When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd Themes

Elegies are about… death, and also about grieving. So of course death is a major theme of "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Did you even doubt it? All the same, Whitman gives the topic...

Those perennial lilacs in "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" remind us of life's perseverance and fertility (not to mention a pretty sweet gardening set-up). The bustling cities and hardwor...

We can't forget whom this poem is really for. Without the speaker's admiration for the one and only Abe Lincoln, we may never have even had the poem to begin with. Not only is he an awesome vampire...