OCMC: O Cap My Cap

AL- Abrahama Lincoln

WW- Walt Whitman

Lecture notes:

Return of the dead has this peculiar job of finishing the unfinished. This return motif in
Literature. This unfinished project also compels poets to write poems like this.

Elegy of this kind has a specific connection to literary history itself. How differently repetition
functions in the context of the poem. Repetition embedded in the poem and tells us about
not just cultural practices of mourning but the very legacies of Literature itself. Repetitive
aspect of the poem is drawing on the literary legacies left behind by sub genres like elegies.
The very act of remembering and memory- there is something inherently peculiar bc it is
about repetition.

Memory about the need to remember things. In that sense, remembering and memory are
connected with a wilful act of repetition.

Mourning as a ritual associated with death. It is also a work in progress. This paradoxical
nature inherent in the process of mourning are connected to the genre of elegy itself.

Elegy and Literature:

Elegy that has a reflective appeal for remembrance. The aspect of the elegy framing
questions of continuity and inheritance. Any literary text brings up questions of continuity and
inheritance and these are specifically inherent in elegies. Larger questions of these two
associated with literature itself can very specifically be seen embodied in elegy. Inheritance
left behind by someone who is dead and how they get adapted into literature. Elegy as a
subgenre of poetry. Makes us think about how these are written in contexts

Elegy as Self Reflexive seen in his career also:

- Elegy with self reflexivity. Because the poem allows Whitman to be self reflexive and
is the case with other elegies he wrote on AL. Progress of Whitman’s career that had
a diff turn with collections of Drum Taps and Sequel to DT plus last few poems
acquired a shift which is visible in Whitman’s shortening of the poems. Poems that
precede these are very long. Eg- Song of Myself seen as an epic of America, so vast
and lengthy. It is a longish poem Whitman’s career took a turn with the war and we
see this change and this was followed by the rhythmic pattern to the poems. Can be
found in ‘OCMC’ ‘Beat Beat Drums’ etc. It acquired a tone that has to do with certain
immediacy and urgency hence the shorter length. Immediacy captured from shift in
focus of themes too. Also tells us about Whitman’s urgency to tell the death of AL.
- In later poems the egoistic ‘I’ vanishes to establish a collective ‘Us’.
 - Towards the end of his life he became a racist, he supported a President who was a
racist and white supremacist. The ‘I’ in Song of Myself is a brash I, because he
believed Al’s death encompassed all cultural material in a way. The fixation with Al’s
death is visible. Seen in his prose written on AL’s death. There is a shift towards
encompassing more democratic ‘We’ than us in the shorter poems and this is
paradoxically followed by the decline of his moral values. He supported Henry
Johnson and Whiman opposed the opponent who was a radical republican. So this is
a decline in the democratic values which were propounded and celebrated in his
early career.

Ways in which poem embodies memory :

Alliteration in the poem as repetition:

- The need to remember itself with these repetitive sounds.

- Repetitive words, phrases, alliterations and sounds. Both these are thought of as
examples of repetition.

Example of poetic embodiment of memory:

- 1st stanza of Thomas Gray poem- revealing the beautiful scene of twilight. Here also
alliteration and many repetitions. They are precisely about memory and
remembrance.
CH Notes on When Lilacs… presented by Pritika
On Lincoln:
- Was from the working class so was Whitman
- He was unconventional even in portraits of Lincoln. His pictures
marked some happiness of compassion. So the aspect of photography
happened politically and has the private space of the home esp during
the Civil War, during times of dissent. The intimacy he had with his ppl
fascinated Whitman. Even when we look at the Apotheosis of Lincoln.
WW hung this painting in his room. So the lines in Lilacs show us WW’s
obsession with Lincoln. When Horace Trauble Asks him about the queer
relationship Whitman had with Lincoln. When we look at the picture,
there is a homoerotic relation which is why WW was fond of the
picture. Lincoln here embraced into heaven by Washington. And
Horace alludes to this homo erotic relation. He hung the picture there
because it spoke about the value Whiman had towards AL, an emblem
with his own understanding of AL. When Trouble asks WW uses the
word “queer”. The word queer in the 19th century did not have the
same connotation. So why Whitman uses the elegiac form to present
himself as a bird and Lincoln being the Western Star. Towards the end
there is the Singer, Western Star and Bird all come together to transcend
death. The kind of intimate relationship he had with Lincoln and how
it’s presented in the elegiac form. The way words are used talk about
intimacy. Close relationship that people had with the president. Death
 - Frederik Douglass and AL- Al did not have military experience but his
leadership is what led to the victory of the Union. After
theEmancipation Order- the Confederates’ slaves were made free.
Irrespective of the fact that both of them had differences in approach,
Douglas found some home in AL. Regardless of what is said of the
emancipation it was an uplifting act. The very act of having something
that says ‘U.S’ on the uniform is validating.
- Importance of symbols in national discourse and how to grieve this
symbol aka AL.
- Gettysburg Address: Focus on his diction. Short speech the democratic
values are reflected. Central focus was holding the Union and how it
revived the
- emphasis on sigh and odor. The aspect of sense of tactile imagery all
plays into memory, esp of elegy. What lilacs symbolize.
- Lilacs, The Western Star, the thrush, the recurring theme of the Cloud.
The thought of death vs the knowledge of death seen in the last line.
- In the poem- Do all elegies adhere to this format where it starts with
expression of grief then praise and ends with reconciliation? Does Lilacs
conform to it or subversive of it?
Whitman was obsessed with the secular aspect of death. Seen in this poem and in Out
of the Cradle… It is ambiguous that there is no beginning. But between death and life
to come.

- What do the numbers mean wrt to the structure.

- The centrality of scent seen in the beginning. Lilacs stand in for
rejuvenation and spring. So why Lilacs used as a symbol of renewal?
The other aspect being the spirit of degeneration. Then in 7th section
comes ref to lilies and roses. Lilies are associated with purity and
innocence and funerals.
- Notion of scent-
- also- Post WW’s experiences in the Civil War, his thinking evolved.
- The death of AL brought ppl together, cemented people. Diff way in
which Whitman saw this. Which we see in OCMC where people gather
to greet him. Writers like Whitman thought it could cement an entire
nation.