In section 9, Whitman describes how "the axe leaps" to its work and the forests surrender to its power. The axe builds citadels, academies, ceilings, organs, windows, panels, chairs, workboxes, "boat, frame, and what not." Hospitals and steamboats are built with the aid of the axe. Many people use the axe.
There are three clear divisions in this section. First, the role of the axe in construction work is concrete proof of the advances of man and civilization. This program is especially relevant to American society since "capitols of States" are its visible proof. The forests are "solid," the utterances are "fluid," and their combination indicates the coming together of the material and the spiritual. Second, attention is focused on the multifarious users of the axe, whose "shapes," the forms it makes, are described. Third, the poet speaks of the importance of communications, like bridges, to suggest another utility of the axe. The idea of transportation, or passage, is significant in Whitman's poetry.
Whitman continues, in section 10, his description of the shapes formed by the axe. The image of the "coffin-shape" is followed by that of "the bride's bed" and "the babe's cradle." The axe also creates roofs over happy homes, such as that of "the well-married young man and woman." On the other hand, "the shape of the prisoner's place in the court-room" and the couch of the "adulterous unwholesome couple" are also products of the axe. The axe produces "the door that admits good news and bad news."
The function and the role of the broadaxe characterize the whole cycle of life and death, from the cradle to the coffin. The axe symbolizes the coexistence of good and evil. For example, the picture of the chaste wife is contrasted with that of the adulterous couple. The symbol of the door is morally ambivalent; it is characterized by both good and evil. In this way the axe becomes a complex moral symbol.
