Compassion within the midst of chaos – how one in every of America's best poets became a lifeline for wounded soldiers

With over There are actually 40 armed conflicts happening all over the worldThe costs of warfare are immense and proceed to rise with each passing day.

It is estimated that Russia's war against Ukraine resulted in greater than the next 600,000 Russian victimswith estimates of the full variety of dead and injured on each side as much as 1 million. The war between Israel and Hamas led to this about 140,000 Palestinian and 10,000 Israeli victimsand there have been at the very least 50,000 casualties in the continuing Sudanese civil war. Closer to home, the newly married son of one in every of my colleagues suffered serious injuries and lost all 4 limbs in an explosion while serving within the Middle East.

The lack of life and limb, human rights violations, destruction of non-public property and damage to infrastructure resembling power plants, hospitals and roads make such costs almost incalculable, at the very least in monetary terms.

But the war also opens up opportunities to look after the injured, displaced and forgotten. As someone who studies and writes in regards to the intersection of drugs and the humanities, I often return to the American poet Walt Whitman.

To honor the act of supporting and consoling war victims, there may be hardly a greater source of inspiration than Whitman. who spent greater than three years He volunteered his time and energy in the course of the US Civil War.

Forced to assist

Walt Whitman is taken into account one in every of the best poets in American history. He was born into difficult circumstances in New York in 1819, the second of nine children. He left school on the age of 11 to support his family and worked in various jobs, including typesetter, teacher and newspaper publisher.

In 1855 he self-published his best work of poetry: “grass leaves“, written in free verse and begins with the poem later known as “Song of mine.” Including the fans of the work Ralph Waldo Emersonwho wrote to Whitman: in a letter by which he praises the poet“I welcome you at the beginning of a great career.”

But fame and fortune got here slowly to Whitman, and he continued to work within the newspaper trade. With the beginning of the Civil War, Whitman's brother enlisted, and when Whitman saw his brother named among the many wounded soldiers, he traveled to Virginia to seek out him.

Eventually he discovered that his brother had only suffered a minor injury. But in the course of the search, Whitman encountered dozens of wounded soldiers and piles of amputated limbs, which motivated him to assist not directly.

He secured a job in Washington, D.C., as an Army paymaster's clerk and commenced volunteering at the town's military hospitals, making, by his estimate, over 600 visits, sometimes overnight, to as many as 400 hospitals 100,000 soldiers.

Treat dispenser, letter author

Why would America's best poet willingly spend the higher a part of over three years of his life visiting places of mutilation, torment and suffering?

Although Whitman had no formal training in medicine or nursing, he still felt he had something vital to supply.

“I have found that the simple personal presence and the radiance of ordinary cheerfulness and attraction have succeeded and helped me more than medical care, delicacies, gifts of money, or anything else,” he wrote in “Memoranda during the war.”

Whitman also managed to bring more tangible gifts: “blackberries, peaches, lemons and sugar, wines, all kinds of preserves, pickles, brandy, milk, shirts and all articles of underwear, tobacco, tea and handkerchiefs.”

He procured this stuff from his own meager resources and thru fundraising to present others the chance to donate.

Consider a particular case, that of a young soldier from Massachusetts affected by respiratory and gastrointestinal complaints.

Whitman wrote of him: “His heart was broken. He felt the struggle to keep up any longer was useless. God, the world, humanity, they had all abandoned him. It would feel so good to forever close your eyes to the cruel things around him and towards him.”

But Whitman stood next to him, gave him some money so he could buy milk, and wrote a letter for him to his sister. “As insignificant as it was, he was overwhelmed and began to cry. He has since told me that that little visit at that hour just saved him – one more day and it might have been too late.”

Along with all the opposite gifts in his backpack, Whitman “always gave paper, envelopes and stamps” in order that soldiers could write to their family members back home. Many times he wrote her letters himself, along with his own hand, often sign under their name“Written by Walt Whitman, a friend.”

From the letters, he remarked:

“Many sick and wounded soldiers have not written to their parents, brothers, sisters and even wives for one reason or another for a long time. Some are bad writers, some don't get paper or envelopes; Many people have an aversion to writing because they are afraid of worrying people at home – it is so sad to tell the facts about them. I always encourage men to write and write for them immediately.”

It is remarkable to assume one in every of the English language's best artists sitting on the bedside of so many sick and wounded soldiers, helping them compose letters to distant family and friends, sometimes simply transcribing what they are saying, and sometimes , what they are saying, what they desired to say or what needed to be said.

He cared not just for the soldiers before him, but additionally for his relatives who were sick with worry and lived a whole lot of miles away.

Becoming channels of compassion

Whitman's dedicated service provides profound and lasting lessons to people all over the world.

For one thing, the toll of war cannot simply be quantified within the variety of lives lost or the billions of dollars in damage caused.

There is a human story behind every number. Every wounded or dead soldier is someone's son or daughter, sister or brother, husband or wife, or mother or father. Every civilian victim is someone's friend, neighbor and fellow citizen.

Whitman used his poetic powers not only to share the stories of wounded soldiers with their family members back home. He also used his experiences at her bedside to compose literary masterpieces resembling “The wound mediator” And “Come up from the fields, father.”

As violence permeates the globe, it is simple to look away or develop into numb to headlines and pictures of death and despair. But facing this suffering head-on—through an easy act like extending a hand, a voice, or an ear—is in itself an act of courage.

True, it cannot end or win a war. But this sort of attention is a type of generosity and a path to healing – a path, as Whitman put it in a book Letter to his brother“that our feelings are so thoroughly and permanently absorbed to the roots by these vast swarms of dear, wounded, sick and dying boys.”