Walt Whitman Walt Whitman wasn't a very big fan of war. He thought everything about it was negative. We can see this in his poetry. In “Beat! Beat! Drums!”, he expresses his feelings toward war using symbolism. The drums and the bugles are examples of two symbols. He is using these objects as representing war. Whitman starts off each stanza with the same line every time. “Beat! Beat! drums! - blow! bugles! blow!” He uses this symbolism of war to show the effects it has on the world. The drums and the bugles are always interrupting things. This is seen clearly in the first stanza. The drums and bugles are interrupting the church and th