Section 11 Summary

Lines 78-80

O what shall I hang on the chamber walls?
And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,
To adorn the burial-house of him I love?

• Here we have some more fussing and worrying with rhetorical questions, this time over the trappings of Lincoln's burial house.
• The speaker has no idea what to hang on the walls, how to decorate ("adorn"), or anything else.
• Again we get the sense that neither words nor images can sufficiently honor the memory of the one the speaker loves. 
• Also, this is not an actual house. The speaker is again speaking metaphorically about how he might best honor Honest Abe's memory.
• These lines also seem to be getting at the rituals living folks usually perform following the passing of a loved one. The rituals are supposed to honor the dead, but really the dead have no use for them. They're more so rituals to console the living than anything else.
• So all the fuss, whether we're talking about perfume, pictures, shag carpets, or other trinkets, is part of the healing process.
• They become ways to put the dead to rest not so much for the dead (since they're already dead) but more so for the living.

Lines 81-84

Pictures of growing spring and farms and homes,
With the Fourth-month eve at sundown, and the gray smoke lucid and bright,
With floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, indolent, sinking sun, burning, expanding the air,
With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, and the pale green leaves of the trees prolific,

• Here we get a pretty little catalogue of some pictures the speaker might use to adorn the walls of this so-called "burial house."
• In true nineteenth-century fashion (before the days of Instagram), one might see pictures of farms, homes, sunsets, etc. Here we get the same, but these things are seen in the light of a sundown at "Fourth-month" (April) in which Lincoln died.
• Sundown, when the light of the day disappears, is a pretty good time to decorate a burial house, don't you think?
• And yet, although these pictures are intended for a burial house, we notice that they also represent a celebration of life's beauty. Even the gray smoke (perhaps evidence of war time) looks pretty and "bright."
• And of course line 84 brings us back to the speaker's earlier descriptions of nature's lushness and fertility, since the trees are "prolific." So, despite the presence of death, we have some more instances of hope and perseverance here.

Lines 85-88

In the distance the flowing glaze, the breast of the river, with a wind-dapple here and
there,
With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows,
And the city at hand with dwellings so dense, and stacks of chimneys,
And all the scenes of life and the workshops, and the workmen homeward returning.

• We get more beautiful imagery here, giving us more snapshots of the nation's beauty, despite all the suffering. Notice too that these pictures are "In the distance," which suggests that the beauty is there but it's still somewhat out of reach at this time.
• Things are "flowing" here too, like the river, which gives us more of that sense of continuity and progress. Things are moving and never standing still.
• Line 87 gives us some imagery that's associated more so with people than the landscape, and since the dwellings are "dense," we're looking at both urban and rural scenes. It isn't just nature that's thriving.
• Line 88 furthers humanity's "scenes of life" with some of the sweat and toil that goes into making those dwellings dense. The motif of "working" adds an additional layer to this section's focus on vivacity and progress. Life goes on, work continues, and humanity continues to toil away despite his uncertainty and grief. Um, yay?
• All these images put together would be a perfect consolation for a man like Lincoln, who encouraged perseverance and unity in the face of hardship.