O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

-Walt Whitman 

The Way I think that this relates to lincoln is that Walt Whitman wrote this after lincoln died, "You've fallen cold and dead"  I think that some people were trying to tiptoe around lincoln death because is was such a bad thing but what we really want to do is remember the good things in life. Whitman says this so blatantly with no sorrow or compassion because he is just trying to remember the things that he gave to our country. At the beginning he is talking about how our fearful trip is done. He is talking about the civil war is over and yes it was scary but "the prize we sought is won" He abolished slavery and that was the prize.