The date: April 14, 1865. The location: Ford's Theatre, Washington DC Five days earlier, General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, placing effectively ended the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln, whose tenure as commander in chief would be remembered as a time of integrity and determination, was enjoying the play Our American Cousin when noted stage actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, part of a larger conspiracy to dismantle the Union, assassinate the incumbent. The shockwaves reverberated across the country in both the North and the South and offered a humbling reminder of an often forgotten fact: no man or woman, regardless of achievement, is free from the sin of humanity. My Captain!” it was published in the second edition of Drum-taps in September 1865 and represented a marked departure from the author's usual writing style. Recognized for its long, free verse, this work contained regular rhyme and meter, highly unusual for the poet. Each stanza consists of four lines with twelve or thirteen syllables that rhyme AABB, followed by four lines with five or six syllables that rhyme XCXC. This departure from tradition was not one that the author embraced, Whitman would later say, "I'm almost sorry I wrote the poem." This statement comes as a surprise given that this work remains a hallmark of American poetry. Additionally, Whitman was known for themes of death and rebirth, prevalent in his works “Out of the Cradle Endless Rocking” and “The Compost.” Both of the above-mentioned motifs play an important role in “O Captain! My Captain!”, though not in a way that immediately stands out to the reader, but in a way that becomes clear through analysis. At the end of the first stanza, Whitman closes with, “Where on deck my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead.” This ending is repeated in various forms at the close of the next two stanzas, but offers a prelude to the third and fourth lines of the final stanza, "The ship is anchored safe and sound, her voyage is done and done,/ From fearful voyage, the victorious ship arrives with the won object;”. Although the poem ends on a solemn note, revivals are, in fact, permeated by the poem, adding to the overall atmosphere of the literature captain and does so not only by repeating the word but also by using another leader term to play on an underlying theme. As previously mentioned, Whitman was renowned for his themes of death and rebirth and there is no story about death and rebirth anymore famous than that of Jesus Christ. Crucified by Pontius Pilate and then resurrected three days later, the story transcends time and is intertwined with "O Captain, my Captain!" since April 14th was not just any Friday. April 14 was Good Friday, or the day Catholics commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This was not lost on Whitman, although he does not address it directly, but the timing had a lot of influence on Herman Melville, author of the aforementioned poem “The Martyr.” Jesus gave his life so that man could be forgiven, and although Lincoln did not deliberately leave this world, his eternal rest gave the nation common ground on which to build the foundation for a new America. Melville states that his poem is "Indicative of the passion of the people on the 15th of April 1865", a passion of anger and threat of violence. Melville begins the poem in a special way: “Good Friday was the day/ Of prodigy and crime.” The beginning, in itself, could easily be interpreted as a description of