Walt whitman archive biography of abraham lincoln

The death of Abraham Lincoln had a profound impact on Walt Whitman and his writing. It is the subject of one of his most highly regarded and critically examined pieces, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (1865-1866) and one of his best-known poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" (1865-1866).

Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865) | Whitman Archive

Whitman also delivered (sporadically) annual public lectures commemorating Lincoln's death beginning in April 1879. Although the two never met, Whitman and Lincoln, both deeply committed to the Union, remain intertwined in Whitman's writing and in American mythology. 

Whitman intensely admired Lincoln from the late 1850s onward, remarking at one point, "After my dear, dear mother, I guess Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else" (Traubel 38).

On the Friday of 14 April 1865, when John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., Whitman was in New York and read about the assassination in the daily newspapers and extras. 

His first poem responding to Linco Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman : Barton, William E ... CEPEJ