There are many similarities to Walt Whitman and Alan Ginsberg. They were both American poets, both wrote in free verse, and both were part of revolutionary movements in American society. However, the differences end there. Whitman was a fan of American ideology and society while Ginsberg was often one of its harshest critics. Whitman’s When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d is a tributary poem to the memory of President Abraham Lincoln. The speaker is in mourning for the loss of his beloved “star”, the star, of course, symbolizing the great leader. Whitman uses a variety of technical aspects to create his poem, with symbolism being the chief technique of choice to convey his themes. He uses three main symbols throughout the poem, the Lilac, the Star, and the Thrush.
If we examine the first stanza we come to recognize that Whitman uses the lilac to represent eternal life. When the lilacs last bloomed, the “great star” in the sky “early droop’d”. No matter how many seasons of lilac blooming may come and go, the speaker will continue to mourn when they bloom as a reminder of the “early droop’d” star. Of course, the “great star” represents Abraham Lincoln. The second stanza goes deeper in emotion than the first. For in stanza two the speaker is consumed by his anguish from the untimely death of the “powerful western fallen star”. Of course, Whitman is not just using symbols here, he is using the technique of naturalism in that he is symbolizing the circle of life and death through objects of nature, much as life and death are a part of nature. The repetitive use of the anguished expression “O” is used to convey just how much pain the speaker has over the falling of this particular star.
In stanza three, the speaker regains his composure by viewing and smelling the lilac bush in the “dooryard fronting”. He loses himself in his o
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