When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
- When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
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.
ymbolism
The second line of the poem "And the great star early droop'd ..." establishes the allusion to Lincoln with "Great Star" as an allusion to the 16th president of the United States. The blooming of the lilacs in April, the same month in which Lincoln was assassinated, serves as Whitman's yearly reminder of Lincoln's death [http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/thewasteland/explore.html] .
Music
Conductor Robert Shaw commissioned Paul Hindemith, during his wartime exile in the United States, to set the text of "Lilacs" to music in his "Requiem for those we love" (1946). There is also a cantata by Roger Sessions setting this poem, written in 1971. David Conte extracted text from the poem for use in his "Invocation & Dance" (1989). George Crumb composed "Apparition" in 1979, using the text of "Lilacs", mostly from the "Death Carol" section of the poem. Kurt Weill uses the third stanza in his musical Street Scene.
Further reading
* Max Cavitch, "American Elegy: The Poetry of Mourning from the Puritans to Whitman" (University of Minnesota Press, 2007). Includes a chapter on the poem. ISBN 081664893X
External links
* [http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/roots/legacy/whitman/lilacsweb.html Complete text of the poem, with hyperlinked commentary on symbolism]
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
Syringa — The unrelated but somewhat similar looking Chinaberry ( Melia azedarach ) is sometimes called lilac too. : About the color see Lilac (color).Taxobox name = Syringa image width = 250px image caption = Syringa vulgaris (Common Lilac) flowers regnum … Wikipedia
Elegy — The term elegy was originally used for a type of poetic meter (Elegiac metre), but is also used for a poem of mourning, from the Greek elegos , a reflection on the death of someone or on a sorrow generally which is a form of lyric poetry. An… … Wikipedia
Cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln — The Apotheosis of Abraham Lincoln, greeted by George Washington in heaven (an 1860s work) This article addresses cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln. Contents … Wikipedia
Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance — The Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance has been awarded since 1961. There have been several minor changes to the name of the award over this time:*In 1961 the award was known as Best Classical Performance Choral (including oratorio) *From… … Wikipedia
Grashalme — Leaves of Grass (dt. Grashalme) ist das Hauptwerk von Walt Whitman, einem der bedeutendsten US amerikanischen Lyriker. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Allgemein 2 Struktur 3 Vertonungen 4 … Deutsch Wikipedia
Leaves of Grass — (dt. Grashalme) ist das Hauptwerk Walt Whitmans, eines der bedeutendsten US amerikanischen Lyriker. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Allgemein 2 Struktur 3 Vertonungen 4 Weblinks // … Deutsch Wikipedia
Hermit Thrush — Taxobox name = Hermit Thrush status = LC | status system = IUCN3.1 regnum = Animalia phylum = Chordata classis = Aves ordo = Passeriformes familia = Turdidae genus = Catharus species = C. guttatus binomial = Catharus guttatus binomial authority … Wikipedia
prosody — prosodic /preuh sod ik/, prosodical, adj. /pros euh dee/, n. 1. the science or study of poetic meters and versification. 2. a particular or distinctive system of metrics and versification: Milton s prosody. 3. Ling. the stress and intonation… … Universalium
Catharus guttatus — Catharus guttatus … Wikipedia Español
Leaves of Grass — Infobox Book name = Leaves of Grass title orig = translator = image caption = Walt Whitman, age 37, frontispiece to Leaves of Grass . Steel engraving by Samuel Hollyer from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison. author = Walt Whitman… … Wikipedia
