Literature project.

Stephano Plaza Torres

Colegio La Piedad

Prof. S. Kinch

Grade 11

Poetry Project

Poem: Beat! Beat! Drums!

II. Copy and define all vocabulary words:

a). bargainers: people who make an agreement to give or do something in return for something else.

b). beseeching: to ask in a pleading way; implore.

c). bridegroom: a man who has just been married or is about to be married.

d). entreaties: a strong request; plea.

e). Expostulation: is the act of reasoning with a person to correct or dissuade him or her.

f). hearses: a car or carriage for carrying the dead body in a funeral.

g). parley: is a conference between enemies to discuss terms of a truce or an agreement.

h). prayer: the act or an instance of praying. A humble and sincere request, especially one made to God.

i). rattles: to make or cause to make a series, short sounds.

j). ruthless: cruel or without pity.

k). scatter: to throw here and there; to sprinkle.

l). scholar: a person who has leaned much through study.

m). Speculators: are people who engage in risky business ventures hoping to make quick or large profits.

n). Trestles: are structures in which a beam is supported by four diverging legs.

o). whirr: to move swiftly with a whizzing or buzzing sound.

III. Classify the poem as narrative poem, lyric poem or sonnet:

The poem Beat! Beat! Drums! by Walt Whitman is a narrative poem because it is based in the traditions of storytelling. It always has a plot and something happens. A narrative poem usually tells a story using a poetic theme. In these poem the author tells a story about the war and the needed of soldiers.  Narrative poems were created to explain oral traditions. The focus of narrative poetry is often the facts of life; in this case the causes and the consequences of the Civil War in the United States.

This poem is made up of three stanzas. It doesn’t have a particular rhyme and no particular meter structure. Each stanza begins with the same line.  The author uses free verse to write this poem because it is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with particular forms. This poem is without rhythms and rhyme schemes and do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules. The poet uses alliteration, similes, personification, assonance, hyperbaton, onomatopoeia and imagery: (auditory) in order to attract the attention of the reader and send a message about the causes and consequences of the Civil War in the country.

IV. Paraphrase the poem:

In this poem the poet is announcing war and the people should stop doing their daily activities and prepare themselves to the war (“Leave not the bridegroom quiet- no happiness must he have now with his bride, Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain…”).

The tone of the poem in the first stanza is of someone who feels afraid because something terrible is going to happen in the country. Whitman uses onomatopoeia in the phrase Beat! Beat! Drums! to help the reader experience the scene he is describing. Whitman uses the sounds effects Beat! Beat! Drums! as the opening line of each stanza.

In the second stanza the author tells the drums to make noise for the cities, people sleeping, lawyers and people taking; again the poet is informing everybody about the war (“Beat! Beat! Drums!- blow! bugles! blow!”" Over the traffic of cities- over the rumble of wheels in the streets; Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses?” "no sleepers must sleep in those beds, no bargains bargains by day- no brokers or speculators- would they continue?” “Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing” “Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?" “Then rattle quicker, heavier drums- you bugles wilder now”…).

In the second stanza in the seventh line the author uses the sound of military instruments to inform everyone about the war and the fact that the country needs soldiers that help it to fight against the enemy (“Beat! Beat! Drums!- blow! “Mind not the old man beseeching the young man”… “Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties”…) In the fourth and fifth lines of the third stanza the father and the mother are imploring his son not to join the war as a soldier.

In the third stanza the tone of the poem is sad because so many people died as one of the terrible consequences of the war and the sound of the drums again announced the death of the soldiers and the death of many people.

The author of the poem Beat! Beat! Drums! is against the war and he finally admits that it is inevitable and in the case of young men is obligatory to join the army to fight against the enemy in the Civil War. In my personal opinion, the author attitude toward war is negative because it causes the death of the people and only brings suffering, unhappiness, fatality and poverty in the people who experience it.

I think that the views about war expressed in these poem are applicable today because we are busy with our activities and daily routine and we don’t know when we are going to face an event like a war in our country and we have to pray in order to avoid such a terrible event and its consequences.

V.  Analyze the poem. (Include and explain similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, assonance, imagery: visual, sensory, auditory. Copy the rhyme scheme for the first two stanzas.)

“Beat! Beat! drums!- blow! bugles! blow!

Through the windows- through doors-burst like a ruthless force,

Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,

Into the school where the scholar is studying;

Leave not the bridegroom quiet- no happiness must he have now with his bride,

Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,

So fierce you whirr and pound you drums- so shrill you bugles blow.”

Beat! beat! drums!- blow! bugles! blow!

Over the traffic of cities- over the rumble of wheels in the streets;

Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds,

No bargainers’ bargains by day- no brokers or speculators- would they continue?

Would the talkers be talking? Would the singers attempt to sing?

Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?

Then rattle quicker, heavier drums – you bugles wilder blow.

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