Walt Whitman "City of Ships"

I chose to analyze the poem "City of Ships" from the Drum-Taps section of "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman. This poem exhibits many of the traits that are common in Whitman's many poems, including mentions of Abraham Lincoln, loyalty and patriotism towards the United States of America, and other aspects of life back in the time of Walt Whitman. In the beginning of the poem, Whitman says that he loves all of the different ships in the wharf, which is located somewhere in New York. He explains his love for these various ships, and especially appreciates the distinct diversity between all of them. He talks about black ships, fierce ships, and beautiful sharp-bow'd steam ships and sail ships (Whitman). Whitman states physical differences, but none really having to do with the performance or standard of the ships. He also appreciates the diverstiy between the American ships and ships of the other countries- because Whitman is pretty interested in culture. According to Oliver, Whitman really enjoyed the thought of all tese ships from powerful countries around the world being together in one place in America (Oliver).

The poem goes on and Whitman begins to talk about the Civil War, which is pretty typical of Whitman's poems. He is very supportive of the war effort and patriotic- believing that the Union should follow President Lincoln and support the war that needed to be fought (Whitman). Working as a medic during the Civil War, Whitman saw a lot of the gruesome and horrifying aspects of fighting in a war. His good thoughts about the war were crushed by the things that he saw on the battlefield, but he still remained loyal to President Lincoln (Oliver).

In the last stanza of the poem, Whitman says that he wants peace, but still thought that there was an important meaning behind the war. In the terrible times of the Civil War, the ships that Whitman spoke about loving earlier in the poem were damaged and went through the war as well. The effects of the war on the country did not cause Whitman to be any less patriotic, especially towards President Lincoln, and he still loves the country and the President.

The main point of this poem is for Whitman to talk about how much he appreciates hs country and how he will be loyal to it through both hard times and easy times. He is also a big fan of the diversity going on in America, and not just in the city in New York that he is talking about in the beginning of the poem. Whitman uses this poem to describe something that seems very simple and he turns it into something that is much larger, both physically and hypothetically. The turmoil of the civil war was something very important that went on in our country, and Whitman is turning the war into a bigger picture view of his subtle mentions of diversity in the country.


As a whole, this poem seems to be another of Whitman's writing describing of a seemingly simple thing or occurrence truly representing something much more important such as the turmoil of the Civil War on America or the growing diversity of America.

Works Cited

Oliver, Charles M. "'City of Ships'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW093&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 7, 2011).

Whitman, Walt. "City of Ships." The Walt Whitman Archive. 2011. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.