The cost of war

1. The cost of war

2. summary • The narrator wakes up • Notices three stretchers • Looks at the three bodies and tells about them • “Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended lying” (Whitman 531)

3. Devices of sound • List the three dead guys on the stretchers • Gaunt, Grim, Gray’d • “Who are you elderly man so gaunt and grim, with well-gray’d hair,” (Whitman 531) • “Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended lying.” (Whitman 531) • These emphasize certain points.

4. Imagery • He explains the three guys age and what they look like. • “Who are you elderly man…. Who are you my child and darling…. A face nor child nor old, very calm, as of beautiful yellow-white ivory” (Whitman 531)

5. metaphors • Whitman compares the third soldier to Christ • “I think this face is the face of the Christ himself, Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.” (Whitman 531)

6. Themes that connect • This poem has diversity and unity • Different ages of the dead soldiers • All three soldiers fight for the same army • “Who are you elderly man…. Who are you my child and darling…. A face nor child nor old, very calm” (Whitman 531)