This 1865 poem is part of a series of pieces written after Lincoln’s assassination. The poem is a sort of elegy that keeps mourning as its central theme.
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is composed of three separate yet simultaneous poems. One follows the progress of Lincoln’s coffin on its way to the president’s burial. The second stays with the poet and his sprig of lilac, meant to be laid on the coffin in tribute, as he ruminates on death and mourning. The third uses the symbols of a bird and a star to develop an idea of a nature sympathetic to yet separate from humanity.
The symbolism used here is through three major symbols- the star, bird and the lilac.
The symbols are interconnected, and recurrent throughout the poem. Whitman has used the symbols from the time of Lincoln’s death. The flower is used to represent the onward and incoming cycle of nature and also to show the memory of Abraham Lincoln. The Western Star that appears in the evening is used by the poet as a symbol to indicate the death of the President. Abraham Lincoln was a very beloved leader and was like a guiding star to the people of America during the Civil war. The hermit– thrush represents the voice of spirituality and the poet’s soul singing.
' 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.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love. '
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