Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln

rdf:langString Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString A black and white steel engraving of Walt Whitman standing. He is wearing at hat and collared shirt

rdf:langString A portrait of Walt Whitman taken circa 1860

rdf:langString A portrait photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken in October 1864

rdf:langString A portrait of Abraham Lincoln taken in February 1865

rdf:langString Whitman

rdf:langString Lincoln in February 1865, two months before his death

rdf:langString Abraham Lincoln O-116 by Gardner, 1865-crop.png

rdf:langString Abraham Lincoln by Von Schneidau, 1854.jpg

rdf:langString Walt Whitman - Brady-Handy restored.png

rdf:langString Walt_Whitman,_steel_engraving,_July_1854.jpg

rdf:langString To say that Whitman admired Lincoln would be a terrific understatement—he saw the Union itself, America itself, incarnated in him.

rdf:langString Terrible, cleansing, and restorative for the nation, the Civil War became the central imaginative event of Whitman's middle life and Lincoln his personal agent of redemption, a symbolic figure who transcended politics, leadership, and victory.

rdf:langString C. K. Williams

rdf:langString Justin Kaplan

rdf:langString The American poet Walt Whitman greatly admired Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, and was deeply affected by his assassination, writing several poems as elegies and giving a series of lectures on Lincoln. The two never met. Shortly after Lincoln was killed in April 1865, Whitman hastily wrote the first of his Lincoln poems, "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day". In the following months, he wrote two more: "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". Both appeared in his collection Sequel to Drum-Taps later that year. The poems—particularly "My Captain!"—were well received and popular upon publication and, in the following years, Whitman styled himself as an interpreter of Lincoln. In 1871, his fourth poem on Lincoln, "This Dust Was Once the Man", was published, and the four were grouped together as the "President Lincoln's Burial Hymn" cluster in Passage to India. In 1881, the poems were republished in the "Memories of President Lincoln" cluster of Leaves of Grass. From 1879 to 1890, Whitman's lectures on Lincoln's assassination bolstered the poet's own reputation and that of his poems. Critical reception to Whitman's Lincoln poetry has varied since their publication. "My Captain!" was very popular, particularly before the mid-20th century, and is still considered one of his most popular works, despite slipping in popularity and critical assessment since the early 1900s. "Lilacs" is often listed as one of Whitman's finest works.