Dramatic, lyrical, and beautifully illustrated, O Captain, My Captain
tells the story of one of America's greatest poets and how he was
inspired by one of America's greatest presidents. Whitman and Lincoln
shared the national stage in Washington, DC, during the Civil War.
Though the two men never met, Whitman would often see Lincoln's carriage
on the road. The president was never far from the poet's mind, and
Lincoln's "grace under pressure" was something Whitman returned to again
and again in his poetry. Whitman witnessed Lincoln's second inauguration
and mourned along with America as Lincoln's funeral train wound its way
across the landscape to his final resting place. The book includes the
poem "O Captain! My Captain!" and an excerpt from "When Lilacs Last in
the Dooryard Bloom'd," brief bios of Lincoln and Whitman, a timeline of
Civil War events, endnotes, and a bibliography.