As man is the principal object of section 3, the ship is the central image of section 4. The death of the swimmer is paralleled by the wreck of the ship; these two scenes of destruction are the two aspects of the poet's experience of death by the sea. The description and imagery of the shipwreck are effectively presented.
Section 5 recounts a scene of General Washington in Brooklyn "amid a crowd of officers," unable to express his grief over the killing. With the coming of peace, Washington bids good-bye to his soldiers. He stands in a room and the "speechless" officers give him a loving farewell.
Here Whitman is again using the technique of a backward and forward movement in time and space. In this section, a backward movement is conceived in terms of time as the poet recalls General Washington. The poet's vision triumphs over time and space. In evoking the memory of the Founding Fathers, he establishes a link with the past.
Whitman recollects, in section 6, an experience of his mother's "when she was a nearly grown girl" and lived with her parents. An Indian woman visited their homestead in the morning and stayed until mid-afternoon. The "red squaw" was a person of "wonderful beauty and purity" and the poet's mother was delighted by her. She thought of her and watched for her for a long time, but the Indian woman never returned.
This is yet another scene of spiritual love. The bond that united Washington with his soldiers (section 5) was personal and spiritual. The description of the spiritual affinity between the poet's mother and the Indian woman is delicately drawn. It gives all the significant details, is realistic, down-to-earth, and precise. She is an embodiment of primeval purity and beauty. The impression she makes is so deep that the poet's mother thinks of her for a long time afterward. This longing and fondness is similar to a romantic quest.
