poem. There is first the literal meaning. This is talking about a form of dust that was once not dust and instead a man. It was an ordinary, nice, and purposeful man. Under this hand there was the worst crime in the time that no age or land has ever seen before. This crime saved the Union of the United States. This last line is of course referring to the Union the United States' states' share with each other. Before the Civil War there was at first one Union. Then states in the south with slavery began to leave the Union and they formed the Confederacy which was rival to the Union. There were thirteen states in this Confederacy and then that is when the Civil War was started. It was to join the states together once again. After the Civil War it was once again the Union hence the line of, "Was saved the Union of these States" (Whitman). But this is the literal meaning. . When we look at it from a Whitman point of view, we could say that the man with the cautious hand who allowed the worst crime ever to happen is Abraham Lincoln. Whitman rarely, but still did, write about Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was the President of the Union of the United States at this point in time. But Abraham Lincoln was the man who all of the Civil War happened under. He was often described as "Honest Abe." The point can be made that he was gentle with his words, and an ordinary man. He was also in the White House for a purpose. This terrible crime could be one of brothers fighting against brothers and turn the nation into a war against itself. This crime could refer to the hundreds of thousands of deaths that occurred during this war. The dust could also refer to the people who died during the war. This could all be brought to Abraham Lincoln even though many say he led the nation to becoming a whole nation once again; others could make the point he was the one who tore it apart in the first place. It all just depends on the perspective you are looking from. When we look at "This Dust Was Once the Man" from Whitman's Everyman concept, we can make the point that the man with the cautious hand was not Abraham Lincoln and that it was instead the soldiers of the war. This would then mean, that under a soldiers control and cautious hand, that the worst crime was committed. This crime could be the act of murder, a soldier killing another soldier, in battle. But these soldiers of the Union did save and bring the Union back together. So the Everyman concept is also a very valid perspective you could use.




"This Dust Was Once the Man. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. . Web. Mar 1. 2011.