LITR 5535: American
Romanticism
Student Presentation on Reading Selections 2005
Monday April 11
Topic: Walt Whitman and “ When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”
Selection Reader/Discussion Leader: Marcia Toalson
Walt Whitman: American poet, journalist, and essayist shrouded in controversy
1819-born in Long Island, New York, the son of a Quaker carpenter and mother of Dutch ancestry
1830-left school at the age of eleven to become a printer’s apprentice. Enthralled with reading the novels of Sir Walter Scott.
1838-worked as a teacher and a journeyman printer
1845-became editor of Brooklyn Eagle. He did literary reviews of Carlyle, Emerson, Melville, Fuller, Sand, and Goethe.
1848-Fired from the Eagle because Whitman had become a Free-Soiler, opposed to acquisition of more slave territory—unusual because in Whitman’s childhood there were slaves employed on his parent’s farm.
1860’s-During Civil War Whitman worked as a clerk in Washington until his brother was wounded at Fredericksburg at which time Whitman went to care for him and for other Union and Confederate soldiers. Note stanza 15 in “ Lilacs…”N1074
1892-died in Camden, New Jersey while being cared for by a woman he had befriended.
Whitman believed that a poet’s style should be simple and natural, without orthodox meter or rhyme and poems should be written as they were spoken. He was responsible for a wave-like verse and fresh use of language which helped to liberate American poetry. He wanted to be well-known, a national bard but his erotic candor separated him from conventionally romantic poets. Some of Whitman’s most ardent admirers were Emerson, Tennyson, and Rossetti. He became also an inspiration for the beat generation found in Ginsburg and Keroac. Whitman was filled with a love for nature and a pantheistic sense of being regenerated in nature.
In conclusion, Whitman is remembered as a controversial writer, his genius overshadowed by his outspoken views on sexual matters. He aspired to write a new kind of poetry, a free verse without meter but containing a melodious song-like character. It has been said by Harold Bloom that “ no Western poet in the past century and half, not even Browning or Leopardi or Baudelaire can overshadow Walt Whitman, nor even Emily Dickinson.”
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”
Key symbols
Star: Lincoln
Hermit thrush or shy brown bird: Whitman
Trinity: star/lilac/bird. The smell of lilacs would remind Whitman each spring once again of the loss to him personally and the nation of Abraham Lincoln.
Stanza one-major symbols introduced and sets the mood of the poem
Stanza two-song-like eulogy
Stanza three-personal information about Lincoln
Stanza five- allusion so Civil War based on first-hand experience
Stanza six-mourners’ responses to Lincoln as he passes to his final resting place
Stanza eight-almost psychotic in overtone believing that Lincoln had some thing to convey only to Whitman and he missed it and now Lincoln and his message is forever silenced.
Stanza ten-Lincoln’s accomplishments and how Whitman can mourn him half as well as he deserved.
Stanza thirteen-continues as to what Whitman can do to effectively mourn Lincoln
Stanza sixteen-a powerful conclusion—calling all those who feel the way he does to band together and mourn Lincoln and refers them as comrades, which is again an allusion back to the war.
Notable Literary Contributions:
1855 LEAVES OF GRASS-most well-known book of poems, occasionally banned. First edition contains a group of twelve poems and followed by five revisions and three reissued revisions during the author’s lifetime culminating in 1891-1892 called the “Deathbed Edition.” It concludes with the prose piece entitled “A Backward Glance O’er Travel’d Roads, in which he attempts to explain his life and work. The editions came out in 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871, and 1891-92. In the 1858 version there appears a group of poems called “Calamus”, which have been taken as a reflection of the poet’s homosexuality.
1856 LIVE OAK WITH MOSS-consists of twelve poems written by Whitman but not published until after his death, which alludes to the fact that Whitman meant it to be a straightforward account of his love for another man.
Other well-known poems in the various editions:
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”-masterpiece of the 1860’s
“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
“There Was a Child Went Forth”
“Children of Adam”-poem celebrating sex
“Specimen Days” and “Memoranda During the War”, both prose
“Oh Captain, My Captain”-another memorial to Abraham Lincoln
Discussion Questions:
1.How does Whitman seek the compatibility of transcendentalism, romanticism, and realism? Examples
2. How does the institution of free verse contribute to the poem “Lilac…” N1074 or does it contribute?
3. I found the intensity of Whitman’s feelings mystifying. Explore the intensity particularly in stanza six. I can find no substantiation that Whitman and Lincoln ever actually met face to face.
4. Discuss similarities and contrasts between “Lilac…” and Tennyson’s poem “ In Memoriam”.
5. Discuss “ I break the sprig from the branches.” Mentioned in stanza three, six and seven.
6. For thought: New pioneers in thought, writing, art etc. take a chance at popularity. As a writer, who are you writing for, yourself or your readers? How important, as a poet, is it to convey your thoughts, even though your thoughts may rancor public opinion? This, I am sure is a problem that Whitman forever struggled with. I believe he wrote his “heart”
7. Is Whitman successful in portraying Lincoln as a Romantic hero? Has Lincoln been regenerated in Nature? Or has Whitman’s interest shifted to portray the Romantic as the common person, country life rather then flowers and noble deeds? Evidenced in His poem “There Was a Child Went Forth”. There was some emphasis here on race and sexuality and dealing with ordinary people and the countryside. Or does he portray the Romantic ideal in both ways? I tend toward this philosophy.