When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
(Summary)
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1. The Poem
2. Summary
3. Analysis
Summary
Whitman wrote the elegy, “When Lilacs Last in
the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in the month following the assassination of President
Lincoln, on April 14, 1865. Whitman felt the loss of Lincoln personally. The
elegy contains many elements of the traditional pastoral elegy, including the
expression of grief and bewilderment by the poet, the sympathetic mourning of
nature for the dead person, the rebirth of nature, a funeral procession, the
placing of flowers on the bier, and finally, reconciliation and consolation. Whitman’s
sorrow is so great that it prevents him from writing, so he transmutes his
sorrow to the point where he can once more create poetry.
The
elegy centers around four symbols: the lilac, the evening star, spring, and the
hermit thrush. These symbols recur in varied forms throughout the poem. The
poet first declares his grief and invokes Venus, the evening star, which has
now fallen below the horizon and left him in darkness and sorrow. He then
develops the lilac symbol: In the dooryard of an old farmhouse, a lilac bush
blossom. He regards the heart-shaped leaves of the bush, a miracle, and he
breaks off a sprig. Then he introduces the symbol, the thrush, that sings a
solitary song.
The
coffin of Lincoln journeys night and day across the country in the season of
spring. Church bells toll, and as the coffin moves slowly past the poet, he
throws his sprig of lilac onto it, although he makes it clear that this act is
not for Lincoln alone (who is never mentioned by name in the poem) but for all
who have died.
After
an apostrophe to the evening star, which is sinking in woe, the poet returns to
the song of the hermit thrush. Although he hears and understands the call, he
cannot yet sing with the thrush, because the star (Lincoln) still holds him.
Eventually, as he looks out one spring evening on a serene landscape, an
understanding of the true nature of death comes upon him like a mystical
revelation. He personifies the knowledge of death, and his own thoughts about
death, as two figures walking alongside him. Now he is able to interpret the
song of the bird as a “carol of death.” A long aria, reminiscent of the song of
the bird in “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” follows. Death is described
as soft, welcome, delicate, blissful, and as a “strong deliveress.”
In
section 15, the poet sees a vision of a battlefield, on which lie myriad
corpses and whitened skeletons. The poet sees that the dead are at rest and do
not suffer but those who are left behind—families and comrades— suffer. He
leaves the vision behind and is also able to leave behind the birdsong, the
lilac, and the evening star. The meaning of all these symbols now remains a
permanent part of his awareness. The elegy moves to its stately and moving
close:
“For the sweetest,
wisest soul of all my days and lands—and this for his dear sake,
Lilac and star and
bird twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim.”
Navigation
1. The Poem
2. Summary
3. Analysis
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