When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west
And thought of him I love
In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green
With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love
With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard
With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green
A sprig with its flower I break
Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities
Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the violets peep’d from the ground, spotting the gray
Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, passing the endless grass
Passing the yellow-spear’d wheat, every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen
Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards
Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave
Night and day journeys a coffin
Coffin that passes through lanes and streets
Through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land
With the pomp of the inloop’d flags with the cities draped in black
With the show of the States themselves as of crape-veil’d women standing
With processions long and winding and the flambeaus of the night
With the countless torches lit, with the silent sea of faces and the unbared heads
With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre faces
With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn
With all the mournful voices of the dirges pour’d around the coffin
The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs—where amid these you journey
With the tolling tolling bells’ perpetual clang
Here, coffin that slowly passes
I give you my sprig of lilac