Beat! Beat! Drums! and the Intentional Fallacy

When I started to read "Beat! Beat! Drums!" I decided to ignore the footnote attached to the introduction to the book "From Drum-Taps." I didn't want whatever the footnote said to affect my first reading of the poem. From this first reading, I interpreted the beating of the drums and the blowing of the bugles, the sounds of war, to be disruptive, overpowering forces. In the first few lines, their "ruthless force" interrupts congregations in church and scholars studying in school, and takes away the happiness and peace of a bridegroom and a farmer. I thought this disruption as a negative force became most clear when the narrator says in the last four lines "Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties...so strong you thump O terrible drums." In this poem I saw war and the way it takes over a nation, takes away brothers and sons and fathers, as a disruptive and negative force on the harmony of the world. I certainly thought Whitman was criticizing the civil war, or the draft, but then I read the footnote. It states "'Beat! Beat! Drums!' served as a kind of recruiting poem when it was first printed in September 1861..." Immediately I found myself wondering if I had interpreted the poem differently than Whitman had intended. I decided, however, that I believe Whitman did intend the poem to be a critique of the practices of war, but the public or newspapers saw the poem differently and used if for their own purposes. In the end, I don't think the author's intention really matters to interpretation, although it can be interesting to know. Once the piece has left the author's hands, the audience is free to interpret it however the want and, if they can support their interpretation, they cannot be wrong. So perhaps this poem is both a critique and a rallying cry, depending on the context.