Written ten years after publishing the first edition of "Leaves of Grass" (1855), "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" reflects a maturing of Whitman's poetic vision from a drama of identity and romantic exuberance that has been tempered by his emotional experience of the American Civil War. Whitman included the poem as part of a quickly-written sequel to a collection of poems addressing the war that was being printed at the time of Lincoln's death. These poems, collected under the titles "Drum-Taps" and "Sequel to Drum-Taps", range in emotional context from "excitement to woe, from distant observation to engagement, from belief to resignation" and "more concerned with history than the self, more aware of the precariousness of America's present and future than of its expansive promise." First published in autumn 1865, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"—along with 42 other poems from "Drum-Taps" and "Sequel to Drum-Taps"—was absorbed into "Leaves of Grass" beginning with the fourth edition, published in 1867.