When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d
The Poem entitled “When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d” is Walt Whitman’s romanticized story of an American leader during a trying time. In his poem, he shows the audience his own meaning of democracy as well as racial equality. His poem speaks of Abraham Lincoln as the one who brought about racial equality in a land that was being tried. This was during the time of national disagreement, when their great leader fought for equality and abolitionism. This was the most prominent theme seen in Whitman’s work here.
He speaks to the deceased president about his shared thoughts on democracy. Whitman believed that these are acts that should be held as an example for the world to see. During the time that this poem was written, the nation was going through great struggles, not only with the Civil War and slavery, it was going through economic and political obstacles. When this poem was being written, the country was broken and in need of unity. Whitman shared the same hopes as Lincoln, he wanted to reconstruct the nation and regain union. With the death of the president, it seemed that something like this was impossible and out of reach. The poem was titled “When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d” because Lincoln died in the springtime during April. This was the month when lilacs would bloom in front of the White House. The poem was entitled this not only to commemorate the death of the president, but also to show the start of new and beautiful life. This was when the country was at the doorstep of radical industrialization. Whitman uses symbols of immortality and unity through the metaphors and similes that he chose to use throughout this poem. He hoped that he would be able to voice his words out through his themes of racial equality, love and democracy. Literary devices such as personification, apostrophe and other things were used throughout the poem to show symbolism, imagery, understatement and rhetorical devices of tone.
Whitman is seen to use this poem to help unify the nation and to preserve the legacy and hopes of President Lincoln through the powerful and meaningful words he used in this poem. Through his poem, he wanted to bring the country together:
“I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, / And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them, / I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, / Bust I saw they were not as was thought, / They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer'd not,” (Whitman a 15, 177-181). He suggests that even though there were atrocious acts done to each other, the North and the South should look past this and become united again.
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
This poem by Whitman, entitled “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”, is about a man who was travelling from Manhattan to Brooklyn on a ferry. He stands on the ferry, leaning on the railing, looking at the water below him. Whitman uses personification as the man looks at the reflection of the clouds in the water, and refers to them as “you”. The poem goes in deeper as the man states that he feels like there is something connected to him which is bigger than his true self (Whitman b). He contemplates and thinks that the past and the future are almost the same. He then praises everything around them and refers to them as “glories”. All the while, he feels as if all the other passengers are curious. They probably have been making the same crossing for years. He speaks to the reader directly and gives common examples of his common experiences, one of these examples was of being part of a crowd leaning on the railing of this ship. He uses metaphors and similes to paint a picture of that ship as well as the city. He looks around and sees the things around him, he thinks that other people will also see these things, they will remain the same even after hundreds of years.
Whitman, through his poem, projects himself into the future. It was as if he was celebrating life and being thankful that he was not dead yet. He speaks about himself in past tense, talking about his love for the city. By the end of the poem, he starts recapping everything that he said, and was ordering the things around him. For example, he told the ship to keep sailing and waves to keep breaking, as if he had some sort of power over what was happening around him.
One important theme seen in this poem was that of spirituality. Whitman includes the industry and human commerce as part of nature. Although the poem was not religious, it does resemble the transcendentalist movement and it is definitely spiritual. This was seen in his personification of things. Although, he is always seen to avoid specific religious language because this would encourage a division between people, and Whitman was always for unity. Another resounding theme that this poem shows was time. He brought it up more than once, and he kept saying that the past and the future are all the same. He talks about how things stay the same even after hundreds of years, and that the people who see the things around them are merely beings or witnesses. He believes that things can change, but the more that they do, the more stable things are. His poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” was all about time and how people take comfort in the idea that people are the same even as time changes.
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
The poem by Walt Whitman, “When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer”, is a very short poem. The speaker is seen sitting in a lecture and he is quietly listening to the lesson. He sits through the lecture of a famous astronomer who goes on and on about the stars. Although, instead of being stars, the lecturer is actually talking about equations and other things that don’t seem to interest the speaker. He, instead, becomes very disappointed, and he wants to know where the stars are (Whitman b). This makes him feel sick, that he rushes out of the room. If he didn’t get out, he would vomit, so he heads for the nearest exit. When he is alone and feels the night air, everything is so much better. Everything around him is so much more beautiful that nothing can possible explain what he was witnessing and feeling.
The poem is very interesting because it has a voice of plain speaking. It has more than meets the eye, and uses different meanings for like words. He uses contractions as well as other signs to show that the person who is speaking is common. He speaks of the night and has a fondness of nature. Whitman shows in most of his poems that he loves beauty and he sees this in a lot of things around him. This is probably why he doesn’t like how the astronomer put math in nature. He loves the mystery and the beauty of things around him. How math became a way to explain nature and how the stars are formed made him sad. He did not want to see stars in such a way. He is happy looking into the night sky and witnessing things himself, instead of having someone explain mathematically why the stars are there, how they are formed and what they are in the universe. To him, stars are a thing of beauty.
Although the poem is very short, there are a lot of themes found within it. The most prominent theme was of dissatisfaction. We feel as if we can sympathize with him, and we know what it must like to sit through a lecture that he did not want to hear about. Another theme was of spirituality and the natural world. This type of theme is very common in Whitman’s work. Although he doesn’t speak of a divine God, he speaks of nature as if it is divine in itself. The poem is very short, and yet it holds a lot of meaning.
Walt Whitman had a way of romanticizing American life. His poems represent freedom, beauty, democracy and things that are uniquely American (Zweig). There is a resounding theme of spirituality and nature within his poems. Most probably because during the time he wrote his poems, there was a shift from transcendentalism to realism. Whitman did not directly speak of religion or anything like that because he did not want to create a divide between people. The American ideal, during the time, was to find peace and unity. He showed this through his poems. He saw everything as beautiful and like a work of art. Although he does not mention it directly, he praises nature and uses his own spirituality to connect with things around him (Zweig).
His poems, especially the three mentioned above, represent the American ideal during the time they were written because they were full of hope and life. His use of imagery and words were very powerful, a voice that the nation needed during the times of struggle. He has a speaking voice which can help people relate. It is not too complex and it is as if someone is narrating a story. His poems speak of ideas of unity and he is known as the self-appointed bard of American life during the time. He ponders on his thoughts on legacy, freedom and beauty. Walt Whitman gives the people a voice of hope and his poems are very powerful.
Works Cited
Whitman, Walt a. The complete poems. Penguin. com, 1986.
Whitman, Walt b. Poetry and prose. Ed. Justin Kaplan. Library of America, 1996.
Zweig, Paul. Walt Whitman: The Making of the Poet. Basic Books, 1984.
