Volume_29_Issue_2

18 Volume 29, Issue 2 Preservation & Progress Soon after returning home, Whitman suffered another wound. President Lincoln was assassinated, just five days after the end of the horrific Civil War. Whitman always felt a strong bond to Lincoln stating, “I see the President often. I think better of him than many do. He has conscience & homely shrewdness—conceals an enormous tenacity under his mild, gawky western manner.” He often saw Lincoln on his way to the part-time government job he kept while assisting the wounded soldiers in Washington, DC. The two would reportedly acknowledge each other in passing with a simple nod of the head. While Lincoln likely didn’t know who Whitman was when he passed him on the street, he reportedly had read and enjoyed Leaves of Grass in the 1850s, sharing a copy with his law partner William Herndon back in his Springfield, Illinois law office. Through Leaves of Grass , Whitman was, as author Justin Martin states in his book, Rebel Souls , “out to capture the country’s teeming, democratic vastness.” Through his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln was trying to remind the American people of democracy’s fragility. Imagine the conversations Lincoln and Whitman could have had if they stopped to converse. Two literary geniuses bearing the weight of the war but determined to bind the wounds of a country divided. Creating legislation and crafting prose and poetry. Tending wounds and testing the waters. Civil servants at a crossroads. Lincoln’s death deeply affected Whitman. Like most writers, he turned to his craft for comfort and penned one of his more famous poems and one of the most well-written and quotable tributes in history, Through his poetry, civility, and total embodiment of the true American spirit, the father of the free verse continues to tend the wounds of the free world—and a country divided. SOURCES: Kerley, Barbara. (2004) Walt Whitman: Words for America . New York, New York: Scholastic Press Martin, Justin. (2014) Rebel Souls . Boston, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. Morris, Roy, Jr. (2000) The Better Angel . New York, New York: oxford University Press, Inc. Whitman, Walt. (1995) Specimen Days & Collect . New York, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. Whitman, Walt. (2001) Leaves of Grass: The “Death-bed” Edition . New York, New York: The Modern Library. O Captain My Captain: O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths— for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.