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Gardens: Of Love or Prophecy? – Ali Shafer

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Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The poem I adopted was Trumbull Stickney’s “Be Still. The Hanging Gardens Were a Dream.” A Poetry Foundation article I read called, “Trumbull Stickney,” discussed how Trumbull died at 30 and showed promise in his poetic craft but never fully came into his own distinct style before his death. This point in different words came up multiple times in the short biographical note and I was taken aback because that seemed somewhat cruel to say about his work.

I wasn’t able to read a lot of his work beyond the poem I was studying and had never heard of him prior to this activity, but I found the poem and him as a person to be rather interesting. Especially after reading a poetry analysis by AllPoetry which explained the poem as portraying “the ephemerality of human existence and the futility of yearning for the past” considering Trumbull’s denouncing places and people of Western legends, the repeated “Be still” that they think is an urge for the reader to accept their own hopeless fate, and contemporary 19th century disillusionment and skepticism.

Admittedly on my first few reads of the poem before finding this analysis, I was somewhat lost trying to understand it. I picked it because I loved the beautiful language and references to places I’ve heard of in history and mythology classes, specifically the Hanging Gardens themselves which I understood as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the 7 Wonders of the World and, I always thought, a somewhat romantic story of Nebuchadnezzar having them made for his homesick wife. Beyond the solid images I had of those classic references, the confusing syntax, and abstract approach left me with only a vague impression.

Both the analysis and the biographical note stated that classical allusions were common for Trumbull, he seemed very taken with them throughout his career and I noticed the poem itself was at least somewhat adhering to Iambic pentameter, not classical in a Greek or Roman stance, but a classic meter for western poetry, so I saw that as a parallel too. The Poetry Foundation said this fixation of his could’ve come along because his parents were a college professor and the descendent of a governor, both well off financially and educationally. It felt like an unspoken argument was that from his access to good schooling and travel, he adopted the infatuation with the classics as a starting point for his poetic career. Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me figure out when “Be Still: The Hanging Gardens Were a Dream” was published, but considering he was earliest published while in college, graduated in 1895, and died in 1904, in theory, it really couldn’t have been that long before the end of his life.

I  think his poem could be viewed as prophetic of his own premature end and stifled poetic career or even a commentary on a failed love considering the Poetry Foundation also references an affair he had from 1896-1899. For the death prophecy, I’m arguing that the visions he references as dreams, fleeting but beautiful while they last (The Hanging Gardens, Troy, Scamander Stream, Provence and Troubadour, Venice) could also refer to his aspirations as a poet wanting to create something comparable to legendary European cities, accomplishments, and myths (lines 1,4 5-6). The word Troubadour in particular caught my eye because I recognized it from a music appreciation class I took last semester, they were essentially lyric poets and singers from medieval France (line 5). He calls their existence lies and I wonder if it’s out of frustration for his own struggle to find his distinct poetic voice, or if it could be interpreted as prophecizing that he would never reach that ideal status. In lines 9, “Thou foolish thing, thou canst not wake” and 10 the “foolish thing” could mean his own resistance to waking up from the dream of what could’ve been despite knowing it’s impossible to achieve for himself. “Thy brain is plagued” in line 12 could also be talking about the strain his creative endeavors put on himself.

On the other hand with the affair theory, as I said, The Hanging Garden presumably referencing Babylon’s could be viewed as a catalyst of love which Trumbull denounces (line 1). He also talks of roses kissing Semiramis’ lashes, roses and kisses being romantic notions while Semiramis herself was known for being a wife and queen with legends explicating her relationships, and depictions as a very beautiful woman (lines 2-3). Troubadours were known for singing love songs in particular, which may explain the mention of them if we take this interpretation (line 5). Attention to describing hair, eyes, and sunsets in lines 6-7 also reminds me of romantic works. Trumbull talks of “tears [unable to] wedge thy soldered lids apart” which may be referring to the aftermath of his failed affair, while in the previous line, the “foolish thing” may be his own reluctance to let go of the relationship (lines 9-10). Instead, he says the tears assault his heart, the organ associated with love, as well as his brain, which would provide the motivation for the poem as an outlet for the pain his heartbreak causes him (lines 11-12). He may be calling himself “Blind with the light of life thou ’ldst not forsake,” for wanting to keep living in the fantasy of their love. While the “Error loves and nourishes thy soul” line may be playing with the word loves as a double entendre, the error being the affair, and his nourished soul possibly refers to the experience fueling his poetry (lines 13-14).

Knowing the time the poem was written or published and more context on his affair would make it a lot easier to tell which interpretation may be more applicable, but I think either are fun and feasible possibilities.

Works Cited

“Be Still: The Hanging Gardens Were a Dream by Trumbull Stickney.” All Poetry, All Poetry, allpoetry.com/Be-Still:-The-Hanging-Gardens-were-a-Dream. Accessed 21 Apr. 2024. 

Pryor, JJ. Hanging Gardens of Babylon. 26 Jan. 2023. Threw the Looking Glass, TLG, threwthelookingglass.com/hanging-gardens-of-babylon/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2024. 

Stickney, Trumbull. “Be Still. the Hanging Gardens Were a Dream By… | Poetry Foundation.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45238/be-still-the-hanging-gardens-were-a-dream. Accessed 21 Apr. 2024. 

“Trumbull Stickney.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/trumbull-stickney. Accessed 21 Apr. 2024.

Holding On and Moving Forward

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by Ali Shafer

Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” was published in 1865 after the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln. This elegy for Lincoln moves me more than any other poem we’ve covered so far or that I can remember from other classes covering American poetry before 1870. Elegys innately have a kind of nostalgic, bittersweet, if not straight melancholic tone to them. I would like to think I’m an empathetic person, and Whitman did a great job of conveying his heartbreak over the loss of the President and all who died throughout the Civil War. Honestly, for the first few sections of the poem, without the context of the book and the class I would’ve thought it was a poem mourning a lost lover.

I feel for Whitman, Lincoln, all those lost, and those left behind to, as Whitman pointed out, mourn their loss. That being said, I love how Whitman despite free verse was able to make the poem feel more thought out and intentional with the 16 sections mirroring our 16th president who was lost, and the repeat symbols beyond the trinity of the star, lilac, and memory of Lincoln/thrush. Things like cedars and pine, night, the dooryard, comrades, songs, perfume, and the swamp come up repeatedly and ground the poem in sensory imagery and language more than some of his other more stream-of-consciousness works. I love the hopefulness of the poem too, reassuring his audience that those lost are at peace in section 15 and coming back to images of new beginnings like the lilacs and spring.

Whitman, across many of his poems, emphasizes connections and emotions and loss or pleasure because of these ties. I think to many, including myself, it’s reassuring to see someone so vulnerably share their feelings and assert that you aren’t alone in sad experiences or joys.

Like I said, without the context I know, you could read most of the poem and apply it to mourning any loved one. It’s relatable and Whitman asserting that the memory of the lost person comes back might make someone struggling to move past a loss feel validated. Whitman never implies that the recurrence of thought is bad or burdensome (line 3).

He also covers a full range of emotions and varying responses to loss, like stages of grief, considering even in section 2 I think there’s more of an angry or self-pitying tone with the repeated “O” lines. This is compared to the rest of the poem which seems to be more calm and contemplative or neutrally descriptive if not a little sad or hopeful tone-wise. For a different example, I read section 3 as an anchoring section relying on literal vivid imagery of a spring scene, a relief from heavier emotions.

Section 4 also seems to be a cleverly included metaphor (intended or otherwise) of maybe himself as the thrush, since as we discussed from “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” bird song and mourning is supposedly what inspired himself or at least his speaker to write. It could be saying after the loss of the Civil War and Lincoln, poetry as an outlet may be the only thing keeping him going or making the pain livable.

The ability to elicit an emotional response from me is the main thing that makes a poem memorable and dear. I think it’s especially impressive if someone is able to make a longer poem stick in the mind of the reader through thoughtful use of creative images and recurring language. Whitman being an interesting character himself also helps his work generally stand out to me, but this is by far my favorite of his poems. Though, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” is another I like a lot for similar reasons in its emphasis on the value of interpersonal relationships. That’s a big part of what makes us human and how we’ve persisted as a species.

In flower symbolism, Lilacs have been thought to represent love, remembrance, and acceptance. All appropriate themes for the content of Whitman’s poem.