The Open Road Poem Essay

“The Open Road,” and the poem “Beat! Beat! Drums!” give two different vibes when you read them. When I read “The Open Road” i got the feeling of freedom which is completely the opposite of the vibe from “Beat! Beat! Drum!” “Beat! Beat! Drum!” made me feel like something bad was to come. The Theme of “Beat! Beat! Drum!” was that war was going to happen, everything is going to change and bad things are rising up. In the first stanza the poem talks about no happiness or piece shall be had through the people. At the end of each stanza the poem talks about banging drums and blowing the bugles. Both of these are symbolized to show war is coming. The Raid of Harpers Ferry was the event inspired by this poem, taking place in Virginia 1859, led by John Brown. John Brown was surrounded and forced to surrender. John Brown went on trial and was charged with murder, treason and slave rebellion and hung along with many of the other people who joined him. Stanza two and three talks about this when the poem states “Would the lawyers rise in the court and state his case before the judge,” and “Make even trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses.” Both of these quotes talking about John Brown's trial and the bodies lying on the ground after the …show more content…
Although I can see why someone might think this from the quote, “Would the lawyers rise in the court and state his case before the judge.” The reason why this is wrong is because the Dred scott case took place 1846-1857 in the state of Missouri. This took place four years before the war started where the John Brown raid took place two years before the war started and was closer to New York where the writer of this poem was from. Because the John Brown raid took place in Virginia, The Writer, Walt Whitman, had a better chance of hearing about it then a court case that took place in