Audiobook · read by volunteers
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
Read by Annie Coleman Rothenberg, Chip, Fox in the Stars, Ted McElroy, Martin Clifton, Marian Brown, Marlo Dianne, Mark Griggs, Robert Garrison, Mark Bradford · 13 chapters · 24 min
About the book
O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done. Walt Whitman wrote these lines in the aftermath of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the poem is a lament in the voice of a sailor whose captain has fallen at the moment of victory. It is one of the best known poems in the language, with a striking contrast between the cheering crowds on the shore and the stillness on the deck. Thirteen versions are collected here, recorded by LibriVox volunteers in honour of President's Day. Each reader finds a different pace and weight in the lines, and the poem's steady rhythm carries them differently each time. Hearing it thirteen times gives you a new appreciation of its structure and of how much an interpretation can change. The collection runs for around twenty-five minutes, with ten readers.
Introduction
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is often considered the most influential poet in American literature. His collection Leaves of Grass, which he revised throughout his life, broke away from traditional forms and used a free, expansive style. O Captain! My Captain! is something of an exception among his works, because it is written in regular rhyme and metre. The poem is built on a strong rhythm and a recurring cry, which gives the readers a clear structure to work with, and the differences between versions are all the more interesting for that.
The poem was written following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and it appears in Leaves of Grass. It is considered by many to be one of his greatest poems, and it was among the most popular of his works in his lifetime. The speaker is a sailor who addresses his fallen captain, and the ship is generally understood as the Union, safely brought through the storm of the Civil War. The pathos rests in the contrast between public triumph and private grief. This recording is a multi-version collection. In honour of President's Day, LibriVox brings you thirteen versions of the poem, each one made by a volunteer reader. There are 13 short chapters, and the set lasts around twenty-five minutes. Ten readers took part, and a few of them contributed more than one version.
Listening to many versions in a row allows the ear to catch things that a single hearing might miss: the cadence of the refrain, the shock of the last stanza and the way a voice can underline or soften the grief.
It is a short and moving listen, and a good introduction to Whitman's more traditional side.
Public domain
Walt Whitman died in 1892: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text