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,
Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise jazz renditions). What some may consider the most ludicrous version is the one featured in the 1940 film version of the operetta, in which it is actually sung as a cheerful ditty by Nelson Eddy while he shines his shoes, despite the melancholy nature of the song's lyric. The song is featured twice in "Deep in My Heart", MGM's 1954 musical biopic of Romberg, when it is sung by Betty Wand (dubbing for Tamara Toumanova) and by Helen Traubel. Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" is a song with music by Sigmund Romberg and