When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

How is it best to honor a great star after it has fallen and past on to death? For some, a mere funeral and wake would suffice, but for other monument are erected, schools and workplaces closed, parade and moment of silence where attributed to. Others like the late great Ray Charles movies are and to commemorate and celebrate their achievements over the years. So what then would you do for a person that freed millions, and united a country? For Walt Whitman he felt the best way to honor such a “star” was to dedicate at least four of is poem to such a great man. Out of the four poems dedicated the one best known as Abraham Lincoln’s elegy is “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”. This poem is one of Whitman rather lengthier poems, in which he utilizes a combination of tone, and symbolism to project his feeling and the nations lose.

Whitman exemplified his grief through many forms throughout “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” the one most vivid to reader is in the tone and mood of the poem. From the first section of the poem Whitman conveys to the reader that this is in fact a gloomy and ominous poem Whitman is able to convey this message in describing the “great star” which is “droop’d in the western sky.” Whitman goes on and changes to first person narrative and states “I mourn’d … and yet shall mourn with ever returning spring.” This first description of the great star “droop’ed” allows the reader to visualize a star actually drooped, sagging and worn out. It personifies the star as it was exhausted by the entire load it has been caring. Whitman then is able to switch to first person and personally inform the reader that this is actually a elegy, with the simple words “I mourn’d” In the second section he repeats the letter “O” at the beginning of each stanza, and continues to use more dark descriptive words such as “shade of night,” “disappear’d,” and “black murk.” The use of the O at the start of each stanza projects to reader as if the poem is wailing (when one wails they usually say oh oh). Then goes on to further emphasize the gloominess of the poem with depressing descriptive words. He continues to throughout this poem with this, it seems like he over saturates the poem with this, which eventually affect on the reader. Drawing the reader to his misery and disappear. Whitman continues to establish the mood of the poem with his diction and syntax. This can be seen best in the first three stanzas of section 4 where it is describing the brush:

In the swamp in secluded recesses,

A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.

Solitary the thrush,

The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements,

Sings by himself a song.

Here Whitman chooses to use words such as “secluded” and “solitary” to describe the brush. This conveys to the reader a sense of loneness and isolation. He also uses the word “smoothing “and “serenely” in describing death in the 16 section. This also allows the reader to see Whitman feelings towards death, which is a sense of clamminess and peacefulness. With a combination of descriptive words, the right amount of syntax and late 19 century diction, Whitman was able to concoct the perfect formula to convey to the reader the sorrowfulness and grief he felt towards the death of Lincoln.

With the tone established, Whitman is able to focus on the meat of the poem which was encrypted in symbolism. To the untrained eye, the common reader would not be able to decipher the plethora of symbols that Whitman strategically inputted. With the help of Kenneth Burke’ article on the “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” I was able to be enlighten with some of the hidden mean of the several images. For example Whitman concentrates on the “three major interwoven symbolic elements: the evening star, singing bird, and lilac.” The “evening star” representing the dead hero, the slaying president, Abe Lincoln, and the “singing bird” stands for the author, Whitman. These two symbols, the star and the bird are “thus defined by the poem”, which takes the role of the lilac. The fragrance of the lilac is then exemplified as “the perfume strong I love.” This confirms to the reader that Whitman was referring the lilacs to this poem because the perfume is for “the grave of him I love,” and the poem was also dedicated to the “grave him (he) loved” Lincoln. The representation of the lilac as the actual poem is also seen in section 7:

All over bouquets of roses,

O death, I cover you over with roses and early lilies,

But