When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd by Walt Whitman (1865)
Although O Captain! My Captain! is the more famous of Walt Whitman’s eulogies of Lincoln, the poet (1819–92) himself preferred this elegy to the fallen president. Composed in the summer of 1865, the poem was inspired by the lilacs Whitman saw on his mother’s doorstep in Brooklyn after hearing the news of Lincoln’s assassination. In Specimen Days, he later wrote, “By one of those caprices that enter and give tinge to events without being at all a part of them, I find myself always reminded of great tragedy of that day by the sight and odour of these blossoms. It never fails.”
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| About the Poet | Analysis | Introduction & Commentary |
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| Summary: When Lilacs . . . | Commentary: When Lilacs . . . | Essay: Role of Literary Nationalism |
Video
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman | When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth summary and analysis of When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd from Walt Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass.
SOURCE: Course Hero (2019), posted on YouTube, [1:51 mins] URL: https://youtu.be/etM_I4JYxiM
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (Summary)
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" is a long poem in the form of an elegy written by American poet Walt Whitman in 1865.
SOURCE: SparkShare Literature (2019), posted on YouTube, [11:25 mins] URL: https://youtu.be/fPxdCmsxGHQ