The poem, which never mentions Lincoln by name, has frequently been invoked following the deaths of a
head of state. After
Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, actor
Charles Laughton read "O Captain! My Captain!" during a memorial radio broadcast. When
John F. Kennedy was
assassinated on November 22, 1963, "O Captain! My Captain!" was played on many radio stations, extending the 'ship of state' metaphor to Kennedy. Following the
1995 assassination of
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the poem was translated into
Hebrew and put to music by
Naomi Shemer.