Walt Whitman’s “Cavalry Crossing a Ford”

Walt Whitman’s “Cavalry Crossing a Ford”

Walt Whitman’s seven-line poem titled “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” offers a simple, single unified image, much as a photograph of the same scene would offer.

Introduction and Text of “Cavalry Crossing a Ford”

This signature sprawling poem “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” is one of Whitman’s most widely anthologized poems from his Civil War experience; it first appeared in the section “Drum-Taps,” in 1865 in his much revised Leaves of Grass, his collection that he continually added to and revised for many years.

The speaker of this poem adds no commentary about what he sees; he simply reports the image as it appears to his sight.  Each line becomes a single unit that gives its supporting value to the entire poem.

Cavalry Crossing a Ford

A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,
They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun—hark  to the musical clank,
Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to  drink,
Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles,
Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the  ford—while,

Scarlet and blue and snowy white,
The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind.

Commentary on “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” 

This  seven-line poem offers a simple, single unified image, much as a photograph of the same scene would do.

Line 1:  ”A line in long array, where they wind betwixt green islands” 

The speaker is riding with a line of cavalry soldiers as they move into battle.  The small group of soldiers is in the process of crossing a river, as the speaker commences his portrayal of this event.   The attention of the viewer is directed to a line of the cavalrymen who are on horseback, “wind[ing] betwixt green islands.”

Whitman eschewed any traditional riming scheme with this poem; however, the assonance of words with such as “wind,” “island,” and “line,” offer a stand-in and function as rime would do in helping to render the line a unified whole.  The viewer can see the whole group of cavalry in just the first line.

Line 2:  ”They take a serpentine course— their arms flash in the sun–Hark to the musical clank” 

The line of soldiers seems to form a snake-like line as it glides through the landscape.  Crossing the river the “serpentine” line appears to move as the snake would move through grass.

The speaker now refers to the soldiers by reporting that, “their arms [are] flash[ing] in the sun.” The speaker then adds to his description a sound:  “Hark to the musical clank.”  The poem, therefore, is offering an image that a snapshot could never do.

Line 3:  ”Behold the silvery river—in it the splashing horses, loitering, stop to drink” 

The speaker now dramatizes the river, reporting that it is “silvery” with the horses “splashing” the water, taking a gulp of the water every time they halt to wait their turn to trot ahead.  The speaker adds a marvelous touch by commanding his reader/listerner/viewer: “Behold the silvery river.” 

Line 4:  ”Behold the brown-faced men–each group, each person, a picture—the negligent rest on the saddles” 

Employing this line and the following line to dramatize the soldiers, the speaker again commands his listeners to look at the “brown-faced men.”  The speaker then asserts that each soldier represents a “picture,” as the whole group of soldiers also paints its own picture. He notes that some seem rather laid-back and seem to be merely relaxing in their saddles before they begin their difficult journey again.

Line 5:  ”Some emerge on the opposite bank–others are just entering the ford—while” 

The speaker then claims that a section of the line of soldiers is completing their crossing of the river, as others remain in the process of stepping into the river.  The line connects immediately to the following line employing the subordinating conjunction “while,” giving the section obvious dependence on the following line.

Line 6:  ”Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white” 

The flags representing the colors of the united country, the union flag, which serve as a guidon for the group remain in a single line to stress their important function of representing the country they are fighting to preserve.

Line 6:  ”The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind” 

The final line finds the speaker stressing the colorful flags, “flutter[ing] gaily.”  The speaker finds that fluttering a happy event as the flags do what they would simply and naturally do in a light breeze.