Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln
Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln passed each other in the streets of Washington, D.C. dozens of times without ever speaking. Whitman estimated the encounters at roughly twenty to thirty between 1861 and 1865. Lincoln sometimes nodded as he went. William Barton found little "evidence of recognition" in those nods; Lincoln likely nodded to many passersby. They never met. When Lincoln was assassinated, Whitman was in Brooklyn. He recalled that breakfast was served but the family did not eat. "Not a word was spoken all day," he wrote. In the weeks that followed, he produced a body of work that would define the literary response to the loss of a president. How that body of work came together, how it was received, and what critics have made of it is the subject of this documentary.
In 1856, Whitman committed to paper a vision of his ideal president. He pictured a "heroic" figure, cunning and bold, bearded and dressed in "a clean suit of working attire." His biographer Justin Kaplan would later describe this as a "Lincolnesque figure." Whitman named blacksmiths and boatmen as ideal precursor occupations. Two years later, he mentioned Lincoln by name for the first time in writing. That year he supported Stephen Douglas over Lincoln in the Senate race that Douglas won.
The 16th of December 1862, New York Herald listed a "First Lieutenant G. W. Whitmore" among the wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia. Despite the misspelling, the Whitman family braced for the worst. Walt set out for Virginia via Washington to find his brother George Washington Whitman. He stayed on in Washington, taking jobs first at the Army Paymaster's Office and then at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also volunteered as a nurse in army hospitals. Wartime experience pushed his poetry toward themes of death, youth, and the brutality of war.
George Washington Whitman was taken prisoner in Virginia in September 1864 and held for five months at Libby Prison, a Confederate camp near Richmond. On the 24th of February 1865, George was granted a furlough home due to poor health. Whitman traveled to his mother's home in New York to visit him. While there, he signed a contract to publish his Civil War poems under the title Drum-Taps.
Whitman first saw Lincoln on the 19th of February 1861, when the president-elect traveled through New York City. He noticed Lincoln's "striking appearance" and "unpretentious dignity." In August 1863, Whitman wrote in The New York Times, "I see the president almost every day." Later that year, he described Lincoln's face as a "Hoosier Michel Angelo, so awful ugly it becomes beautiful." By October 1863, his diary contained the line "I love the President personally." He later said, "Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else."
Whitman attended the White House reception following Lincoln's first inauguration in 1861. He also visited the White House to call on Lincoln's private secretary, John Hay. The two men shared views on free labor, territorial expansion, and the primacy of the Union; scholars have also noted similarities in their literary styles. Whitman was present at Lincoln's second inauguration in 1865. An account exists of Lincoln saying "Well, he looks like a man!" upon seeing Whitman in Washington, though these accounts may be fictitious. In June 1865, the Secretary of the Interior, James Harlan, fired Whitman from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, declaring Leaves of Grass "obscene."
"Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day" is dated the 19th of April 1865, the day of Lincoln's funeral in Washington. Whitman had been preparing Drum-Taps for publication and decided the collection would be incomplete without a poem marking Lincoln's death. He added "Hush'd" hastily, then halted further distribution on May 1 to give himself time to develop his Lincoln poems further. Scholar Ted Genoways described the poem as exhibiting "stock form," and Whitman himself was dissatisfied by it. Gay Wilson Allen similarly argued the poem was not a fitting tribute, and neither, in Whitman's view, was "O Captain! My Captain!" Throughout the summer of 1865, Whitman refined his response to the assassination as he wrote "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."
"O Captain! My Captain!" appeared first in The Saturday Press on the 4th of November 1865. English professor Amanda Gailey described Whitman's decision to publish it there as a teaser for Sequel to Drum-Taps, where both poems also appeared. Although Sequel was available in early October, copies did not reach readers until December. In 1866, Whitman's friend William D. O'Connor published The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication. The promotional work presented Whitman as Lincoln's "foremost poetic interpreter" and called "Lilacs" "the grandest and the only grand funeral music poured around Lincoln's bier."
The fourth poem in the cluster, "This Dust Was Once the Man," was not written until 1871. That year, all four appeared together for the first time in the "President Lincoln's Burial Hymn" cluster of Passage to India. In 1881, the grouping was republished in a later edition of Leaves of Grass under the title "Memories of President Lincoln." The poems were not substantially revised following their original publication.
The literary critic Helen Vendler noted a progression across the cluster. In "Hush'd," Lincoln appears as "dead commander"; in "My Captain!," as "fallen cold and dead"; by "This Dust," he has become simply "dust." James E. Miller called the entire group a "sustained elegy." The critic Daniel Mark Epstein felt it "may seem hard to believe" that the same writer produced both "Lilacs" and "O Captain! My Captain!" Peter J. Bellis wrote that "Lilacs," unlike the earlier poems, focuses on the future. It follows Lincoln's funeral train through "a process of renewal and return," rather than treating burial as an endpoint. Lincoln's name appears in none of the four poems.
Two other poems on Lincoln's assassination remained outside the main cluster. The final poem Whitman wrote on the president, "Abraham Lincoln, Born Feb. 12, 1809," appeared in the New York Herald on the 12th of February 1888. It has only two lines.
In 1875, Whitman published Memoranda During the War. The collection of diary entries included a firsthand account of Lincoln's assassination from the perspective of someone present at the scene. The New York Sun published that section in 1876 to a positive reception. By that point, Whitman was in failing health. He presented himself publicly as neglected, unfairly criticized, and deserving of financial support. His friend Richard Watson Gilder and several others soon suggested he give a series of "Lincoln Lectures." The goal was to raise both funds and his public profile. Whitman adapted his New York Sun account as the foundation for those talks.
The lectures ran from 1879 to 1890, centering on Lincoln's assassination and covering the years leading up to and during the Civil War. Whitman occasionally gave poetry readings as part of them, including "O Captain! My Captain!" Justin Kaplan, writing in 1980, counted Whitman's 1887 New York lecture and its after-party as his closest approach to "social eminence on a large scale."
In 1885, Whitman contributed an essay on his personal experiences with Lincoln to a volume compiled by Allen Thorndike Rice. Bram Stoker, the novelist, gave at least one lecture on Lincoln of his own and discussed the president with Whitman in November 1886. The two had been friends since 1872, when Stoker first wrote Whitman a lengthy letter. Robert J. Havlik, in the Walt Whitman Quarterly, identified their "mutual respect for Lincoln" as a foundation of their friendship.
Drum-Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps received mixed reviews upon publication. Henry James accused Whitman of exploiting the tragedy of Lincoln's death to serve himself. William Dean Howells held the opposite view. Sequel convinced him that Whitman had cleaned his "old channels of their filth" and poured "a stream of blameless purity" through. The lectures Whitman gave from 1879 onward helped reshape the poems' reputation. By the late 1870s, "My Captain!" was regularly placed alongside James Russell Lowell's "Commemoration Ode" as among the finest poetry honoring Lincoln.
After 1881, Whitman became known principally through "My Captain!" and the public persona he cultivated through his lecture appearances. It was his only poem to be anthologized during his lifetime. His 1892 New York Herald obituary noted that to most people "Whitman's poetry will always remain as a sealed book." "O Captain! My Captain!," it added, was a poem almost any reader could appreciate. Roy Basler counted "My Captain!" and "Lilacs" as Whitman's two most famous poems. The scholar William Pannapacker called "My Captain!" the most popular poem ever written on Lincoln.
In 1920, the critic Leon Bazalgette called "Lilacs" and "My Captain!" proof that Whitman was the poet "who sings the American nation." He described the Lincoln poems as representing "the heart of America in tears." In 1943, Henry Seidel Canby wrote that these works had come to be known simply as "the poems of Lincoln."
Floyd Stovall, writing in 1932, felt that the "barbaric yawp" of Whitman's earlier work had been "silenced" in the Lincoln poems. In its place, he noted a more sentimental voice with an undercurrent of melancholy. In 1962, James E. Miller described several poems in the cluster as "competently executed expressions of public sentiment on a high public occasion." He found them inferior in symbolism and emotional power to "Lilacs." In 2006, Charles M. Oliver concluded that the Lincoln works represent Whitman "at his most eloquent." Helen Vendler felt that, of all Lincoln poetry written in the mid- to late-19th century, Whitman's poems have proven to "last the best."
Hundreds of poems on Lincoln's death appeared in the weeks after the assassination. The historian Stephen B. Oates observed that the American public had never mourned the death of a head of state so deeply. Whitman fashioned himself as Lincoln's "interpreter," partly to expand the readership of Leaves of Grass and partly out of genuine admiration. The scholar Daniel Aaron wrote that "Whitman placed himself and his work in the reflected limelight" of Lincoln's death. In 2004, William Pannapacker described the enterprise as "a mixture of innovation and opportunism."
Whitman's poems helped establish Lincoln in the public mind as the "first American," epitomizing a newly reunited country. The historian Merrill D. Peterson wrote that Whitman's poetry placed Lincoln's assassination firmly in the American consciousness. Aaron also described Whitman's treatment of Lincoln's death as a moment capable of uniting the American people. The principal metaphor in "Lilacs" compares Lincoln's completed life with the transient beauty of flowers in full bloom.
Justin Kaplan regards responding to Lincoln's death as Whitman's "crowning challenge." At the same time, Kaplan considers "My Captain!" and "Lilacs" to be less bold and less emotionally direct than Whitman's earlier poetry. Ed Folsom argues that Whitman may have struggled with his success coming from work uncharacteristic of his earlier style. Folsom concludes that Whitman decided acceptance was "preferable to exclusion and rejection."
The philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum considers Lincoln to be the only individual who is the subject of love in all of Whitman's poetry. Scholar Betsy Erlikka writes that for Whitman, Lincoln's death was the culmination of all the tragedies the Civil War had brought. The academic F. O. Matthiessen wrote that Whitman's tributes showed how he could make whatever he wrote about seem "mythical." Joann P. Krieg argues the cluster narrows the scale of emotion to "the grief of one individual whose pain reflects that of the nation."
Pannapacker calls the Lincoln elegies the work through which Whitman reached the "heights of fame." He also argues that Whitman used them to fashion Lincoln as "the redeemer of the promise of American democracy." Several critics have concluded that the four poems mourn not just one president but all those who died in the Civil War.
Up next
Updated
Common questions
Did Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln ever meet?
Whitman and Lincoln never met and never spoke. Whitman estimated he saw Lincoln roughly twenty to thirty times between 1861 and 1865, sometimes at close quarters. William Barton found little evidence that Lincoln recognized him in those encounters.
What poems did Walt Whitman write about Abraham Lincoln?
Whitman wrote four major Lincoln elegies collected as 'Memories of President Lincoln' in Leaves of Grass: 'Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day' (1865), 'O Captain! My Captain!' (1865), 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' (1865), and 'This Dust Was Once the Man' (1871). His final poem on the president, 'Abraham Lincoln, Born Feb. 12, 1809,' appeared in the New York Herald on the 12th of February 1888.
When did Walt Whitman give his Lincoln lectures?
Whitman gave his Lincoln lecture series from 1879 to 1890, centering on the assassination and the years of the Civil War. Justin Kaplan counted Whitman's 1887 New York City lecture and its after-party as the closest Whitman came to social eminence on a large scale.
Why did Walt Whitman write poems about Abraham Lincoln?
Whitman admired Lincoln deeply; his diary in October 1863 contains the line 'I love the President personally.' He also fashioned himself as Lincoln's 'interpreter,' partly to expand the readership of Leaves of Grass. The scholar William Pannapacker described the poetry in 2004 as 'a mixture of innovation and opportunism.'
How did critics respond to Walt Whitman's Lincoln poetry over time?
Initial reviews of Drum-Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps were mixed; Henry James accused Whitman of exploiting Lincoln's death, while William Dean Howells praised the work. 'O Captain! My Captain!' became Whitman's most popular poem in his lifetime. Twentieth-century critics shifted toward preferring 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,' which came to be regarded as one of the most prominent poems of the Civil War era.
What is Walt Whitman's most famous poem about Abraham Lincoln?
'O Captain! My Captain!' is the most popular of Whitman's Lincoln poems; the scholar William Pannapacker called it the most popular poem ever written on Lincoln. Critics have long preferred 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' as Whitman's finest work in the cluster, and Helen Vendler judged Whitman's Lincoln poems to have proven to 'last the best' of all Lincoln poetry from the mid- to late-19th century.
All sources
50 references cited across the entry
- 3Sharp, Kevin, Bold Cautious True: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War Era. Memphis: The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 2009, p. 15.
- 4JournalWalt Whitman: An American Civil War Nurse who Witnessed the Advent of Modern American MedicineDavid Hsu — 2010-10-29
- 5'Daybreak Gray and Dim': How the Civil War Changed Walt Whitman's PoetryRandall Fuller — January–February 2011
- 6'Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865)' (Criticism)Gregory Eiselein — Garland Publishing — 1998
- 7How Whitman Remembered LincolnMartin Griffin — May 4, 2015
- 8JournalPoetry and the Mediation of Value: Whitman on LincolnHelen Vendler — Winter 2000
- 9JournalDrum-Taps: Revisions and ReconciliationCristanne Miller — April 1, 2009
- 10Revising Himself: Walt Whitman and Leaves of GrassMay 16, 2005
- 11JournalWalt Whitman's Lecture on Lincoln in HaddonfieldRoy S. Azarnoff — September 1, 1963
- 12JournalWalt Whitman and Bram Stoker: The Lincoln ConnectionRobert Havlik — 1987-04-01
- 13When Bram Met WaltMeredith Hindley — November–December 2012
- 15JournalWhitman, Lincoln, and the Union of MenElizabeth Fenton et al. — 2009
- 16JournalLeaves of Grass, Junior: Whitman's Compromise with Discriminating TastesEd Folsom — 1991
- 17Memories of President Lincoln (1881–1882)Bernard Hirschhorn
- 18BookThe Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil WarDaniel Aaron — University of Alabama Press — 1973
- 19BookA Reader's Guide to Walt WhitmanGay Wilson Allen — Syracuse University Press — 1997
- 20BookWalt Whitman & the WorldUniversity of Iowa Press — 1995
- 21BookAbraham Lincoln and Walt WhitmanWilliam E. Barton — Kennikat Press — 1965
- 22Book"This Mighty Convulsion": Whitman and Melville Write the Civil WarPeter J. Bellis — University of Iowa Press — 2019
- 23BookWalt Whitman and the Culture of American CelebrityDavid Haven Blake — Yale University Press — 2006
- 24BookThe Best of WhitmanHarold W. Blodgett — Ronald Press Company — 1953
- 25BookWalt WhitmanHarold Bloom — Infobase Publishing — 2009
- 26BookFrom Noon to Starry Night: A Life of Walt WhitmanPhilip Callow — Ivan R. Dee — 1992
- 27BookThe Poet and the President: Whitman's Lincoln PoemsWilliam Coyle — Odyssey Press — 1962
- 28BookCanons by Consensus: Critical Trends and American Literature AnthologiesJoseph Csicsila — University of Alabama Press — 2004
- 29'O Captain! My Captain!' (1865)Gregory Eiselein — Routledge — 1998
- 30BookLincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War WashingtonDaniel Mark Epstein — Ballantine Books — 2004
- 31BookWhitman: The Political PoetBetsy Erkkila — Oxford University Press — 1989
- 32BookRe-Scripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction to His Life and WorkEd Folsom et al. — Blackwell Publishing — 2005
- 33BookA Companion to Walt WhitmanAmanda Gailey — John Wiley & Sons — 2009
- 35BookWalt Whitman: A LifeJustin Kaplan — Simon & Schuster — 1980
- 36BookThe Cambridge Introduction to Walt WhitmanM. Jimmie Killingsworth — Cambridge University Press — 2007
- 39BookCivil War Letters of George Washington WhitmanJerome Loving — Duke University Press — 1975
- 40BookWalt Whitman: The Song of HimselfJerome Loving — University of California Press — 1999
- 41BookAmerican Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and WhitmanF. O. Matthiessen — Oxford University Press — 1968
- 42BookWalt WhitmanJames E. Miller — Twayne Publishers — 1962
- 43BookThe Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil WarRoy Jr. Morris — Oxford University Press — 2000
- 44BookCritical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and WorkCharles M. Oliver — Infobase Publishing — 2005
- 45BookRevised Lives: Whitman, Religion, and Constructions of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American CultureWilliam Pannapacker — Routledge — 2004
- 47BookThe Oxford Encyclopedia of American LiteratureJay Parini — Oxford University Press — 2004
- 48BookLincoln in American MemoryMerrill D. Peterson — Oxford University Press — 1994
- 49BookWalt Whitman's America: A Cultural BiographyDavid S. Reynolds — Vintage Books — 1995
- 50BookA Political Companion to Walt WhitmanUniversity Press of Kentucky — 2011
- 51Book"This Mighty Convulsion": Whitman and Melville Write The Civil WarUniversity of Iowa Press — 2019
- 52BookThe Music of What Happens: Poems, Poets, CriticsHelen Vendler — Harvard University Press — 1988
- 53BookThe CorrespondenceWalt Whitman — New York University Press — 1961
- 54BookOn WhitmanCharles Kenneth Williams — Princeton University Press — 2010