Abraham Lincoln is known as one of the greatest Presidents of the United States. He led the country through the American Civil War, the greatest internal crisis that happened with this mighty state and which required a lot of victims and sacrifices. The assassination of this president was the first one of its kind in the history of the United States and the whole country mourned him. A lot of writers and poets of those times dedicated numerous works to a person who himself was a great writer and who is still remembered for his letters and speeches which were convincing and fascinating. Among the poets who admired Abraham Lincoln was Walt Whitman, an American poet and at the same time an essayist and journalist. He is known as one of not many poets who didn’t rhyme his poems but this succeeded in giving them a melodic character. He thought that Abraham Lincoln was the best president and the country would never have somebody like him as ahead. Walt Whitman admired Lincoln as a person and a president. He dedicated to him his numerous poems though these two people seem to have never met in person: “Whitman–who was a friend of Lincoln’s personal secretary John Hay–stood by, waiting for Lincoln to notice him in a gathering, and then ultimately turned away, unwilling to bother the President but later euphoric at the proximity.” (Bruce E. Fleming, p. 170).
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is an elegy, in other words, a poem written to mourn somebody who has died. Walt Whitman who loved and respected Abraham Lincoln expresses his admiration to the president trying to express his woe and sorrow for “him I love”. “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is Whitman’s expression of private mourning. Though throughout the poem the name of the president is not mentioned it can be easily understood that it is mourning for a public figure as a lot of people “with a thousand voices rising strong and solemn” (Walt Whitman, p. 265) gathered to give their last honors to the deceased.
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is a very symbolistic poem the theme of which is to immortalize the memory of the deceased president and to express grief about him. Three main symbols which may be observed throughout the poem and which help the poet express his woe are stars, lilacs, and hermit thrush. In this poem, Whitman celebrates Lincoln’s remarkable personality. He speaks about him as an outstanding person, that’s why comparing him with a star he shows that Lincoln’s life stood out from the lives of other people as bathing in the lights of fame the sixteenth President of the United States still remained modest and true to the people who chose him as a ruler. The star is also introduced to substitute for Lincoln’s name. In fact, the poet calls Lincoln “a star” who died “early” which means not in the time he was supposed to and very suddenly like a star that drops in the sky. Calling Lincoln a star Whitman compares him with something as great and eternal as a star and idealizes him as a ruler of the country Lincoln was so devoted to. Heart-shaped left of lilacs symbolize Whitman’s love for Lincoln as well as its color, purple, reminds of blood and thus of a violent death Lincoln died. The bird, the hermit thrush, singing its sad song is used to symbolize reconciliation as well as the grief coming out the deepest corners of the poet’s soul together with this song. The phrase “ever-returning spring” is continually repeated. This repetition is used to show the cycle of life and death, as well as rebirth following death. The thing is that Lincoln’s assassination coincided with Easter, the day when Christ resurrected that’s why rebirth with “ever-returning spring” is the only thing the poet seems to hope for: “Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,/Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,/And thought of him I love” (Walt Whitman, p. 264).
The poem is composed of three parts that are closely connected with each other. The first part comprising sections 1-4 is the description of the setting. It lets us know about the woe of the poet for “him I love” when “lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,/ And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night” (Walt Whitman, p. 264). The poet notices the bush of lilacs in the yard and being impressed by its smell and “every leaf” which is “a miracle” he thinks that namely, this flower will express his woe and “from this bush in the dooryard,/With delicate colored blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,/ A sprig with its flower I break.” (Walt Whitman, p. 264). Whitman describes lilacs with special tenderness, the tenderness he felt to Lincoln who he admires and celebrates throughout his poem for his being a leader who freed the country from slavery. Here Whitman also introduces one of the most powerful symbols of expressing his grief – the hermit thrush who is singing the “song of the bleeding throat” helping the poet’s grief come out of his soul. The bird’s “death’s outlet song of life” is a symbol of renewed life and the bird itself can symbolize reconciliation with death. Calling death a “dark mother” and “strong deliveress” Whitman emphasizes that any death is necessary for a new life to be born and that it is a part of the process of revival.
In the second part of the poem, the grief of the poet is most strongly expressed. This part describes the period of time when Lincoln’s coffin is being brought to the place of his burial. The first thing to mention here is that almost every line starts with “O” which resembles the shape of the mouth when a person is grieving. What’s more, alliteration can be observed in some of the lines, such as “silent sea of faces”. In this case, the repetition of the sound [s], which is a hissing sound, resembles the sound one may hear during the funeral when people who are present avoid speaking in loud voices. This alliteration is used to help the reader feel the environment and get imbued with the woe all people were crept over with as well as to show Whitman’s respect to the deceased president. In this part, Whitman gradually moves from personal to impersonal. He starts with mourning for Lincoln’s death and ends up with turning to death itself: “With loaded arms, I come, pouring for you,/ For you and the coffins all of you O death.” (Walt Whitman, 266). Here the poet also mentions soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War but says that now it is better for them because they do not have to mourn Lincoln and to feel the pain of his loss. By this Whitman emphasizes how special and dear to his heart was the President who rendered such great services to his country. In Whitman’s description of people who watch Lincoln’s coffin passing by them, a sad irony can be observed. People mourn Lincoln and forget about their relatives who lost their lives during the Civil War because the loss of their beloved president seems even more painful to them. This is where Whitman asks the question “What is the worth of a man? Are some men worth more than others?” (Walt Whitman, p. 266).
In the third part of his poem, Whitman expresses his desire to “perfume the grave of him I love”. It is difficult for him to choose the way to honor such a person as Lincoln as celebrating the president for his good attitude towards other people he wishes to do something to immortalize him: “what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,/To adorn the burial-house of him I love?” (Walt Whitman, p. 267). The poem ends when the coffin reaches the place of burial and the poet is saying goodbye to his “comrade, the dead I loved so well.” In sections 14-16 we can find the restatement of the symbols of immortality which were observed in the poem before. Here the poet describes that before this day he already “knew death” and heard a bird singing “the carol of death”. This section is followed by the thrush’s song lauding death. Here Whitman describes death as “soothing”, “lovely”, “delicate” and greeted by the bird’s song of “fullest welcome”. It shows that this song got the sufferings off Whitman’s chest and helped him accept Lincoln’s death.
Whitman continues celebrating Lincoln’s courage and self-devotion in another elegy “O Captain, My Captain”. Still, this poem is not expressing the poet’s grief in a way as in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”. This poem, symbolizing Civil War, shows how proud Whitman and other people were of Lincoln who led them through the war and gave them freedom: “Rise up – for you the flag is flung – for you the bugle trills,/ For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths – for you the shores a-crowding,/ For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning…” (Walt Whitman, p. 272). Lincoln here is the captain of the ship where the ship is the United States. By representing Lincoln as a captain Whitman wanted to show that he was one of not many presidents of the United States who heading the country was giving himself all up to it and this is what marked him out of other rulers of the country. The uniqueness of Lincoln consisted in his comprising the qualities of a strict ruler and gentle person. In the poem “O, Captain, my Captain” the captain came back from the war but paid with his own life to gain victory. Unlike “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed” where the faces of the people are “silent” and “somber” because they are grieving the faces in “O Captain, My Captain” is “eager” because of the death of the “captain” they take not like something they should mourn but something that was sacrificed because like any war this one also demanded sacrifices and Lincoln, the captain, sacrificed himself in order to make the citizens of his country free: “O the bleeding drops of red,/Where on the deck my Captain lies,/Fallen cold and dead.” (Walt Whitman, p. 272). Both the poems show how courageous and how persistent Abraham Lincoln was in this fight, how much people are proud of him, and how much they mourn him now that he is gone: “Exult O shores, and ring O bells!/But I, with mournful tread,/Walk the deck my Captain lies,/Fallen cold and dead” (Walt Whitman, p. 272) and that they will always remember him and what he’s done for his country: “These and with these and the breath of my chant,/I’ll perfume the grave of him I love.” (Walt Whitman, 267). Their devotion to his country and readiness to sacrifice his life for it and its citizens is what Whitman finds unique in Lincoln who likes no other president of the United States cared about his people.
In conclusion, it will be fair to add that even the death of Abraham Lincoln involved something good and remarkable. This was the contribution to world literature made by Walt Whitman, a person who loved and admired Lincoln and mourned him till the end of his life. His poems “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed” and “O Captain, My Captain” perpetuated Abraham Lincoln and celebrated what he has done for his country.
References
- Walt Whitman, Justin Kaplan. Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems,1855-1856. Bantam Books, 1983.
- Bruce E. Fleming. “Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington”. Parameters 35.2 (2005): 170.