whitman v nature

Whitman’s poem is a pastoral elegy mourning the death of President Lincoln. What I find most striking about this poem is the contrast between the mourners and nature. Throughout the poem Whitman searches for a way to grieve this great president. Whitman notices how people mourn Lincoln by going to “dim—lit churches” and singing “with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn.” Whitman hoped to commemorate Lincoln by leaving a flower at his coffin. For example, he writes, “a sprig with its flower I break.” Whitman’s breaking of the lilac symbolizes the death of Lincoln who was prematurely plucked from life. Even though Whitman spends several pages trying to mourn properly… he is still unresolved at the closing of the poem as he “leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves, I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring.” The fact that he will return with spring suggests he has not found a way to cope with the death. In contrast to Whitman, nature is resolved as the poem closes with natural imagery: “There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim.”