War never changes, be it from the firing of a Springfield or a Mauser rifle, in America or Spain, our blood never gets any more or less red. Similarly, our reactions to this bloodshed shine in the same way, Walt Whitman’s depiction of the moral complexities of war provide us with the sense of an intimate, almost sacred struggle against those who seek to dehumanize and divide, While Vallejo’s portrayal in his poems reflects a visceral, often chaotic fight for dignity amidst suffering, not even being a Spaniard himself, Vallejo fought purely out of profound empathy for the suffering of others, channeling his anguish into words that cut deep into the human conscience. Both Whitman and Vallejo grapple with this paradox of endorsing violence for the sake of liberation, infusing their poetry with a prophetic vision that oscillates between hope and despair.
During the civil war, Whitman dreamt of the future ahead with the union’s victory, and the progress ahead, calling upon the spirit of freedom to abandon the past's limitations and look boldly toward a transformative future. Whitman urged a departure from the confines of feudal systems, monarchy, and the divisive structures of caste and slavery, framing them as relics of a bygone world. In "Turn O Libertad”, he says: "Turn from lands retrospective recording proofs of the past," urging us to "leave to the singers of hitherto", the stories of former glories and oppressive systems, reflecting both confidence and inevitability, and that the past wars have prepared humanity for what is to come, and coming into terms with the human struggle for resilience, its unyielding march towards freedom, and that the pursuit of liberty is a timeless struggle that grows stronger with each generation, be it against colonizers, enslavers, or fascists.
At its root what Whitman and Vallejo wrote about spoke of the same struggle, the struggle for liberation, and the emancipation of humanity from their respective oppressors they were fighting against. However, contrary to Whitman, Vallejo was a revolutionary, he sought to overthrow fascism’s rise in Spain, by serving as a medic in the Spanish Republican army. Whitman viewed the American Civil War as a painful yet necessary step toward unity and democracy, Vallejo perceived war as a relentless battle against authoritarianism, driven by a deep empathy for the oppressed. Through their contrasting uses of poetic language, Whitman’s nationalistic idealism and Vallejo’s disillusionment expose the tensions between hope and despair in the face of oppression, and war, offering a complex, but enduring insight into the costs of freedom and the ambiguity of resistance.
Whitman's ideas of what America should strive to be are very evident in much of Drum Taps, the sparks of this almost utopian egalitarian society, where every man and woman is equal was very controversial for the times, and often made Whitman into kind of an outcast due his beliefs, however, while he viewed the war as a necessary step to achieve this goal, he also got to experience much of the pain and suffering caused from it first hand, often leading him to question whether the cost of the conflict was truly justified, we can see this in the poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!":
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,
Here Whitman encapsulates the dichotomy between the righteous, noble fight that the union is fighting, and the unstoppable invasive force that comes with it, using the relentless drums as the image for the impact the war had on civilian life during the war, be it in churches, schools, weddings, or farmlands. Through this, Whitman illustrates how war penetrates even the most intimate and peaceful spaces of everyday life, forcing people to abandon their duties and comforts for a greater purpose. The juxtaposition of his patriotic fervor ("so fierce you whirr and pound you drums") with the forced abandonment of peace among civilians shows Whitman’s acknowledgment of war’s moral and emotional cost, insisting on the unyielding commitment to the war effort it takes, Whitman captures this dual perception –of war as a necessary instrument of change, while also a destructive force– masterfully, intensifying his internal conflict as he questions whether such widespread sacrifice can truly be justified.
We see a very different side of Whitman in “The Wound-Dresser”, which, by highlighting the suffering of the soldiers themselves, and the toll the war has on them as individuals, like in the stanza:
Soldier alert I arrive after a long march cover’d with sweat and dust,
In the nick of time I come, plunge in the fight,
loudly shout in the rush of successful charge,
Enter the captur’d works—yet lo, like a swift running river they fade,
Pass and are gone they fade—I dwell not on soldiers’ perils or soldiers’ joys,
Both I remember well—many of the hardships, few the joys, yet I was content.)
This encapsulates not only the physical exhaustion that many of the soldiers would’ve felt, but also the existential hardship many of them had to go through, seeing that many people die in front of their eyes, “Both I remember well-many of the hardships, few the joys, yet i was content” expresses the sense of contentment and righteousness many of these boys would’ve felt, stemming from their belief in the cause they were fighting for.
Both Whitman’s and Vallejo’s poetry focuses on the idealistic idea of their nation’s unified future past their civil wars, almost prophetically, they envision a future devoid of oppression, be it slavery or fascism. None of it is more obvious than in the poem “Hymn to the Volunteers of the Republic” from the collection “Spain, Take This Cup from Me”, in which he addresses the soldiers’ effort to fighting for Spain’s future, and their role in shaping a better future. He portrays their actions as a transformative force, suggesting that their sacrifices and unity are foundational in constructing a liberated society. The section where vallejo says:
"For you, my beloved, who are not, who never will be, who lived scattered among the wheat, and who had to die only to give us a place in history."
This, in turn, reflects Vallejo's deep acknowledgment of the sacrifices made by ordinary individuals who fought and died for the freedom of the Spanish people. Through the erasure of their individuality caused by the war, these militiamen are remembered as a collective symbol of their struggle. With their lives “scattered among the wheat” symbolizing the cycles of life and death, and nourishment that their sacrifice will provide future generations. Vallejo’s use of “to give us a palace in history” also frames their deaths as necessary for societal progress. Their selflessness enables the construction of a new, liberated future, where the transformative power of their collective sacrifice mourns the personal cost of the revolution, while also celebrating its impact for decades to come.
Today, both Cesar Vallejo and Walt Whitman’s poetry continue to resonate with us as powerful statements on the intricate relationship between violence and liberation, Their writings, born out of their specific historical conflicts, transcend their original contexts by inviting the reader to confront enduring issues of oppression, inequality, and the moral cost of achieving freedom, Together, their work challenges modern readers to recognize the human toll of conflict and to strive for a more just world, one in which the sacrifices of the past guide not only our moral compass and our collective struggle toward equality and liberation.