Episode 1658
Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln
Thu, 2021-Nov-18 01:09 UTC
Length - 2:35
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Thursday, 18 November 2021 is Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln.
The American poet Walt Whitman greatly admired Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, and was deeply affected by his assassination, writing several poems as elegies and giving a series of lectures on Lincoln.
Shortly after Lincoln was killed in April 1865, Whitman hastily wrote the first of his Lincoln poems, "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day". In the following months, he wrote two more: "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". Both appeared in his collection Sequel to Drum-Taps later that year. The poems—particularly "My Captain!"—were well received and popular upon publication and, in the following years, Whitman styled himself as an interpreter of Lincoln. In 1871, his fourth poem on Lincoln, "This Dust Was Once the Man", was published, and the four were grouped together as the "President Lincoln's Burial Hymn" cluster in Passage to India. In 1881, the poems were republished in the "Memories of President Lincoln" cluster of Leaves of Grass.
From 1879 to 1890, Whitman's lectures on Lincoln's assassination bolstered the poet's own reputation and that of his poems. Critical reception to Whitman's Lincoln poetry has varied since their publication. "My Captain!" was very popular, particularly before the mid-20th century, and is still considered one of his most popular works, despite slipping in popularity and critical assessment since the early 1900s. "Lilacs" is often listed as one of Whitman's finest works.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:09 UTC on Thursday, 18 November 2021.
For the full current version of the article, see Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln on Wikipedia.
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