In the Dooryard Bloom'd By Walt Whitman (1819-1892) A Study Guide | ||
Study Guide Written by Michael J. Cummings...© 2010 . Type of Work ......."When
Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a lyric poem in the form of an
elegy lamenting the death of Abraham Lincoln. Walt Whitman wrote it in
free verse, a form of poetry without a metrical pattern. One line may be
short, containing only seven syllables; another may be long, containing
more than twenty.
1...A rural locale as its setting.Publication .......Gibson Brothers, a Washington company, published "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" in 1865 in a volume that contained another Whitman poem, "Sequel to Drum Taps." "Lilacs" became part of the 1867 edition of Leaves of Grass, an expanding collection of Whitman's poems. .......The time is April. The place is a rural locale with an old farmhouse. In front of the house is a yard with a lilac bush. Nearby is a a swamp. .......Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth American president, was mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865. Wilkes had shot him in the back of the head while Lincoln was in the presidential box watching the third act of a play, Our American Cousin. Lincoln died the next day. After lying in state at the Capitol on April 20, his body was transported by train to Springfield, Ill., for burial in Oak Ridge Cemetery. .......The tone of the poem is somber and heavy with grief, but its mournfulness eases somewhat after the speaker observes that death ends suffering. He even welcomes death: Come lovely and soothing death,Summary of the Poem .......The
last time he noticed lilacs blooming, says the poem's speaker, he saw a
great star falling in the western sky. (The falling star is the planet
Venus, which symbolizes Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln "fell" from power on April
14, 1865, when he was mortally wounded. He died the following day). The
speaker mourned. Now, as spring returns, he again sees the blooming lilacs
and the falling star, and again he mourns the death of Lincoln. He will
do so every year at this this time, he says. When the dark sky hides the
star, his soul becomes a prisoner of sadness.
Pictures of growing spring and farms and homes,.......The speaker says he will also hang pictures of Manhattan, of tides and ships—and of the land itself, the South and the North in light, the shores of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, the prairie grass and corn, and other scenes of nature. .......While sitting in twilight appreciating the scenery around him and the beauty of the skies, the speaker sees the dark cloud appear; he gains insight into death and learns something of its "sacred knowledge." .......In darkness, with death on his mind, he walks down to the shore of the waters and the “shadowy cedars and ghostly pines." The gray-brown bird sings of death and of the one the speaker loves (Lincoln). Prais’d be the fathomless universe,.......The speaker has a vision of armies, battlefields, smoke,splintered flag staffs, corpses, skeletons. But the dead do not suffer. It is the soldiers' survivors—the wife, the mother, the child, the comrade—who suffer. He walks away from the nighttime scene and the lilac bush and ceases his song. But he has memories for "the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days." . . When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d By Walt Whitman 1 When lilacs last in the dooryard
bloom’d,
Ever-returning spring, trinity
sure to me you bring,
2 O powerful western fallen
star!
3 In the dooryard fronting
an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings,
4 In the swamp in secluded
recesses,
Solitary the thrush,
20
Song of the bleeding throat,
5 Over the breast of the spring,
the land, amid cities,
6 Coffin that passes through
lanes and streets,
7 (Nor for you, for one alone,
All over bouquets of roses,
50
8 O western orb sailing the
heaven,
9 Sing on there in the swamp,
10 O how shall I warble myself
for the dead one there I loved?
Sea-winds blown from east
and west, 75
11 O what shall I hang on the
chamber walls?
Pictures of growing spring
and farms and homes,
12 Lo, body and soul—this land,
90
Lo, the most excellent sun
so calm and haughty,
13 Sing on, sing on you gray-brown
bird, 100
14 Now while I sat in the day
and look’d forth,
Then with the knowledge of
death as walking one side of me,
From deep secluded recesses,
130
And the charm of the carol
rapt me,
Come lovely and soothing
death,
Prais’d be the fathomless
universe, 140
Dark mother always gliding
near with soft feet,
Approach strong deliveress,
From me to thee glad serenades,
The night in silence under
many a star,
Over the tree-tops I float
thee a song, 160
15 To the tally of my soul,
Loud in the pines and cedars
dim,
While my sight that was bound
in my eyes unclosed, 170
And I saw askant the armies,
I saw battle-corpses, myriads
of them,
16 Passing the visions, passing
the night,
I cease from my song for
thee,
Yet each to keep and all,
retrievements out of the night,
. Themes Grief .......The poem expresses intense grief at the loss of Abraham Lincoln. After describing the fallen president as "the great star that early droop'd in the western sky," the poem's speaker looks at the sky and says, O shades of night—O moody, tearful night!Acceptance of Death .......After expressing his sadness at the death of Lincoln and his distress at the vision of mangled corpses on the Civil War battlefield, the speaker concludes that death is actually a friend; it ends suffering. Only the living know affliction and misery. Come lovely and soothing death,Rebirth .......Although the speaker says he will mourn the death of Lincoln every April, he also says he will celebrate the rebirth of Lincoln's spirit at the same time. This rebirth will coincide with the rebirth of nature in sprouting plants and blooming flowers. Even the sprig that the speaker broke off the lilac bush--a symbol of Lincoln's broken body after a bullet entered his skull--will grow back and perfume the spring air. Reunification .......Thanks in large part to Lincoln's leadership, the Union defeated the Confederacy, and the North and South once again became the United States after the war. Whitman seems to allude to the reunification when he says that among the pictures he will hang on the wall of Lincoln's tomb is one of "the South and the North in the light" (line 92). This light, the speaker says, is a "miracle spreading bathing all . . . enveloping man and land." In other words, after the darkness of war, the South and the North emerged into the light of peace as one nation. The speaker also alludes to the unification of East and West when he says, Sea-winds blown from east and west, .
Style and Literary Devices .......To help him express the depth of his intense feeling for his subject, Whitman uses first-person point of view, vivid sensory language, symbols, and frequent repetition of key words and phrases. Also, rather than strait-jacketing his thoughts into an established metrical pattern with fixed line lengths and stress patterns, he casts them in free verse, allowing his content and the power of his passion to dictate line length and rhythm. Finally, to give the elegy a poetic cast, he uses the traditional devices of inversion of word order, internal rhyme, and archaisms. Let us look at each of these devices. First-Person Point of View .......Whitman believed it was incumbent upon a poet to reveal his feelings, his personality, in his work. Consequently, he uses I, me, and my in his poetry to present his reactions and responses to everything from the activity of a spider ("A Noiseless Patient Spider") and the lecture of a scientist ("When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer") to the death of Lincoln in "Lilacs." This approach—along with his use of free verse, which has no metrical pattern and therefore somewhat resembles everyday conversation—helps him to establish rapport with the reader. His poem thus becomes like a signed, handwritten letter to the reader instead of an impersonal form letter. Sensory Language .......Whitman creates strong, almost palpable, imagery, as in the following passage: And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,Symbols .......Whitman's
use of symbols enables him to express his feelings succinctly.
Repetition (Anaphora) .......Whitman frequently repeats words or groups of words in successive phrases or clauses (a figure of speech known as anaphora) to impart rhythm and musicality and to expand on an idea. Here are examples: O powerful, western, fallen star!Internal Rhyme .......There is no pattern of end rhyme in the poem. However, Whitman does use internal rhyme. Here are examples: Ever-returning.spring! trinity sure to me you bring (line 4)Inversion .......Another traditional poetic device Whitman uses is inversion of word order. with the perfume strong I love (line 14).............Archaisms .......Still another traditional poetic device Whitman uses is the archaism. Following are examples: If thou wast not gifted to sing, thou would’st surely die. (line 25)Figures of Speech Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem. Alliteration When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d (line 1)Anaphora See the examples under Style and Literary Devices. Apostrophe O western orb, sailing the heaven!Irony Spring—a time of year that brings joy and new life—becomes a time of death for the speaker, who says in the first stanza, "[I] yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring."Metaphor the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night (line 2)Onomatopoeia With the tolling, tolling bells’ perpetual clang (line 43)Personification Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me,Study Questions and Writing Topics
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