"Pioneers! O Pioneers! by Walt Whitman STANZA-WISE ANALYSIS

Pioneers! O Pioneers! 

INTRODUCTION

At the time Walt Whitman released Pioneers! O Pioneers!" the American Civil War had only ended in his 1865 collection Drum-Taps, leaving the nation battered, torn apart and in need of a purpose to bring it together. It was at this very crisis that the poem was written; a cry of clarion--not only of the westward expansion, but of an artistic literary process of converting soldiers into citizens, and a divided republic into a whole continental force .

The poem was written at the height of the westward fever in America and thus reflects the spirit of the time characterized by the California Gold Rush, the Oregon Trail migrations, and the building of the first transcontinental railroad. The poet of democracy, Whitman, knew that the pioneer was more than a historical personality; the pioneer was the American character itself--discontented, brave, and visionary.

The 26 quatrains of the poem move to a strong, relentless (and uncharacteristic) Whitman trochaic beat, a marching song that calls the pioneers of America to action. This rhythmic intensity makes the difference in the song: Pioneers! O Pioneers!" out of more typical Whitman compositions and in the more characteristically free-verse style, which hints at his conscious aim to produce something resembling a national anthem to the westward expansion.

To interpret the poem, one has to wrestle with the idea of Manifest Destiny the idea that was prevalent in the nineteenth century America and that said that settlers were chosen by God to spread across the continent. Whitman adopts this ideology in his typical zeal, but the complexity of the poem is shown in its recognition of sacrifice, in the haunting quality of its allusions to the ghostly millions, and in the underlying realization of the poem that progress has its price.

STANZA-WISE ANALYSIS

Stanzas 1-4: The Call to Arms

Lines 1-4:

Come my tan-faced children,

Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,

Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes?

Pioneers! O pioneers!

Direct address is used at the beginning of the poem, Whitman presents himself as a father-general to the pioneer army. The epithet tan-faced makes an instant distinction between these Americans and their European counterparts; they are tan, outdoors, people, with the experience of the continent upon them. The urgent feeling is created with the repetitive questions (Have you your pistols?) and the refrain makes the poem sound liturgical. The combination of the word pistols and sharp-edged axes combines martial and labor images, implying that even the work of the pioneer is some kind of war with nature on its own.

Lines 5-8:

For we cannot tarry here,

We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,

We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,

Pioneers! O pioneers!

Whitman changes to first person plural and makes himself part of the pioneer group. The line about young sinewy races is a juxtaposition of American energy and European decay - a theme that is elaborated in later stanzas. The term darlings is a surprise of gentleness and the hint is that this martial march is led by love. The statement which says that all the rest on us depend lays upon the pioneer generation a tremendous responsibility; not of being adventurers only, but of civilizing the future.

Lines 9-16:

O you youths, Western youths,
So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and friendship,
Plain I see you Western youths, see you tramping with the foremost,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas?
We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

In this case Whitman very clearly describes the transatlantic contrast. The elder races of Europe have become tired; their lesson ends just as the American one does. Here, tramping is a term with positive implications of daring adventure and not desperate wandering. The task eternal indicates that pioneering is not only historical but also philosophical, a continuing human challenge that demands going beyond what is familiar. This stanza creates what scholar Betsy Erkkila refers to as the vision of America as the heir to Western civilization that Whitman had, the place where the drained-out possibilities of the Old World would be renewed.

Stanzas 5-8: The March Begins

Lines 17-24:

All the past we leave behind,
We debouch upon a newer mightier world, varied world,
Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

We detachments steady throwing,
Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep,
Conquering, holding, daring, venturing as we go the unknown ways,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

The geological and historical moment is perfectly described by the verb debouch (to come out of a narrow space into the open country), pioneers flooding out of eastern valleys onto the Great Plains. The topography of conquest followed by Whitman is prepositional: down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep. The repetition of the participles, conquering, holding, daring, venturing, etc. makes it appear to be a continuous, endless action. Every verb is an extension of the last one, indicating that the word of the pioneer is never finished; there is always another mountain, another unknown path.

Lines 25-32:

We primeval forests felling,
We the rivers stemming, vexing we and piercing deep the mines within,
We the surface broad surveying, we the virgin soil upheaving,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Colorado men are we,
From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the high plateaus,
From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting trail we come,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

These stanzas include much of Whitman's most ecologically violent imagery -primeval forests felling, virgin soil upheaving. The modern reader might shudder at what, according to scholar Ed Folsom, is called an ecological/genocidal nightmare, the naive and unquestioning applause of a post war capitalistic zeal to rape the untouched land. But within the historical context of the poem, this visual praise was a moral and national requirement to the human dominance over nature.

The locality of Colorado men and then Nebraska, from Arkansas, puts the poem on a geographical base, and abstract expansion turns to named locations with specific identities. The listing of the western lands by Whitman is a sort of linguistic invasion, in which he appropriates the territories to the American imagination despite the pioneers who were doing the same through settlement.

Stanzas 9-12: Unity and Love

Lines 33-40:

From Nebraska, from Arkansas,
Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the continental blood intervein'd,
All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all the Northern,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

O resistless restless race!
O beloved race in all! O my breast aches with tender love for all!
O I mourn and yet exult, I am rapt with love for all,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

After the Civil War, the political implications of Whitman insisting on unity are very strong. The continental blood intervein'd implies a new hybrid of Americans, who are not bound by the sectional lines. The unification it is describing is done linguistically through the repetition of all (4 times in two stanzas). The feature of catalog, which is typical of Whitman, is extended to the North and South, uniting the former foes into clasped comrades.

Whitman is in a complicated emotional position that is embodied in the oxymoron of mourn and yet exult because he is happy about the national fate but at the same time, he knows what sacrifices the national fate may demand. The statement, my breast aches with tender love, makes the national project personal, indicating that patriotism is not thought but gut feeling.

Lines 41-48:

Raise the mighty mother mistress,
Waving high the delicate mistress, over all the starry mistress, (bend your heads all,)
Raise the fang'd and warlike mistress, stern, impassive, weapon'd mistress,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

See my children, resolute children,
By those swarms upon our rear we must never yield or falter,
Ages back in ghostly millions frowning there behind us urging,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

The mistress here is America herself, the mighty, delicate, starry, fanged and warlike. This multiplicity of conflicting features indicates the complexity of the country, its ability to include conflicting nature. The parenthesis, bend your heads all, serves a moment of pious silence in the marching time, recognizing the religious nature of the national business.

The ghostly millions are both possibilities, the dead of the Civil War, the ancestors who built the republic, and maybe the displaced native people whose presence haunts the fringes of the Whitman view. These ghosts frowning there behind us urging, make the past a driving power; the dead insist on the living making the world a better place than they made it by their death.

Stanzas 13-18: Death and Continuity.

Lines 49-60:

On and on the compact ranks,
With accessions ever waiting, with the places of the dead quickly fill'd,
Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

O to die advancing on!
Are there some of us to droop and die? has the hour come?
Then upon the march we fittest die, soon and sure the gap is fill'd.
Pioneers! O pioneers!

These two stanzas face death head on. The pioneer army is similar to the military group in which those who are killed are immediately replaced. The phrase up on the march we fittest die is a Darwinian phrase transformed into pioneer ideology - death in the service of progress is the most appropriate death. Such machinery of death, though shocking to the modern taste, fulfilled an important role in the post-war period: it made out of meaningless carnage a sacrifice.

The expression soon and sure the gap is fill’d implies reassurance, as well as obliteration. The single hero is not as important as the larger procession; the individuality of the personality is absorbed in the ranks. This conflict between the personal and the collective, which is the keynote of the democratic theory, is here given a sharp answer in favor of the group .

Lines 61-72:

All the pulses of the world,
Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat,
Holding single or together, steady moving to the front, all for us,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Life's involv'd and varied pageants,
All the forms and shows, all the workmen at their work,
All the seamen and the landsmen, all the masters with their slaves,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Their presence of all the masters and their slaves has perplexed readers of today, implying that Whitman was open to even slavery in his national unity. This text shows the ideological boundary of the poem: the democratic embrace Whitman had was, as vast as it was, yet not yet up to an examination of the South and its peculiar institution. The vision of the nation unity in the poem is achieved at the price of destroying the major moral fault lines, as critic Maurice Kenny observes.

But the catalog too reveals the typical democratic urge of Whitman--every profession, every circumstance, every kind of man is a part of or a contributor to the new movement. The beats of the world are in harmony with the beats of the Western movement, implying that the westward expansion is not just the American fate but it is the fate of the whole world, the way which history itself moves.

Stanzas 19-22: Cosmic and Domestic Vision.

Lines 73-88:

All the hapless silent lovers,
All the prisoners in the prisons, all the righteous and the wicked,
All the joyous, all the sorrowing, all the living, all the dying,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

I too with my soul and body,
We, a curious trio, picking, wandering on our way,
Through these shores amid the shadows, with the apparitions pressing,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Lo, the darting bowling orb!
Lo, the brother orbs around, all the clustering suns and planets,
All the dazzling days, all the mystic nights with dreams,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Whitman stretches his vision to cosmic proportions and brings in suns and planets into the pioneer movement. America itself is marching with the universe. The line brother orbs amplifies the language of comradeship that is dominant throughout the poem to the heavenly objects; stars and planets are not objects of the sky, but companions in the great work.

The curious three of I too with my soul and body reminds me of Whitman and his typical tripartite self-representation of Song of Myself. The speaker is not just an outsider witnessing the pioneer movement but he is part of it and his spiritual journey is similar to the physical one, the journey to the west.

Lines 89-96:

These are of us, they are with us,
All for primal needed work, while the followers there in embryo wait behind,
We to-day's procession heading, we the route for travel clearing,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

O you daughters of the West!
O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!
Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

More importantly, Whitman appeals directly to the daughters of the West, demanding the essential role of women in the pioneer project. In contrast to domestic seclusion of women in I Hear America Singing, women here move in unity among themselves in the ranks, which connotes a more truly democratic vision of the westward expansion. The mention of mothers and you wives is in recognition of the particular contribution that the women made but their contributions were not to be ignored in the collective effort.

Stanza 23-26: The Ascetic Ideal and Final Call.

Lines 97-104:

Minstrels latent on the prairies!
(Shrouded bards of other lands, you may rest, you have done your work,)
Soon I hear you coming warbling, soon you rise and tramp amid us,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Not for delectations sweet,
Not the cushion and the slipper, not the peaceful and the studious,
Not the riches safe and palling, not for us the tame enjoyment,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

These lines express an asceticism that is harsh. Pioneers do not seek comfort, security, and the comfortable enjoyment but hardship and danger. The parenthetical appeal to the shrouded bards of other lands is an indication that the cultural work of Europe is not yet finished; the bards of America will grow out of the prairies themselves, and produce a new literature, which is sufficient to the new world.

Lines 105-116:

Do the feasters gluttonous feast?
Do the corpulent sleepers sleep? have they lock'd and bolted doors?
Still be ours the diet hard, and the blanket on the ground,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Has the night descended?
Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding on our way?
Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Till with sound of trumpet,
Far, far off the daybreak call—hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind,
Swift! to the head of the army!—swift! spring to your places,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

The last stanzas admit human inability- exhaustion, frustration, restlessness. The corpulent sleepers with the lock and bolted doors exemplify all that the pioneer overcomes the bourgeois security that is spiritual death. But even the conclusion of the poem does not give a final rest, but a rest which is but a passing hour before the trumpet calls the pioneers onward again.

The conclusion, with its military diction and the use of imperative form (Swift! spring to your places), makes the whole poem a constant call to arms, which can never be answered, but which always re-invokes the call. The sound of trumpet reminds us of military reveille, as well as of apocalyptic proclamation, and the journey of the pioneer is involved in the national as well as the cosmic fate.

MAJOR THEMES

American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny.

The poem is the most effective poetic statement of the Manifest Destiny the idea that the expansion of the American nation across the continent was not only a national aspiration but an act of cosmic destiny. The pioneers made by Whitman are not merely going west, but responding to a task eternal, which links them to the movement of the universe itself. This theme is close to the ideology of the nineteenth century America and also to the transcendentalism belief of Whitman that the country could be spiritually as well as historically meaningful .

Youth versus Age

Whitman opposed youthful America to old Europe throughout the poem. The older races have become fatigued and stalemated; the American youthful sinewy races assume the incomplete task of civilization. This is a metaphor of generational bondage, which was used after the Civil War unification where Americans both North and South were thought to have a youthful vigor that they could use to be identified with the Old World. The forerunner is transformed into the ideal representative of the inexhaustible American youth, who always goes out, always starts afresh.

Death and Sacrifice

The way death is handled in the poem is advanced and ironical. Pioneers die, and their positions are fill'd; death on the march is the death of the fittest. These ghostly millions who go before the present generation haunt and drive on the living. To a country that had come out of devastating war, this vision turned death into death without a purpose, to death with purpose in an eternal work. Whitman does not provide any easy comfort or rejection of the death, but a perception of death as a part of the continuous flow of history.

Unity and Comradeship

The poem focuses on clasped hands, comradeship and united ranks, which were written to reunite a torn nation. Southerners and Northerners are marching; the "continental blood intervein'd" implies the emergence of a new type of national hybridism that is not limited to sectionalism. The refrain comes in again and again Pioneers! O pioneers!" is a binding incantation that gathers various people in one song. This is the theme of life-long democratic fraternity by Whitman, in response to the political crisis of the moment after the Civil War.

Labor and Mastery

The attitude of the pioneers to nature is that of active change-cutting down trees, digging up streams, drilling wells, stirring up the soil. Here work is not slavery, but an epic struggle with a continent waiting. The poem glorifies the human agency and the ability of a common effort to transform the physical world. However, in the modern reader, the eco-political effects of such mastery are to be processed, and indigenous peoples, and the alteration of the ecosystems are to be discussed as that which Whitman praises as the virgin soil upheaving.

The Cosmic Frame

Whitman does not just project his vision to the continental but to the cosmic as well, linking the pioneer movement to the movements of stars and planets. This cosmic frame makes the human enterprise noble and at the same time makes it relative; the explorers are involved in more than themselves. The "brother orbs" and the "clustering suns" imply that even the universe is structured in democratic lines, a society of heavenly bodies that resembles the one that Whitman is dreaming of in a human community.