When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd is an elegy written by Walt Whitman shortly after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Admired as one of Whitman's greatest poems, "Lilacs" has influenced many other works in literature and the arts.
The other poems in Leaves of Grass Book XXII – "O Captain! My Captain!", "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day", and the brief "This Dust Was Once the Man" – also refer to Lincoln's death.
Read more about When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom'd: Symbolism, Music, Other Literature, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the word lilacs:
“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed
And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
I mourned, 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.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)