This cluster contains only six poems, beginning with “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” a long poem divided into sixteen sections. The next poem, “O Captain! My Captain!” is one of Whitman’s best-known works and is the only poem in Leaves of Grass to employ a rhyme scheme and regular meter. In “By Blue Ontario’s Shore,” another long poem, this time in twenty sections, Whitman accepts the challenge of writing a new kind of poetry in celebration of the democratic spirit of America. Although none of these poems refer explicitly to President Lincoln, in context they all function as memorials to the spirit of freedom and justice he represented for Whitman. 

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

The context of this poem makes it clear that the death of President Lincoln is Whitman’s central theme, though this event is never mentioned directly. The poet begins by saying that he mourns every spring (Lincoln was assassinated in April) and describes a lilac bush with delicate blossoms and a strong scent, from which he breaks off a sprig. He hears a solitary thrush warbling in a swamp and writes somberly that the bird would die if it were not able to sing. 

Whitman then describes a coffin “carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave.” The funeral procession passes through the countryside and the cities, accompanied by “countless torches” and a “thousand voices rising strong and solemn” in dirges. As the coffin passes the poet, he places his sprig of lilac on it. He thinks of a star he has seen in the west night after night, saying that he knows this star had something to tell him;  sadly, the star’s message was full of woe and brought him a message of sadness.

The poet understands the sad song of the thrush in the swamp. He asks how he can warble for the man he loved, who is in the coffin, and what perfume he can put on his grave. He answers this question by saying that he will perfume the grave with winds blown from the seas of the East and West and with “the breath of my chant.” He walks with the knowledge of death and the thought of death, accepting both as companions. The lilac, the star, and the bird are “twined with the chant of my soul” as he remembers the dead whom he loved. 

O Captain! My Captain!

This well-known poem is unusual in that it employs rhyme and meter and uses formal diction and uncharacteristic restraint. Just as in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” and all the other poems in this section, it does not mention Abraham Lincoln by name. Instead, the poem describes a ship returning to port after a successful voyage. 

Upon its arrival, everyone celebrates, and crowds gather on the shore to welcome the ship and its crew home. Amid this jubilation, however, the captain of the ship lies “cold and dead” on the deck in a pool of his own blood. This grotesque juxtaposition resembles the triumph of the Union but the death of Lincoln, a comparison that is subtly established in the first stanza and is repeated in the second and third. 

Hush’d be the Camps Today

The camps are to be silent today as the soldiers meditate on the death of their commander, who will endure no more of “life’s stormy conflicts.” The poet, who has fought alongside these grieving soldiers, will sing of the love they have for their commander as his coffin is lowered into the earth. 

By Blue Ontario’s Shore