Lilacs

When Lilacs Last  in the Door-Yard Bloom’d by Walt Whitman, is, in my very humble opinion, one of the greatest works ever produced by an American poet. At first reading, it is an exquisite elegy for Abraham Lincoln who was loved by Whitman and whose assassination shattered the poet. Slowly and carefully reading (preferably aloud) the poem’s 200-plus lines reveals a greater and deeper treasury of meaning through a rich orchestration of poetic devices.

I first encountered Lilacs in about 1960 while attending Long Island University in Whitman’s hometown of Brooklyn, NY.  My teacher was Professor Scott (I don’t remember his first name) who, like the Robin Williams character in Dead Poets Society, brought Whitman alive for me and made him my life-long companion.

If you’ve never read Lilacs, or if you’ve not read it since college, give it a go.

Here it is:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45480