Critical Appreciation of When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d is a popular poem by the famous American poet Walt Whitman. This is a poem where political context has been shown from first to last. If you want to know about this poem and want to analyze this poem then you will find a number of things that are hard to understand. In that case, critical appreciation of When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d will help you a lot to understand this poem. To help you, we bring that type of discussion here. The critical appreciation of When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d will help you a lot. So, let’s see the discussion.

Critical Appreciation of When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is one of the most famous poems of Walt Whitman. It is one of four elegies entitled “Memories of President Lincoln”. After Lincoln’s death, they were added to the later issues of Drum Taps in 1865. Whitman was a bard of American democratic comradeship, and in the life and death of Lincoln he saw the human symbol of his theme. Whitman’s choice of the lilac flower is significant in this elegy, since it is a symbol of manly love in the Eastern symbolism. 

It is a pastoral elegy, but it does not possess all the characteristics of the classical pastoral elegy. It mourns the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the 16" President of the United States. It is divided into three cycles: Sections 1-4 make the first cycle, sections 5-9 the second, and sections 10-13 the third. And sections 14-16 is a recapitulation of the foregoing three cycles. 

In the first cycle the poet introduces the three principal symbols of the poem—the lilac, the star, and the bird, and expresses his deep grief for his beloved leader (Abe Lincoln). The second cycle describes the journey of the coffin through natural scenes and industrial cities, both of which represent facets of American life. 

In the third cycle the poet wonders whether he shall perfume the grave of his beloved with the sea-winds blowing from the western sea, and meeting in the prairies, or with the breath of his chant. He also wonders what he shall hang on the chamber walls, and what pictures he will adorn the burial-house with. The poet asks the grey-brown bird to sing its song of the utmost woe.

The poem has the structure of a syllogism: the proposition, the arguments, and the conclusion. In the first cycle the poet expresses his deep grief through the use of the symbols of the lilac, the star, and the bird. In the second cycle he describes the journey of the coffin, and in the third cycle he thinks of the means of paying respect to the dead. Sections 14-16 constitute the conclusion, the reiteration” of the foregoing things. 

Whitman’s use of symbols is a prominent aspect of the poem. But he has not followed the symbols of the classical elegies. Instead, he has set up his own symbols which represent his individuality as a poet, and his Americanism as a patriot of America. In the beginning, he talks about the trinity which ever-returning spring will bring to him—lilac blooming perennially, the drooping star in the west, and the thought of the beloved leader. 

The lilac symbolizes love, and beauty, and the poet’s beautiful love for his dead beloved. The bird is a two-fold symbol: it represents all the creatures of Nature that are stricken with grief, and the poet’s grief. The western sky is a complex symbol: it sometimes symbolizes the great lofty leader, and sometimes, the essential unity of all things. 

Mysticism is another important element. The poet’s relationships with the western star, the bird, and death itself indicate his mystic relationships with them. Whitman’s imagery is remarkable here. There are images of the earth, the sky, the sea, the city, Nature, and many others. They come alive and sensuous. 

His poetic diction is novel. His words and phrases show an astonishing range. His versification is typical of him: long, sweeping, omnivorous lines, carrying a sense of the teeming life of America. 

We can conclude with Jarrel: “Whitman is grand, and elevated, and comprehensive, and real with an astonishing reality”.