Walt Whitman?

Question

What was the importance of the line "Mind not me - mind - the entrenchments"? What does it mean?

Answer 1

I love these lines with their original punctuation. It gives more emphasis that these are the words of someone dying. The general is putting his troops and his field positions above his own needs. He is a hero.


Again gurgles the mouth of my dying general...he furiously waves with his hand,
He gasps through the clot...Mind not me...mind...the entrenchments.


From Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass." 1855