101 Poems, Number 6

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

6: “O Captain! My Captain!” 1865, by Walt Whitman (1819–92)

The death of Lincoln (curse that Booth!)—

A murder hitting Whitman hard—

And so he sat and wrote the truth,

This gifted, unconventional bard.

Here, Lincoln’s captain of our ship—

The speaker finds him on the deck—

He will not make another trip—

The speaker is in grief, a wreck.

He grieves for what we all have lost—

And also for what might have been.

He calculates the grievous cost—

And writes it with his magic pen.

Link to poem.