It is April 13, 1861. Rebels have fired on Fort Sumter and the headline of the New York Times reads “The ball has opened. War is inaugurated.” Within days President Lincoln will call for 75,000 troops. His rising army needs support and motivation, both of which Walt Whitman can provide, or so it seems.

At first glance, Whitman’s Beat! Beat! Drums! serves as a form of Union propaganda – a recruiting charge – calling for soldiers to battle and everyone to stop what they are doing to support the war. However, he also hints at the adverse impacts of war by revealing its disregard for life and death. Thus, Whitman suggests that although nationalism and the Union should be the North’s focus, they will come at a cost.

The manner in which Whitman presents his initial charge beckons everyone to listen as the poem imprints its message into their heads. Each stanza opens with the familiar cry “Beat! beat! drums! – blow! bugles! blow!” engraining the call within the reader’s mind. The three-seven lines stanzas follow an iambic rhythm that mimics the beat of a recruiting drum. Without rhyme, the poem sounds more like a dictator’s intense speech or a preacher’s fiery sermon as it captivates the audience. Complete with an escalating loudness, this is propaganda in its finest, poetic form.

His message, like the pounding sound, is inescapable. As the drums beat and the bugles blow –instruments of the military – everyone can hear their omnipresent call. No one can escape the shrill “ruthless force” as it bursts “through the windows – through doors, “into the solemn church,” and “into the school.” The noise resonates throughout the countryside and city. Everyone must be aware of the conflict.

Once the listeners or readers are lured in, the speaker calls for mobilization. He hopes that they are stirred and stimulated by the sound, claiming, “no happiness must [the groom] have now with his bride…Nor the peaceful farmer any peace…no sleepers must sleep in those beds.” In order to strengthen unity and the Union, everyone together must do something in response to the incessant drums.

At this point, however, the poem shifts. Although the drumming and horn-blowing continue to escalate, one must question their loudness. Is it a good thing?

While the poem’s pace captivates the readers, it leads them to overlook the battle call’s ignorance. The speaker instructs the drums to “make no parley – stop for no expostulation” and mind not the timid, or prayer, or old man, or child’s voice. He wants the terrible drums “make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses.” Neither the living nor the dead and those who will die are free from the heartless mandate. Thus, his charge, like war itself, disregards everyone in favor of its cause.

In sum, Whitman offers an almost sarcastic commentary on war. Beat! Beat! Drums! calls for union , yet then warns of its pig-headedness. People who listen to the poem are jumping on a bandwagon headed off a cliff – they might get caught up in the cause and forget what they could cause.