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There are many responses here that bring up the poem, "O Captain, My Captain." I want to write here as someone who HAS read the poem before that class, but did not know that it was "about Lincoln" until then. I understand the distaste many of my classmates feel for being told what the poem is about-- there's something cheapening about it. Suddenly a poem that seemed so deep and personal seems commercial. I first heard reference to "O Captain, My Captain" in the movie, "The Dead Poet's Society." I choose to associate the poem more with that because of my own personal experience/story.

In that same class period, we were asked to determine whether or not President Obama is a continuation of Lincoln. I have a question to ask as a response.

Are we not all in a continuation of Lincoln's story and all of those of the past?
Is our story not a shared one?

On the comparison of Poetry and Science:
I can see many similarities between the two.
1.) You can look at us all as readers. Scientists are trying to interpret and form conclusions about the world, just as readers of poetry are trying to do the same with words on a page.
2.)You could look at both as the result of humans trying to interpret and form conclusions about the world-- science and poetry are just two different end results of this practice.

I'm also currently taking Prof. Beckman's Conceptual Physics class and can see many similarities in the course philosophies. This new way of looking at science is intriguing. I'm looking forward to reshaping my own story this semester.