"O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be anthologized and the most popular during his lifetime. Together with "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day", and "This Dust Was Once the Man", it is one of four poems written by Whitman about the death of Lincoln.
Printed copy of "O Captain! My Captain!" with revision notes by Whitman, 1888
Autographed fair copy of Whitman's poem—signed and dated March 9, 1887—as published in 1881
Whitman's lecture on Lincoln, invitation, 1886
Correggio's 1525 Deposition
Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman in 1887
Whitman in July 1854, aged 35, from the frontispiece to Leaves of Grass from a lost daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison
Whitman's handwritten manuscript for "Broadway, 1861"
Whitman spent his last years at his home in Camden, New Jersey, which is open to the public as the Walt Whitman House.
