LITR 4232:
American Renaissance
University
of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2002
Student Presentation Summary
Tuesday, 16 April:
Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (2941-2948)
Reader:
Lori Gouner
Discussion
notes recorder: Rhonda Peyton
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
Bloomed”
Lori: This poem has some of the
classical elements of elegy:
1.
Invocation to muse.
2.
Expression of grief to a friend
Example: Page
2941, line 9. “O great star disappear’d-O the black murk that hides the
star. (The star is Lincoln).
3.
Procession of mourners: Stanzas 5 & 6.
Sometimes Whitman strayed from the
traditional elegy.
4.
Digression on church
(Focuses more
on nature.)
5, Consolation
Death is inevitable.
5.
Flowers symbolically used.
He weaves
together the lilac, the thrush and the star. They become an affiliation, a
Transcendental Trinity. The external symbols of nature redefine man and nature.
Whitman works through representative problems of the American culture. As with
Lincoln, anyone can become what they aspire.
“Address at the Dedication of the Gettysburg
National Cemetery” Page 2009- “All men are created equal”. Theme of
unionism, nationalism, democracy and individualism.
“Lilacs” is simple and avoids grandeur. The lilac itself is a symbol
o f enduring brotherly love. Death is sympathetic with nature.
Examples of sublime elements are: page
2946-line 150. “Death is bliss.”
Page 2946-line
162. Death is seen in joyful light.
The central theme is Death.
Whitman is representative and focusing on whole
nation mourning.
QUESTIONS:
1.
Do you think poem may have gone too much into forms of elegy? Is
it too sing song?
2.
How can the symbols be interpreted? Are the flowers brotherly love
or just flowers to lay on the coffin? Is the bird the poet’s soul or
Lincoln’s soul?
ANGIE: I think the flowers are both.
DR. WHITE: The lilacs could represent
the rebirth of spring. The dark/mother idea.
LORI: He elevated a symbol of
nationalism –the star- which had fallen.
DR. WHITE: There is a trinity of symbols
at work here. The bird, the star, and the flowers. One of the things that
happens is one of the symbols can substitute for another. The star and bird are
fighting for him.
LORI: He uses lots of different
patterns.
LIZ: Do they serve as clues for us to
let us know what the bird stands for? I had a hard time figuring out the
symbols. Did the bird stand for Lincoln or what?
LORI: The bird is solitary. It could be
Lincoln.
ANGIE: He seems to be pointing out how
everything changes but brings it all back together in one big circle. This poem
brings in the connection mankind has with each other.
LIZ: The way he changed the three
symbols-are these clues to help us understand them?
DR. WHITE: The star is grief and the
bird is consolation.
LORI: There is mourning in the first
part and grief in the second.
BRENDA: Maybe it’s something to do
with the soul. I was at a funeral once where they released some birds to fly
away. They said it was the soul and the trinity joining with the birds.
DR. WHITE: This is the idea of
Transcendental Trinity. The idea of the Trinity is religious or larger. God is
united and three parts.
DR. WHITE: What are some of the
conventions of elegy? Elegy was formal in Greek and Roman tragedy.
LORI: Could the muse have been the star?
DR. WHITE: What is the invocation of the
muse?
LORI: ???
VAL: Hope
DR. WHITE: Whitman is original but he
has knowledge of precedence. Look at Milton’s
“Lycidas”. Look at stanza 11 on page 2944-the decoration of the tomb.
Sometimes this is a feature of the classic elegy. He does this classic model and
then goes into a catalog. Sometimes he likes to combine classical and his own
style. Catalogs are also classical. Processions are sometimes. One question that
I had-What about the fact he does not name Lincoln?
ANGIE: The reader makes a connection
with Lincoln but it could be any other person in your life.
LORI: Stanza 7 says this for everyone
who has died, not just Lincoln.
LIZ: He also writes into the future. He
talks to generations in the future.
DR. WHITE: Yes, we can transfer this
sense.
ROBIN: Grief is not just for Lincoln but
for what he stood for.
VAL: In stanza 12 he references the
North and the South. He shows unity but also shows the problems.
LORI: This is not clear-cut good and
evil like Melville.
DR. WHITE: Like Hawthorne, he sees we
are united in sin. He does not identify one figure but a universal, which is an
element of elegy. Page 2947, Stanza 15, line 170, Visions. He is not just
talking about Lincoln but about all armies. They are at rest.
LORI: The way in which he presents death
is sublime. There is consolation after death.
DR. WHITE;
The point is –we are the ones caught up still in this world.
VAL: The point of elegy is consolation.
DR.WHITE: The movement of the elegy is
mourning then consolation.
LORI: All symbols converge.