Simplistic: A Poem

Although I was really ill for the cemetery field trip, I still read the poem and following the prompt:

My first favorite line before I even began the reading the poem was the title "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". Whitman's genius shows through simply through the title he chose to give his lengthy poem. I really liked in the second stanza when he writes, "O powerful western fallen star!..." I thought it was an amazing rendition towards the loss of a president such as Lincoln. In stanza six when he talks about "the coffin that pass[ed] through lanes...through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land," I felt like he was talking about how the whole nation felt as they saw President Lincoln's body being hoisted away from the country's capital where he was once standing as an able, ready man who helped our country stay together. You can tell in this line it was almost too much for Whitman to keep his eyes on such a site as Lincoln's coffin.

My personal relationship to this story I would have to say is through two different historic tragedies. The first one would be the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I've done so much research on him that he is almost like a living, breathing person in my own mind. Everytime I watch the Zapuder Film of that fateful day in Dallas, Texas, I sometimes hold the same emotions that this poem exemplifies in detail. The second would have to be Septemeber 11th. I feel like it was just all a bad movie, even 8 years after the fact. I remember where I was that day and how I felt. When I read Whitman's poem, it's clear he wrote it to leave an impact on the American people and not allow them to ever forget Lincoln's death.

Here is a song lyric that was written in the early 1980s nearly 20 years after JFK was killed:

dreamed I was the president of these united states
I dreamed I replaced ignorance, stupidity and hate
I dreamed the perfect union and a perfect law, undenied
And most of all I dreamed I forgot the day john kennedy died

I dreamed that I could do the job that others hadnt done
I dreamed that I was uncorrupt and fair to everyone
I dreamed I wasnt gross or base, a criminal on the take
And most of all I dreamed I forgot the day john kennedy died

Oh, the day john kennedy died
Oh, the day john kennedy died

I remember where I was that day, I was upstate in a bar
The team from the university was playing football on tv
Then the screen want dead and the announcer said,
Theres been a tragedy
Theres are unconfirmed reports the presidents been shot
And he may be dead or dying.

Talking stopped, someone shouted, what!?
I ran out to the street
People were gathered everywhere saying,
Did you hear what they said on tv
And then a guy in a porsche with his radio hit his born
And told us the news
He said, the presidents dead, he was shot twice in the head
In dallas, and they dont know by whom.

I dreamed I was the president of these united states
I dreamed I was young and smart and it was not a waste
I dreamed that there was a point to life and to the human race
I dreamed that I could somehow comprehend that someone
Shot him in the face

Oh, the day john kennedy died
Oh, the day john kennedy died

I'm a bit sad that I was not able to go the cemetery. I'm sure it would've deepened my experience about the poem. But to replace that I had to think hard on some of my own grief while reading the poem. It helped to understand the deeper meaning behind Whitman's words. Not only was he stating that he missed the president, he was stating that he literally felt like a part of him and his patriotism died along with Lincoln.

It's really difficult for me to read depressing poems. When I write poetry it's usually sad things about my own life. I have a really hard time writing happy poems. Part of me thinks that sometimes in our of depression or sadness in life, we find ourselves. After everything else is taken away we can focus on what God really wants for us. In this poem I could feel that Whitman was angry and unhappy. You could tell that he was struggling with what to feel as a famous poet, but also as a regular man that witnessed the tragedies of war and what it almost did to his country. Whitman was a brilliant mind when it came to poetry. I think that his love for President Lincoln certainly showed and this poem deserves so much honor and praise as not only an artistic work, but also as a fundamental piece in American Literature.