Walt Whitman Q: Do you think that when Lilacs Last in Dooryard Bloomed is an elegy? Substantiate your answer. Q: Discuss Walt Whitman’s use of symbols and imagery with special reference to “When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloom’d”.

In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.

“When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is a beautiful elegy written on the death of Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th president of America. It is rich in private symbols. Lilac, a beautiful sweet-scented flower of Persian origin, stands for the poet’s love for his great leader Abraham Lincoln. Lilacs also symbolize the recurrence of the memory of Lincoln. The heart shaped green leaves of the lilacs stand for the lush, unadulterated evergreen feelings that come out from the heart of man. Thus the poet depicts the imagery with symbolic meaning:

                   “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d

                    And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,

                   I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.”    

Whitman portrays the image of the heavenly body thus:

                  “As I saw you had something to tell as you bent to me night after night,

                   As you droop’d from the sky low down as if to my side,”

Thus the star also symbolizes recurrence, eternity and immortality of Lincoln who would remain forever as the lofty and bright star to guide mankind in the time darkness.

Bird-symbol is also available in Whitman’s realm of poetry where the hawk the mocking-bird and the hermit-thrush etc. are gathered. In “When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloom’d” the hermit-thrush has been used as a significant symbol. It is naturally very shy, withdrawn and isolated. It stands for the poet’s inner thought about Lincoln, his great loving leader. The bird sings on behalf of the poet. Thus the bird is identified with the poet himself sharing the same feelings and emotions of grief at the death of Lincoln.