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O Captain! My Captain!
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O Captain! My Captain!

poem by Whitman
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O Captain! My Captain!, three-stanza poem by Walt Whitman, first published in Sequel to Drum-Taps in 1865. From 1867 the poem was included in the 1867 and subsequent editions of Leaves of Grass.

“O Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy on the death of Pres. Abraham Lincoln. It is noted for its regular form, metre, and rhyme, though it is also known for its sentimentality verging on the maudlin. The poem, which was highly popular, portrays Lincoln as the captain of a sea-worn ship—the Union triumphant after the American Civil War. While “The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,” the Captain lies on the deck, “Fallen cold and dead.”

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.