Read by Doug Barron
Music by Hammock

Walt Whitman is America’s world poet a successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare.

O Captain ! My Captain! is an elegy or mourning poem with the theme that every victory comes with a price.

Whitman wrote this poem to honour Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America. Lincoln successfully led his nation through the turmoil of the civil war and brought an end to slavery in America.

The speaker states that though the ship (United States) has braved the tough storm of civil war, it has lost its Captain (Abraham Lincoln). The speaker is torn between relief and despair.