Death and Regeneration in Walt Whitmans Poem, When Lilacs Last In The

Death and Regeneration in Walt Whitmans Poem, When lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloomd Whitman in 1865 wrote an lamentation for President Lincoln entitled When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd. The Lilacs elegy is an outpouring of the deep sense of loss that Whitman felt after the blackwash of President Abraham Lincoln. The Presidents death was a great shock to the poet it overwhelmed him in a very personal way. Whitman recognized Lincolns excellence and importance.When Whitman first heard of the assassination, it was the rebound of the year and the lilacs were in bloom. The poem is heavily symbolic. In this first section, Whitman introduces ii of the three central symbols used in development. The poet appears in company with the Lilac blooming and the drooping star. The lilac represents love as well as resurrection and rebirth. The star symbolizes the slain Abraham Lincoln and comes to symbolize, also, the poets heavy grief for him. The star, or Lincoln, in one case celesti al and shining like a strong guide to those under it, has now droopd early. Lincoln i...