When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d
Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

A.) My Favorite Line Of The Poem:

Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,
Amid lanes, and through old woods, (where lately the violets peep’d from the ground, spotting the gray debris;)
Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes—passing the endless grass;
Passing the yellow-spear’d wheat, every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprising;
Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards;	30
Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,
Night and day journeys a coffin.

I love the contrast of the beautiful scenery and the somber coffin traveling through it. It just reminds me of how death looks to us when it passes our way. Our lives, good or bad, seem beautiful in contrast to death. When it creeps into our lives it affects us, just like the beautiful countryside. It is almost like a big colorful painting and all the sudden someone begins to paint black smudges all over it.


C.) History On Walt Whitman's Poem

"Between the publication of the third edition of Leaves of Grass in 1860 and the fourth in 1867, Walt Whitman's (1819–1892) life and the life of the country underwent major changes revolving around the outbreak of the Civil War. In December 1862 Whitman traveled from New York City to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to find his brother George, who had been wounded in the battle there. Whitman stayed for nearly two weeks, searching for his brother in the hospitals of the capital and eventually finding him in Fredericksburg. In January 1863 he moved to Washington, D.C., in order to visit the wounded, sick, and dying soldiers in the military hospitals. In three years Whitman visited thousands of young men, dispensing small gifts and writing letters for the badly wounded and illiterate. Meanwhile the poet managed to find a part-time position as a copyist in the Army Paymaster's Office; eventually he would become a clerk in the Interior Department and in the Attorney Generals Office, remaining in government service until he suffered a paralytic stroke in 1873. In the little free time he had left, Whitman walked along Rock Creek with a new friend, the naturalist John Burroughs (1837–1921), who would become his first biographer and lifelong defender. Whitman's aesthetic revolution, both in subject matter and in technique, led to censorship, dismissal from government service, and moral outrage, but Burroughs was a steadfast critical voice from 1865 to his own death in 1921."

(http://www.enotes.com/american-history-literature/when-lilacs-last-dooryard-bloom-d)


D.) History On Elegy

Funeral Poems: The History of the Eulogy & Elegy

"The funeral eulogy or elegy is one of the most popular formats used in funeral and memorial services today. This article provides an interesting history of this poetry writing format and how it has come to be prevalent for saying goodbye to a loved one.

People almost exclusively associate a funeral eulogy or elegy with the passing of a friend or loved one. While it is true that the modern versions are indeed most often used to lament someones death, the two distinct literary styles have a long and surprising history. A Eulogy is used to describe nearly any speech or writing that pays tribute to a person or people that have recently passed away. The word is derived from the two Greek words for "you" and "word." Eulogies can also be used to praise a person that is still alive; this type of eulogy is often used at birthdays and other special occasions. While eulogies are considered appropriate in most funeral situations, some cultures and religions, like Catholicism prefer not to include them in services. The elegy dates back to classical Greek poetry. The elegiac meter contains two lines, known as a couplet and combines many of these couplets to create the funeral poem. One of the most influential early elegiac writers was Callimachus whose writings had dramatic impact on such classic Roman poets as Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid. Catullus' 85th poem is one of the better know Latin elegies. Written for his lover, Lesbia, the poem expresses conflicting emotion of both love and hatred:

"odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?
nescio, sed fieri sentio et ecrucior."
"I hate and I love. Why do I do this, you might ask?
I know not, but I feel it happening and I am tortured"

The feeling of helplessness express here is still very prevalent in modern elegies. Elegiac poetry was originally championed as simply a way to express the beauty and grandeur of what we consider a classic roman epic poem in a shorter but equally noteworthy manner. Eventually, Roman authors also began to use the elegiac form to express strong emotion as well as tell stories. The use of elegiac poetry is evidenced in some of the works of Ovid, Propertius and others who used it to tell stories like the origin of Rome and the Temple of Apollo. It was some of the English poets like Lord Tennyson and Thomas Gray that gave the elegy the characteristically somber tone we are now accustomed to. "Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson retained the elegiac tone and paired the praise it offered with a very mournful tone. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard" inspired many poets of the time to take up the elegy. Most of these other poets used the format to express solitude and mourning in a very general way. Poets of the Romantic era attempted to use elegiac poetry in a lyrical way. Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed the elegy was "most natural to the reflective mind." After the Romantic period, however, the elegy became more and more synonymous with lamentation. Eventually, the form settled into its common modern use as a way to mourn and celebrate the dead. The eulogy and elegy both have a long, varied history that has led them to become the most popular poetry form for expressing loss, love and sorrow. Though they differ in origin, age and versatility, both forms of funeral lamentation can be a touching and heartfelt tribute to a newly departed loved one. These memorial poetry formats can be used as a farewell or a way to help the bereaved find comfort and closure in incredibly difficult times. Whether used in a speech, obituary or epitaph, eulogies and elegies are beautiful ways to find the beauty in sadness, the laudation in mournful observance. "

(http://www.ask.com/bar?q=History+about+a+elegy+poem&page=1&qsrc=2417&ab=0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzle.com%2Farticles%2Ffuneral-poems-the-history-of-the-eulogy--elegy.html)