"Cavalry Crossing a Ford" (or CCAF if you haven't picked up on what I have been doing with the titles) seems to be going in a slightly different direction as that of Thoreau. Where as I have stated numerous times before Thoreau likes less government and more individual worth which can be seen from his "Civil Disobedience" where he states "That government is best which governs least" (Thoreau). Whitman seems to be very patriotic, and patriotic seems to be different than no government, or that is how I see the situation. His poem that was mentioned in the beginning of this post shows some patriotic stuff in it. First of all it is about a cavalry, and he says that "each group, each person, a picture" (118). He seems to be glorifying the cavalry by saying that they are so perfect that Whitman wants to take a picture of them. At least that is the extent of what I have obtained from the conservation that we just had on the subject. And in my opinion if you glorify the military then you are patriotic, and with Thoreau whom wants less government seems to be unpatriotic, or at least that is how I see it. The next bit of information that I have to help support my opinion is that he states in the final line "The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind" (118). Which basically means that the flag holder is leading the cavalry and is all patriotic and stuff. He also seems to be using a variety of romanticism based techniques and attributes, such as a lot of nature based things being thrown into the poem that is incredibly thrown in. He uses "green islands", "serpentine course", and "splashing horses" (118) as a brief example. These are all examples of nature or the extreme description that can be very commonly seen in the most common of the common romanticism traits that are commonly found in their writings.
"118. Cavalry Crossing a Ford. Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 10 Feb. 2012.
"Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 07 Feb. 2012.
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