...invariably moves —the recognition of the humanity of the enemy—is the capstone of this poem as well: "For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead." Typically, however, Whitman takes the abstraction and makes it physical, startling us with the final...

...hope takes root in the mortal intimacy between the poem's speaker and his dead enemy: Word over al1 beautiful as the sky. Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must ut time be utterly lost. Thar the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again....

..."Spirit," it expresses a wish not to preserve the spirit of the war but rather to erase it: Reconciliation. Word over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that...man divine as myself is dead, I look where he lies white faced and still in the coffin — I draw near, Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white...

..."Reconciliation" resolutely claims, the mark of the word endures beyond all violence and mortality: "Word over all, beautiful as the sky, / Beautiful...its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost." This is an idea we have encountered in many forms — the hope of the sonnet writer that his work will...

...Death, then, is merely a process of purification and progress of the soul through eternity: "Beautiful that . . . the hands of the sisters Death and Night...softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd world." ( "Reconciliation" ) One of the best of Whitman's less well-known poems, "This Compost," is entirely...

...fallen western star (Lincoln), the song of the hermit thrush (the chant of death)." Reconciliation Word over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that...man divine as myself is dead, I look where he lies white -faced and still in the coffin — I draw near, Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the...

...old and pitiful. Their confidence collapsed. "Who will believe it?" said Mary. PART XX THE AGREEMENT Word over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that...softly wash again, and ever again, this soil'd world. . . . — WALT WHITMAN THE SMOKING CAP I t was the turn of Ida's little boy Horace to bounce up and...

...find out." Bill's grip on the steering wheel became a little tighter. Part Two 'Look in the Mirror' Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage, Must in time be utterly lost; At the hands of the sisters Death & Night Incessantly wash again and again, This soiled world. Walt...

...buried him where he fell. WALT WHITMAN AMERICAN (1819-1892) FROM THE AMERICAN STORY 453 Reconciliation Word over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that...man divine as myself is dead, I look where he lies white- faced and still in the coffin — I draw near, Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the...

...conflict. As the poet-soldier who gazes on the body of his enemy in the poem "Reconciliation" remarks, "Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost" (453). Once the dead are buried and forgotten, Whitman can turn to celebrating a robust nation poised...