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Printed copy with revisions by Whitman

"O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended-metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's most popular during his lifetime. Whitman was employed by the federal government in Washington, D.C., through much of the Civil War, and, though he never met Lincoln, Whitman felt a connection to him and was greatly moved by his assassination. "My Captain" was first published in The Saturday Press on November 4, 1865, and appeared in Sequel to Drum-Taps later that year. He later included it in the collection Leaves of Grass and recited the poem at several lectures on Lincoln's death. Critical opinion has shifted since the mid-20th century, with scholars deriding its conventionality and unoriginality. In popular culture, the poem experienced renewed attention after it was featured in Dead Poets Society (1989), and is frequently associated with the star of that film, Robin Williams. (Full article...)

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Blue asbestos from the Koegas region

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... that the southern brown howler is considered to be a vulnerable species, partly because of the monkey's susceptibility to yellow fever?
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... that Tamar, an epic poem by American writer Robinson Jeffers, makes references to the Books of Samuel in the Old Testament?
... that the violinist Rudolf Deman, concertmaster of the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, took part in the first German radio broadcast from Berlin in 1923?
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On this day

March 17: Saint Patrick's Day (Christianity); Anniversary of the Unification of Italy (1861)

Aftermath of the Cebu Douglas C-47 crash

1452 – Reconquista: Combined Castilian and Murcian forces defeated the Emirate of Granada at the Battle of Los Alporchones around the city of Lorca.
1860 – New Zealand Wars: A property dispute between the colonial government and Māori landowners in Waitara instigated the First Taranaki War.
1957 – A plane crash (wreckage pictured) on the slopes of Mount Manunggal killed Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.
1991 – In a referendum, nearly 70 percent of voters in nine Soviet republics agreed that the Soviet Union should be preserved.
2011 – First Libyan Civil War: The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, authorizing military intervention in Libya to protect civilians.

William F. Raynolds (b. 1820)
Walter Rudolf Hess (b. 1881)
Margaret Whitlam (d. 2012)

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Today's featured picture

Eutropis macularia, the bronze grass skink, is a species of lizard in the skink family, Scincidae, native to South and Southeast Asia. It lives in both deciduous and evergreen forests, in plantations, in grasslands, and in rocky areas with scattered trees. The species is active in both the day and the night, feeding on insects and other invertebrates. This bronze grass skink was photographed on a tree trunk on the island of Don Det in Laos.

Photograph credit: Basile Morin

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