You know him because he wrote Moby Dick, but he also wrote perhaps the greatest poem ever about Lincoln's assassination. (Captain my Captain is great too, but I like this one best. My old High School Drama teacher who is 85 years old did the voice. The music is from the Alfred Whital Stern collection of Lincolniana. It's called The Flag at Half Mast. Two of my friends from the San Antonio Symphony did the recording.)
(03-17-2015, 02:32 PM)asobbingfilm Wrote: You know him because he wrote Moby *****, but he also wrote perhaps the greatest poem ever about Lincoln's assassination. (Captain my Captain is great too, but I like this one best. My old High School Drama teacher who is 85 years old did the voice. The music is from the Alfred Whital Stern collection of Lincolniana. It's called The Flag at Half Mast. Two of my friends from the San Antonio Symphony did the recording.)
I believe O Captain! My Captain! was written by Walt Whitman.
Yes I didn't mean to imply that Melville did. I just forgot to type in Whitmans name. I have also done a recording of Oh Captain as well as when Lilacs Last. Emma Lazarus has a great poem about Booth I will post soon.
About thirty years ago, Dr. Thomas Turner from Bridgewater College in Massachusetts used Melville's line "Beware the people weeping" for the title of his very good book on the assassination.
He once met with A. Lincoln in the White House. Melville came to Washington in 1861, to seek for office of Consul at Florence because he desperately needed a safe income - to no avail.
It's a great poem about Reconstruction. "Beware the people weeping."
" Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the American Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford