Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln never met, but the American poet
greatly admired 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 the
assassination, Whitman hastily wrote the first of his Lincoln poems,
"Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day". Two more appeared in his collection Sequel
to Drum-Taps later in 1865: "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs
Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". The poems—particularly "My
Captain!"—were 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. "My
Captain!" is still one of Whitman's 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 article is part of
a featured topic: Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln.).
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Walt_Whitman_and_Abraham_Lincoln>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was
published, becoming the first great success of American author Mark
Twain (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celebrated_Jumping_Frog_of_Calaveras_County>
1956:
At the Polish embassy in Moscow, Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev said "We will bury you" while addressing Western envoys,
prompting them to leave the room.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you>
1991:
Croatian War of Independence: The Yugoslav People's Army
captured the Croatian city of Vukovar, ending an 87-day siege.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar>
2014:
Two Palestinian men attacked the praying congregants of a
synagogue in Jerusalem with axes, knives, and a gun, resulting in eight
deaths, including the attackers themselves.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Jerusalem_synagogue_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Minecrafter:
(video games) A person who plays the game Minecraft.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Minecrafter>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
After I wrote Handmaid’s Tale, people came up to me and asked
why weren’t there any protests. And I said, “You don’t understand
totalitarianism.” A real totalitarianism doesn’t fool around with
protests in the streets.
--Margaret Atwood
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood>