In Midnight Sleep
In Midnight Sleep - meaning Summary
Haunted by Wartime Visions
Whitman recounts recurring nocturnal visions that mix battlefield horror and tranquil landscapes. He remembers the mortally wounded and the dead, the trenches and his own detached movement among them, then flashes to serene skies and moonlight over the graves. The repeated phrase "I dream, I dream, I dream" makes these memories feel involuntary and haunting, suggesting trauma, survivor’s guilt, and the persistence of wartime images in civilian life.
Read Complete Analyses1 IN midnight sleep, of many a face of anguish, Of the look at first of the mortally wounded—of that indescribable look; Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide, I dream, I dream, I dream. 2 Of scenes of nature, fields and mountains; Of skies, so beauteous after a storm—and at night the moon so unearthly bright, Shining sweetly, shining down, where we dig the trenches and gather the heaps, I dream, I dream, I dream. 3 Long, long have they pass’d—faces and trenches and fields; Where through the carnage I moved with a callous composure—or away from the fallen, Onward I sped at the time—But now of their forms at night, I dream, I dream, I dream.
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