Tuesday, April 29, 2008
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
Lilacs are a symbol of new love and resurrection as they are annuals. Their rich green leaves, "heart-shaped" an image of a life source, are used by Whitman to highlight not only the vibrant life of spring to the death of Lincoln but also as a visual contrast to blood as red and green are on opposite side of the color wheel. Whitman also combines sounds with his visually stimulating mourning of Lincoln. Even in looking at two of the many repeted words within the poem one gains a sense of how personally affected Whitman is by the loss of Lincoln. The first prominent receptive sound is "O" in stanza two. "O" acts as a sharp cry of mourning in that it is a burst of air as if Whitman himself is in physical pain. Stanzas three, six, and eleven explore "with" as another repetition and in doing so emphasizes the very person who is not “with” the reader, Lincoln.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I really liked this poem for its ability to not only convey the emotional feelings of the author, but also the feelings of everyone at the time. It is a great historical poem in this sense, because although it is obvious the feelings that much of the nation would have had at this time, it brings you right to that moment in time and makes you feel like you are the one watching his coffin go by. The vision of Lincoln's coffin rolling by and the horror on everyone's face as they see this comes perfectly to mind, making this poem very painful.
Post a Comment