American Literature / Unit 10 AML 0911 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
Captions available
The idea
Whitman's elegy for Lincoln never names him, working instead through three symbols: the lilac that returns each spring, the western star that drops, and a hermit thrush singing in the swamp. The poem follows the coffin's journey across the country and turns the mourning into a carol of death.
In practice
A lilac, a star, a thrush.
Where people slip
The president is mourned without being named.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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