When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd Whitman's encounter with the lilacs in bloom in his mother's yard caused the flowers to become "viscerally bound to the memory of Lincoln's death". According to Gregory Eiselein: In the weeks before Lincoln's assassination, Whitman observed the planet Venus shining brightly in the evening sky. He later wrote of the observation, "Nor earth nor sky ever knew spectacles of superber beauty than some of the nights lately here. The western star, Venus, in the earlier hours of evening, has never been so large, so clear; it seems as if it told something, as if it held rapport indulgent with humanity,
The Red in the Sky Is Ours certain instances, Björler deems the record "experimental" nonetheless. At this time, the group's members started to learn about one another musically. Björler was at the time very inspired by guitarist Alf Svensson's ideas, and called them "over the top" and "extremely challenging". However, Björler went on to comment that the group "tried too hard to impress people with too many riffs and weird songwriting". Björler has criticised the production also, dubbing it "weird" and "very weak-sounding". Allmusic gave "The Red in the Sky Is Ours" a negative 2/5 stars rating. In contrast, Decibel awarded the album an induction into the