“O Captain! My Captain!” is one of Walt Whitman’s most famous poems, written in 1865 as an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination. The poem uses the extended metaphor of a ship returning home after a long and difficult voyage, representing the Union’s victory in the Civil War, with Lincoln as the “Captain” […]
Walt Whitman’s poem “There Was a Child Went Forth” from Leaves of Grass (first published in 1855). There Was a Child Went Forth There was a child went forth every day, And the first object he looked upon and received with wonder or pity or love or dread, that object he became, And that object became part of
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, published on December 10, 1905 One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation
There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged in the top of the Boy’s
THIS is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment. Darzee, the tailor-bird, helped him, and Chuchundra, the muskrat, who never comes out into the middle of the floor, but always creeps round by the wall, gave him advice; but Rikki-tikki did the
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is a Christmas carol based on the 1863 poem “Christmas Bells” by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The song tells of the narrator’s despair, upon hearing Christmas bells, that “hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men”. The carol concludes with
A Visit From St. Nicholas ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that ST. NICHOLAS soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums
Oscar-Claude Monet was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement’s philosophy of expressing one’s perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. Born: November 14, 1840, Rue Laffitte, Paris, France Died: December 5, 1926, Giverny, France Monet grew up in Le Havre where, in
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. Born: October 25, 1881, Málaga, Spain Died: April 8, 1973, Mougins, France Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga, Spain. The son of an academic painter, José Ruiz Blanco,
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a major Post-Impressionist painter. A Dutch artist whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. Born: March 30, 1853, Zundert, Netherlands Died: July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch painter whose formal distortions and humanistic concerns made him a principal forerunner of 20th-century expressionism. Born
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. Born: February 25, 1841, Limoges, France Died: December 3, 1919, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France Renoir was born in Limoges in 1841 and moved to Paris in 1845. He was apprenticed as a decorator in a porcelain factory at the
