Whitman’s “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” is one of the poet’s Civil War influenced poems, which first appeared in 1865 in “Drum-Taps,” a section of Leaves of Grass, the poet’s master collection that he periodically revised over many years.
With the exception of a small deviation, the speaker of this poem offers no critical remarks about he scene; he merely describes what is before him. Each line is unit in itself as it offers its part of the whole.
“A line in long array, where they wind betwixt green islands”
The speaker is accompanying a cavalry of soldiers as they travel to battle. At the point where the speaker begins to paint his portrait, the cavalry is crossing a river. The first line focuses the viewer’s attention on the line of soldiers on horseback as they “wind betwixt green islands.”
Although Whitman did not employ a traditional rime-scheme, the words “line,” “wind,” and “island” provide a rime that gives the opening line its unity. The entire group of moving soldiers is here in the first line.
“They take a serpentine course—their arms flash in the sun—Hark to the musical clank”
The second line further fills in the details of the “serpentine” line that has formed crossing the river. The line is not straight but looks like a snake would as it glides through grass.
The speaker then mentions the soldiers for the first time but only in the image of “their arms flash[ing] in the sun.” The speaker then brings in a sound, “Hark to the musical clank.” By offering an auditory image, the poem is able to do what a snapshot cannot.
“Behold the silvery river—in it the splashing horses, loitering, stop to drink”
The next offering features the river itself, which the speaker describes as “silvery,” and then he lets his viewers see the “splashing horses,” who take a drink when they are able to stop and wait for their turn to move ahead. However, instead merely stating the description, he commands his viewer to look, “Behold the silvery river.”
“Behold the brown-faced men—each group, each person, a picture—the negligent rest on the saddles”
Again, the speaker commands his viewer to “[b]ehold the brown-faced men.” He uses this and the next line to feature the soldiers themselves. He claims that each one is “a picture,” and each group forms its own picture. He points out that some seem rather nonchalant appearing to be simply relaxing in “the saddles.”
“Some emerge on the opposite bank—others are just entering the ford—while”
To complete the image of the line of horses carrying soldiers, the speaker reports that a part of the line has reached to other side of the river, while others are still entering it.
“Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white”
The speaker places the colors of the guidon flags in a single line, which emphasizes their importance, especially since they represent the colors of the union flag.
“The guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind”
In the final line, the speaker claims that those colorful flags “flutter gaily.” Of course, the fluttering of the flags simply reminds the speaker of what flags in the wind must do; that they do so happily reflects the speaker’s state of mind.
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