Reconciliation
Reconciliation - context Summary
Composed During the Civil War
Published in Drum-Taps (1865), Whitman’s "Reconciliation" arises from his Civil War hospital experiences. The poem confronts the aftermath of battle and presents death as an equalizer that erases wartime enmity. Whitman moves from public carnage to a private, intimate moment: recognizing the common humanity of a fallen foe and bending to kiss the white face in the coffin. The gesture reframes violence through mourning and close compassion.
Read Complete AnalysesWORD over all, beautiful as the sky! Beautiful that war, and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost; That the hands of the sisters Death and Night, incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil’d world: ... For my enemy is dead—a man divine as myself is dead; I look where he lies, white-faced and still, in the coffin—I draw near; I bend down, and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
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