Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night

Written in 1865, “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night” is Walt Whitman’s dramatic monologue in response to the death of a Union soldier during the American Civil War. The poem imagines the bond between two soldiers in the moment of and immediately after one’s death in battle. The poem originally appeared in Whitman’s Drum-Taps (1865) but was eventually added to a subsequent edition of the poet’s magnum opus, Leaves of Grass.

Unlike his elegy for President Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” which turned the slain president into a symbol of the nation, “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night” is a muted, personal poem that, while relevant to the experience of war as a whole, refrains from making over-generalizations about the clash between the Union and the Confederacy. The poem implies that the connection between these two soldiers—which scholars argue is based on the story of actual comrades—is too personal to be understood by the larger world.

Poet Biography

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is considered among the pantheon of greatest American poets. Born in West Hills, Long Island, he grew up in Brooklyn and Hempstead, Long Island. After a mere six years of schooling, he became an office boy at 11 before working as a printer, teacher, journalist, and editor.

In 1847, at 28 years of age, he traveled to New Orleans to work for the Crescent—the official journal of Louisiana and New Orleans. Though he would remain with the newspaper for less than three months, owing to disagreements with its owners that led to his termination, the period was significant in his writing development. Being away from home—particularly in a city as bohemian as New Orleans—and passing through the Great Lakes, Niagara, and Hudson areas on his way home, left its mark on Whitman. Scholars have wondered about possible love affairs during his time in New Orleans, whether with a woman (as later captured in the “Children of Adam” section of Leaves of Grass) or with a man (as seen in his “Calamus” poems). Regardless, Whitman wrote about Louisiana as late as 1860 in “I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing.”

Whitman’s life’s work, the sprawling collection Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 when he was 36. The book evolved over eight additional editions, with Whitman adding to, editing, and subtracting from the collection until the “death-bed edition” of 1891. Many of the changes related to the taboo subject of sexuality. For instance, the 1881 edition was labeled obscene by the district attorney of Boston for the inclusion of “To a Common Prostitute.” As early as 1860, even Ralph Waldo Emerson cautioned Whitman to temper the sexual content of his work.

The book, originally called Song of Myself, is among the milestones of American poetry. Building upon all his past experience, Whitman created a democratic book, which is particularly noteworthy considering the personal nature of its first title. The poems consist of long free-verse lines that often cannot be contained within the constraints of a traditionally formatted book. His lines offer catalogues of description, thoughts, emotions, and people and their vocations, as in poems such as “I Hear America Singing” and “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Whitman captured what it meant to play a part in the American experience of the 19th century.

Arguably the most significant period of Whitman’s life began in 1862, when he learned of his brother George’s wounding at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Though George survived relatively unscathed, Whitman was so taken by the sight of the wounded that he remained in Washington, D.C., serving as a companion and letter-writer for soldiers, as well as dressing wounds and keeping vigil over the dying. Many of these experiences were detailed in poetry in Drum-Taps (1865) and Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865-6), both of which were ultimately included in Leaves of Grass.

After a stroke in 1873, he left his clerk’s position in Washington and retired to New Jersey, where he lived with his brother, continued publishing editions of Leaves of Grass, and worked toward his eventual posterity. During these years, Whitman’s influence stretched from the United States to Great Britain, where Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde—among others—fell under the spell of the collection. During a visit to the U.S. as a young man, Wilde went so far as to pay his respects to his elder.

Whitman died in 1892 at the age of 72.

Poem Text

Whitman, Walt. “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night.” 1865. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The poem opens with an unnamed speaker on a battlefield during the American Civil War. The speaker’s friend is wounded and the pair share a final moment together before he dies. The speaker must leave his friend to fight in the continuing battle. Late that night, once the skirmish has ended, he returns to his friend and spends his vigil with the body. He remains with his friend on the battlefield: “Passing sweet hours” (Line 14), he notices the “stars aloft” (Line 15) and contemplates the relationship between the two men. Reflecting on this relationship, the speaker considers that “I faithfully love you and cared for you living” (Line 17). However, while he does not have an emotional reaction to his friend’s death, he is comforted by the thought, “I think we shall surely meet again” (Line 17). Finally, “as the dawn appear’d” (Line 18), he chooses to prepare the body for burial. He digs a grave, in which he places the blanket-wrapped boy in, and “buried him where he fell” (Line 26).