Barbara Frietchie

“The Battle Autumn of 1862” by John Greenleaf Whittier (October 1862)

Whittier wrote this poem in September or October 1862, and he likely had in mind the invasion of Maryland by the Confederate army in September, the same invasion that inspired “Barbara Frietchie.” Like all of Whittier’s verse, the poem is conventional in form, consisting of 11 rhyming quatrains. Not unlike “Barbara Frietchie,” the poem contrasts the serenity and beauty of nature in the autumn of 1862 with “The battle’s breath of hell.” In spite of the war, nature “wears her fruits and flowers / Like jewels on her arms.” The speaker wishes that humanity could show the same wisdom and knowledge that nature does, in which case “We too would hear the bells of cheer / Ring peace and freedom in.”

“Ethiopia Saluting the Colors” by Walt Whitman (1871)

This poem and “Barbara Frietchie” may well be the only two poems in American literature that center around two very old women saluting or waving the Stars and Stripes. The poems were written within four years of each other (Whitman wrote his in 1867) and both are set during the Civil War. The similarities end there, however.