AN ANALYSIS OF WALT WHITMAN POEM'S "THIS DUST WAS ONCE THE MAN"

THIS DUST WAS ONCE THE MAN

This dust was once the man,
Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,
Was saved the Union of these States.

In 1st line, the “dust” symbolizes the dead body in the grave. The 2nd line identified the characters of Abraham Lincoln. The “cautious hand” (in 2nd line) has meaning a person who has clever and composed to doing his assignment. Richard Behn (2007) said that “he loved his county partly because it was his own country, but mostly because it was a free country, and he burned with a zeal for its advancement, prosperity, and glory, because he saw, in such, the advancement prosperity, and glory of human liberty, human rights, and human nature”. The sentence above is reflection of the characters that mentioned in 2nd line.

The metaphor of “foulest crime” (line 3rd) associated to slavery system. More than two hundred years, from 1654 until 1865, slavery was legal in United States. Slavery was social evil which must be abolished. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the Emancipation to abolish slavery. After Civil War was end, federal government made 13th Amendment to abolish all of slaves in America. Then the government made 14th Amendment to give black full citizen rights. Sentences previous are the analogy of “Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age”.

Finally, the man in this poem who have characters such as “gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand”, and well known as the hero who “against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age” who “was saved the Union of these States” is Abraham Lincoln.