Are you the new person drawn toward me?

“Are you the new person drawn toward me?” was initially published in the 1860 Leaves of Grass edition. This was right before the start of the Civil War in April of 1861, when the nation’s tension was building toward its breaking point. Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 “caused seven southern states to secede and form the Confederate States of America; four more states soon joined them” (“Civil War.” History.com, 12 May 2022). The election of Lincoln served as the ignited fuse for the war between the Union and the Confederacy. The tension felt by the nation at this historical moment translates into Whitman’s poem. The sense of duplicity and inauthenticity replicates the mistrust citizens from both the North and the South could have felt toward one another with their different political views. When the speaker warns the stranger that they are “surely far different from what you suppose” (Line 2), it could represent the different factions of thought dividing the United States. The American Civil War pitted brother against brother, so someone who was originally deemed “trusty and faithful” (Line 6) or “smooth and tolerant” (Line 7) could turn out to not be such a “real heroic man” (Line 8). However, someone who seemed like a hero on the outside could turn out to be an enemy on the inside. On another level, the poem could also discuss the “ideal” (Line 3) version of the United States as opposed to the broken reality it was becoming. The United States was supposed to offer the American dream of “friendship” (Line 5) and “unalloy’d satisfaction” (Line 5). However, this American dream was turning out to be only a “facade” (Line 7) replaced by death, fighting, and strife. Reading Whitman’s poem in the context of the Civil War provides another lens through which to understand the complexity of his text.