“O Captain! MY Captain!”

“O Captain! MY Captain!”





About the poet

The poem “O Captain! My Captain!” was written by famous American poet Walter Whitman.

He was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island as the second of nine children. He was a poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist.He worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War in addition to publishing his poetry.

He was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

Whitman died on March 26, 1892 .He was buried in his tomb at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden four days after his death

Whitman's work breaks the boundaries of poetic form and is generally prose-like .He used unusual images and symbols in his poetry, including rotting leaves, tufts of straw, and debris. He also openly wrote about death and sexuality, including prostitution. He is often labeled as the father of free verse, though he did not invent it.

His Major Works



 Aboard at a Ship's Helm

 When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

 A Clear Midnight A Noiseless Patient Spider

 The Last Invocation

 On the Beach at Night

 Miracles



 I Hear America Singing

 Cavalry Crossing A Ford

 Bivouac on a Mountain Side

 By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame

 Had I the Choice

 Long, Too Long America

 Hush'd Be the Camps Today

 Come, Said My Soul

 To a Locomotive In Winter

 Reconci The Dalliance of the Eaglesliation

 Leaves of grass

History behind the poem

President Lincoln was in command of the Unions’ arm forces during the Civil War. Following that conflict, the Confederates were once again annexed to the Union. The country was once again at peace with Lincoln as the hero. But his victory was short live. In 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated while attending a play with his wife and generals. Following his death, this country was once again at the age of depression, not from war, but from a loss of a great leader. During the age of President Lincoln, the poet Walter Whitman admired and respects him and was always supportive and was also involved with the Civil War. After the death of Lincoln, Whitman wrote the poem that expressed his grieves for the loss of his president. The poem was called, “O Captain! My Captain!” While Whitman’s poem, “O Captain! My Captain!” is literally about a ship’s captain dying at the end of this journey. I think it is really about the loss of President Lincoln after the Civil War because symbolism, imagery, and the tones.





Poem

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.



O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up--for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head!

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.



My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.



This poem symbolizes the war and Lincoln himself, and how the people really were proud of him for leading them to victory. When the ship has weathered every rack, it represents how many were killed, and in order to claim freedom, you have to make sacrifices, o the bleeding drops of red, where on the deck my captain lies, fallen cold and dead. The poem also shows a great sense of irony. In the sense, that there were such a great amount of sacrifices that not only Lincoln made to unite the country but also the country within its own self. And to finalize it, Lincoln made his greatest Sacrifice...himself



Explanation: O Captain! My Captain!

Lines 1-4

The first lines of the poem serve to begin the controlling metaphor upon which the rest of the poem builds. A metaphor is simply a figure of speech in which one thing is substituted for another, and a controlling metaphor is a metaphor that impacts, controls, or unifies the entire poem. In this poem, the "Captain" is a substitute for Abraham Lincoln, and the "ship" is the United States of America. "The fearful trip" is the Civil War, which had ended just prior to Lincoln's assassination. Thus the ship is returning home to cheering crowds having won "the prize" of victory, just as the Union, led by Lincoln, had returned victorious from the Civil War. The utterance "O Captain! my Captain" is particularly interesting in this light. In one sense the speaker is addressing his Captain directly, but in another respect he seems to be speaking to himself about his Captain. The repetition helps to assert the uncertainty he feels at the Captain's loss.



Lines 5-8

Lines 5-8 communicate the unpleasant news that the Captain has somehow fallen dead after the battle. More importantly, the repetition of "heart! heart! heart!" communicates the speaker of the poem's dismay and horror at realizing that his Captain has died. The poem is then as much about the "I" of the poem and how he comes to terms with his grief, how he processes this information, as it is about the central figure of the Captain. The "bleeding drops of red" are both the Captain's bleeding wounds and the speakers wounded heart. Finally, these lines function as a broken heroic couplet, a two-line rhymed verse that originated in heroic epic poetry and is usually, as is the case with these lines, written in iambic pentameter. The broken lines are called hemistiches and are commonly used, as they are here, to the underlying rhythm of the poem and to suggest emotional upheaval.



Lines 9-12

In this pivotal second stanza, the speaker of the poem entreats his Captain to "Rise up and hear the bells." In essence the speaker laments that his Captain, having led his crew bravely to victory, will not receive the fanfare that is his just due. At the same time Whitman blends two distinct scenes: one in which crowds gather to receive and celebrate the Captain (Lincoln) upon his return from military victory; and the second in which people gather to lament him as a fallen hero. The bells of the second stanza are presumably the bells rang in celebration of military victory; however, knowing the great Captain and leader has died the bells might also symbolize funeral bells tolled in mourning. Similarly, the "flag," is flown in honor of the Captain both as a symbol of rejoicing and victory and as a symbol of lamentation—as in the tradition of flying the American flag at half-mast when a respected American dies. The bugle, a quintessentially military musical instrument, alludes to both military victory and to "Taps," the requiem traditionally played at funerals of fallen soldiers. Bouquets and wreathes are also common to both celebratory receptions and funerals. Finally, the throngs of people become symbolic as well. Not only are they representative of the people who welcomed and rejoiced at the Union's victory in the Civil War, but they represent the throngs of people who gathered across the nation to mournfully view Lincoln's coffin as it was taken by train from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois. The crowds remind the reader that the speaker of the poem is not alone in lamenting his Captain's death, but rather shares this experience with the masses. In this manner the poem is in keeping with Whitman's experience. While he himself had a powerful personal reaction to the news of Lincoln's death, Lincoln was the Captain and father-figure of an entire nation and so the poet's grief, while central to the poem, is shared by the rest of the country.



Lines 13-14

In the next group of lines, the speaker of poem again entreats his Captain to "hear." In this case he may be referring to the bells of the first stanza, or perhaps to himself, his pleas. More importantly, the speaker for the first time calls his Captain "father." In this manner, Whitman expands the metaphor for Lincoln beyond the more limited scope of a military leader of men into a father figure, one whose wisdom and teachings led his children into adulthood. The poem celebrates Lincoln as more than simply a great military leader who led the Union to victory during the Civil War and attaches to him a broader significance as the father of this new, this post-slavery country.



Lines 15-16

In Lines 15-16 the speaker asserts that this must all be a bad dream. Here the poem captures the speaker's denial; the emotional impact of Lincoln's demise has made it almost impossible for the speaker to accept. The refrain "fallen cold and dead," is slightly altered in this stanza in that it is apparently addressed to the Captain. The effect is to again reinforce the speaker's difficulty in coming to terms with his Captain's death; even though his Captain is dead, the speaker continues to speak to him as though he were alive.



Lines 17-18

The speaker of the poem, no longer able to hold out hope, faces up to the reality of his Captain's death. The details and images evoked in these lines all serve to reiterate that the Captain is deceased: his pallid lips, lack of a pulse, and lack of will. Unlike the two previous stanzas, the speaker in no way addresses his Captain directly but speaks of him entirely in the third-person. In this sense, he has finally accepted that his Captain is dead.



Lines 19-24

Having finally faced up to his Captain's death, the speaker then turns his attention back to the recent victory. Lines 19-24 suggest again the internal division suffered by the speaker of the poem. Having accepted that his Captain is indeed dead it would seem he can now return his attention to the military victory. After all, one could surely argue that the plight of an entire nation of people far outweighs the fate of a single man. Nevertheless, the speaker of the poem chooses the individual over the larger nation. While "Exult O shores, and ring O bells" is explicitly a call for rejoicing, the speaker himself will not celebrate but will walk "with mournful tread," knowing that his Captain is indeed "Fallen cold and dead." The speaker thus celebrates the end of the Civil War but continues to express his need to mourn his fallen hero.





The poem,"O Captain! My Captain!" written by Walt Whitman, describes Lincoln’s death through an analogy. The captain Whitman refers to is Abraham Lincoln. He is the head of a great ship, which represents America. The ship’s trip across sea corresponds to the Civil War, and the ship nearing the port illustrates how the time the poem takes place is the end of the Civil war

The trip across sea is coming to an end. The port symbolizes the ultimate goal of the Union, to free the slaves. As the ship continues to approach port, the Captain suddenly falls dead on the deck this signifies Lincoln’s assassination. From this point on, Whitman repeatedly calls to Lincoln begging him to get up and see the roaring crows of Union supporters waiting for him at shore. Whitman also begs Lincoln to rise up and witness his goal of emancipating slave be achieved. However, Lincoln lays motionless on the deck, and Whitman must accept the reality of Lincoln’s death.

Whitman not only uses images and metaphors to illustrate the mood of the elegy, but also sound through his diction. For instance, Whitman writes “O Captain! My Captain! Rise up and hear the bells”. He makes the bells refer to the excitement of the roaring crowd at the port. Whitman asks Lincoln to look up and see the fruits of his labor waiting for him. The author continues to use sound by asking Lincoln to hear the “bugle trills”. These trills refer to the lively energy of the crowd, honoring and celebrating Lincoln’s arrival. The sounds ultimately serve to depict the sheer joy of the celebration at shore, as the Union has nearly won the Civil War. However, this is ironic because the crowd is unaware they have lost their essential leader. Therefore, the hopeful tone created by sound words changes to a sad tone, as Whitman, who is the only one aware of the captain's death, now focuses on his own somber emotions.

The tone Whitman creates in "O Captain! My Captain!" is mostly sad because of the depressed state Whitman is in as he describes death. For example, Whitman writes, “My Captain does not answer, hip lips are pale and still." This phrase is describing Lincoln’s cold lips as “pale and still," which implies he is truly dead, as Whitman finally accepts the truth. Furthermore, his lips no longer being able to move signifies the great speaker and leader will no longer be able to address and lead the Union. Such details alluding to death cause the audience to also feel depressed because of the loss of a powerful and well-respected leader. Therefore, they create a melancholy tone. Whitman continues by writing “My father does not feel my arm; he has no pulse nor will." The audience now envisions the limp and helpless body of Lincoln, as his soul has left him.

By this poem we can access that how much American people loved and respect their great leader Abraham Lincoln.

This is one of the best poems I ever read and from this poem we can understand that how much a great leader can influence his people and how much pain his death gives to them.

Almost 2 years after my post graduation, while sitting alone in my flat I again go through “O Captain! My Captain!” and I felt that I have to write something on this.

This may be helpful for students who are doing U.G & P.G in English.