"We'll gather lilacs in the spring" is an Ivor Novello song of the 1940a. That title never feels quite right to me. It sort of implies that Lilacs are a wildflower that you may gather skipping through the fields holding a wicker basket . Whereas, it is a tree with lots of blooms and "gathering" seems the wrong verb. Also, they tend to flower late May-June which is more like early summer than spring in my part of the world. In our house we notice when the Lilac tree is in bloom rather than Lilacs. But I guess the song has made the plural a more common referent. When the poem goes into singular I'm assuming it is referring the singular branch or singular spray or tree. It sounded fine to me.
I rather liked the second verse. I had images of the jilted Miss Havisham. I liked "doom" too, with its old-fashioned sense of fate (albeit an unhappy one).
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