Where's Whitman?

We celebrate Lincoln on his birthday each year.

There are eighteen counties (as noted in black) in the United States named in honor of Abraham Lincoln.

There are numerous monuments, most famously Mount Rushmore and Lincoln Memorial, that honor Abraham Lincoln.

We carry Abraham Lincoln’s face on both pennies and the five dollar bill.

But what does that all mean? 

Perhaps no one celebrated the life of Abraham Lincoln in quite the way Walt Whitman did.  Whitman could tell you what it all meant, of that I am sure. 

I studied Lincoln many times throughout my years in school but it is an entirely different experience reading about him through Walt Whitman’s eyes.  Whitman’s perspective is not so much unique (as Lincoln is universally loved) but written in a such a way that humanizes him beyond a presidency. 

Despite the fact that they never actually met in person, Whitman deeply admired Lincoln.  Whitman focused many of his writing on what was mostly a passerby friendship between himself and Lincoln.  Having learned of Lincolns death through newspapers, he feverishly began writing down his thoughts on Lincoln.  What resulted was nothing short of amazing.  I am awed by Whitman’s ability to mix brutality with beauty in his poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.  He both mourns for the death and celebrates the death; reconciling with himself (and a nation) the great loss that has taken place.  In addition, he uses symbols throughout the poem rather than Lincoln’s name which adds to the proufoundness of the writing.