When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd

… There remained for Whitman, however, the writing of one more great poem. Apparently stemming from the mood of “Out of the Cradle,” “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is also related to “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” capturing, as it does, the richness of the former and the vital abstractness and serene austerity of the latter. In the unique beauty of the Lincoln elegy one perceives both a farewell to poetry and the dim lineaments of a possible “late manner.”