Film, Video Walt Whitman's Elegy for Lincoln

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Walt Whitman's Elegy for Lincoln

Summary

  • A reading of Whitman's great "Lilacs" elegy was the first event in the Library's 2005 celebrations marking the sesquicentennary of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and was presented by Alice L. Birney, the Library's literary manuscript specialist, March 25, 2005. Prof. Rosemary Winslow of Catholic University of America introduced the elegy, and the reading was then performed by 11 staff members and four distinguished guests. Whitman wrote this elegant elegy in the weeks following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater in Washington D.C., April 14, 1865. Neither Lincoln nor assassination is named in it, making the poem more universally appealing as dealing with the theme of death in general. Whitman was in New York at the time of the shooting, but he used printed and personal reports as source materials. With its central images of lilac, star and thrush, the elegy follows a classical pattern, moving from grief to consolation. Its song echoes traditional Roman and English formal elegies but is played to a new American rhythm and structure.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • Library of Congress. Manuscript Division, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2005-03-25.

Headings

  • -  Biography, History
  • -  Literature
  • -  Presidents

Notes

  • -  Classification: Fine Arts.
  • -  Classification: Language and Literature.
  • -  Alice Birney, Rosemary Winslow.
  • -  Recorded on 2005-03-25.
  • -  Kids, Families.
  • -  Researchers.
  • -  Teachers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021687681

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

While the Library of Congress created most of the videos in this collection, they include copyrighted materials that the Library has permission from rightsholders to present.  Rights assessment is your responsibility.  The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may also be content that is protected under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.  Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. However, the information we have may not be accurate or complete.

More about Copyright and other Restrictions

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. Manuscript Division. Walt Whitman's Elegy for Lincoln. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -03-25, 2005. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687681/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & Library Of Congress. Manuscript Division, S. B. (2005) Walt Whitman's Elegy for Lincoln. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -03-25. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687681/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. Manuscript Division. Walt Whitman's Elegy for Lincoln. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -03-25, 2005. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021687681/>.