Poems of 9/11

The poems of 9/11 and Whitman's 'When Lilacs Last..." capture two tragic events that have occurred in our countries history. Walt Whitman portrays Lincoln's death as an event that has cast a permanent shadow on America's history, just like spring and stars return so will Lincoln's death keep coming back to haunt him for the rest of his life. Whitman stresses the permanence of the tragedy, the impact it has had won't go away with time and will always come back to haunt him. The writer's of 9/11 poetry also recognize that September eleventh will forever carry with it a tragic memory of the loss America suffered on that day.

Walt Whitman's style uses metaphor's which appear to act as simple melancholy euphemism's for the tragedy of Lincoln's death, however, after a closer reading the words take a much more grievous form; his implications are quite haunting. A poem by Frank Bidart titled "Curse", had a similar haunting affect on me. Although, "Curse" was a lot more explicit about the anger and the terror of the event, with no metaphors of flowers or the night. Whitman's methodology in comparison to Bidart's has shown me that euphemism's can have a strong and even stronger affect than blunt exposition of emotions.
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