Washington Crossing The Delaware Essay

Words: 798
Pages: 4

Washington’s heroic crossing of the Delaware provoked the famous poem by David Shulman and painting by Emanuel Leutze. Both the poem and the painting depict the same event, but they do not entirely expose the same ideas and mood. Washington’s experience in the poem is different than his experience in the painting. In David Shulman’s Poem and the painting by Emanuel Leutze, literary devices and imagery displays the theme that through great leadership and persistence, independence can be obtained. The poem by David Shulman exhibits a unique technique and mood that the painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware does not exhibit. The mood in “Washington Crossing the Delaware” is a dangerous and determined mood; for an example, line five says “ The cold waters swashing on in rage”. Another example is in line nine, “Ah, he stands sailor went going”, this illustrates …show more content…
The mood is illustrated with details such as the cloudy sky, the jammed boats filled with horses and soldiers, and the ice chunks floating through the river. This mood and imagery depicts how much of a struggle and a battle it was simply to cross the delaware, the soldiers were not dressed for freezing weather, and they were crammed into boats amongst their weapons and horses. The imagery such as George Washington triumphantly standing at the front of a boat, the focused look of all the soldiers, and the pieces of ice displays the mood and the theme. The focused look of the soldiers shows that they are determined to push through the uncomfortable conditions and follow George Washington’s leadership. The portions of ice display the fact that the continental army had to break up the ice to cross the river making the journey that much more difficult. The painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, conveys how difficult, dreary, and uncomfortable it was to cross the