Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” By Jill Salas and Ed Fudacz

Walt Whitman, An American Poet  Walt Whitman helped to forge an American voice in literature.  He was one of America’s first, and some say greatest, poets.  Whitman served as a bridge between the old and modern American literature, creating a style unique and fiercely important.

Whitman’s poetry  His major, and only work, Leaves of Grass was a lifetime project.

Leaves of Grass underwent constant revision, and was released numerous times over Whitman’s lifetime.

“O Captain! My Captain!”  Whitman’s most popular work in his lifetime was written as a memorial to one of Whitman’s heroes, Abraham Lincoln.  Whitman served as a nurse in the Civil War, which heavily influenced his thinking and was reflected in his poetry.

 Lincoln’s death deeply affected a nation torn by the war, and Whitman served as a voice to the millions in mourning. In Memorium

Our Project  For our website, we have attempted to unite Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” with its author and era.  We have used historical context, pictures, criticism, and some creativity to create a useful tool for exploring this subject.

Our lessons plans represent a lesson in history, literature, and Whitman himself.

Whitman was a bold and interesting poet, and we have attempted to capture this in our project.

Whitman was a poet and a voice of a still relatively young America, and he serves as a window into his time and an American spirit that still survives today.