oh captain my captain poem

Full Answer

What does the poem O Captain my Captain mean?

by Walt Whitman

• Summary. My Captain!’ by Walt Whitman is a heart-touching elegy on the death of the American President Abraham Lincoln.
• O Captain! My Captain! ...
• Literary Devices. Most of Walt Whitman’s poems use repetition and rhythm for rendering a spellbinding poetic beauty. ...
• Themes. ...

What is the main idea in Oh Captain my Captain?

My Captain!”

• Metaphor: There are three extended metaphors in the poem. ...
• Personification: Whitman has used personification to give human qualities to lifeless objects. ...
• Imagery: Imagery appeals to the five senses of the readers. ...
• Apostrophe: An apostrophe is a device used to call somebody or something from afar. ...

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Where does the phrase Oh Captain my Captain come from?

“O Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy written by Walt Whitman in 1865 to commemorate the death of President Abraham Lincoln. It was first published in Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865), a collection of Whitman’s poems inspired by the events of the American Civil War.

What makes O Captain Your Captain an elegy?

An elegy is a poem of mourning. Most elegies are about someone who has died. Some elegies mourn a way of life that is gone forever. “O Captain! My Captain!” mourns the tragic death of President Abraham Lincoln. The poem was written in honor of President Lincoln following his assassination, and it also has celebratory passages that mark the ...

What is the meaning of the poem O Captain, My Captain?

Walt Whitman's poem "O Captain! My Captain!" uses the metaphor of a ship's captain who has died to represent the death of President Abraham Lincoln at the end of the U.S. Civil War. Mourning the death of the captain is a way of expressing grief over the traumatic loss of the president.

Who is captain in the poem O Captain, My Captain?

LincolnThe poem, which was highly popular, portrays Lincoln as the captain of a sea-worn ship—the Union triumphant after the American Civil War.

What is the repeating phrase in O Captain, My Captain?

In “O Captain! My Captain!” and “fallen cold and dead” used in the first and last stanza is a refrain that has built a sort of tension in the poem. Repetition: There is a repetition of phrases, “fallen cold and dead” and “O Captain! My Captain!” which have created the required musical quality in the poem.

Who is called Captain?

1 : the commanding officer of a ship. 2 : a leader of a group : someone in command the captain of a football team. 3 : an officer of high rank in a police or fire department. 4 : a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard ranking above a commander.

Why the captain is called Dear father?

Answer. Explanation: In the poem, Lincoln is referred to as the captain who steered the American ship from civil war. In line thirteen, the speaker calls the captain "dear father" to show the bond between the speaker and the dead man which is so deep that the line is blurred between the leader and the family.

What does Fallen cold and dead mean?

The poem is an extended metaphor: (1) Lincoln is the captain who has “fallen cold and dead,” having been assassinated shortly after the Civil War had ended; (2) the “fearful trip” is the Civil War; (3) “the prize we sought” is the preservation of the Union, something which both Whitman and Lincoln felt was the supreme ...

What is the meaning of weather D every rack?

The “captain” represents Lincoln , and the “ship” represents the Civil War; Lincoln was the commander of the Civil War much as a captain would be of his ship. In line two, when it says that “the ship has weather'd every rack,” it is referring to all the lives that were lost during the War.

What does bleeding drops of red in the poem O Captain My Captain mean?

Answer: The bleeding drops of red means the captain is dead, his body is laid on the deck and the blood is oozing from his body.

To Think of Time

1 To think of time—of all that retrospection! To think of to-day, and the ages continued henceforward! Have you guess'd you yourself would not continue? Have you dreaded these earth-beetles? Have you fear'd the future would be nothing to you? Is to-day nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing? If the future is nothing, they are just as surely nothing.

This Compost

1 Something startles me where I thought I was safest, I withdraw from the still woods I loved, I will not go now on the pastures to walk, I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea, I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me. O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken? How can you be alive you growths of spring? How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain? Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you? Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead? Where have you disposed of their carcasses? Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations? Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat? I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd, I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath, I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat. 2 Behold this compost! behold it well! Perhaps every mite has once form'd part of a sick person—yet behold! The grass of spring covers the prairies, The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden, The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward, The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches, The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves, The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mulberry-tree, The he-birds carol mornings and evenings while the she-birds sit on their nests, The young of poultry break through the hatch'd eggs, The new-born of animals appear, the calf is dropt from the cow, the colt from the mare, Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves, Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk, the lilacs bloom in the dooryards, The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those strata of sour dead. What chemistry! That the winds are really not infectious, That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea which is so amorous after me, That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its tongues, That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited themselves in it, That all is clean forever and forever, That the cool drink from the well tastes so good, That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy, That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me, That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease, Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once a catching disease. Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient, It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions, It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless successions of diseas'd corpses, It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor, It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops, It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from them at last..

Extended Metaphor

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Alliteration

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Epistrophe

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Apostrophe

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Caesura

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Anaphora

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End-Stopped Line

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Who wrote "My Captain"?

My Captain! " is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about the death of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be anthologized and the most popular during his lifetime. Together with " When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd ", " Hush'd Be the Camps To-day ", ...

When did Whitman write "My Captain"?

An early draft of the poem is written in free verse. "My Captain" was first published in The Saturday Press on November 4, 1865. Around the same time, it was included in Whitman's book, Sequel to Drum-Taps —publication in The Saturday Press was considered a " teaser " for the book. Although Sequel to Drum-Taps was first published in early October 1865, the copies were not ready for distribution until December. The first publication of the poem had different punctuation than Whitman intended, and he corrected before its next publication. It was also included in the 1867 edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman revised the poem several times during his life, including in his 1871 collection Passage to India. Its final republication by Whitman was in the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass.

What imagery does Whitman use in Lincoln's poem?

Religious imagery. In the second and third stanzas, according to Schöberlein, Whitman invokes religious imagery, making Lincoln a "messianic figure". Schöberlein compares the imagery of "My Captain" to the Lamentation of Christ, specifically Correggio 's 1525 Deposition.

What was Walt Whitman's first poem?

Walt Whitman established his reputation as a poet in the late 1850s to early 1860s with the 1855 release of Leaves of Grass. Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic and developed a free verse style inspired by the cadences of the King James Bible. The brief volume, first released in 1855, was considered controversial by some, with critics particularly objecting to Whitman's blunt depictions of sexuality and the poem's "homoerotic overtones". Whitman's work received significant attention following praise for Leaves of Grass by American transcendentalist lecturer and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What was the name of the poem that Whitman wrote on Lincoln's death?

Lincoln's death on April 15, 1865, greatly moved Whitman, who wrote several poems in tribute to the fallen President. "O Captain! My Captain!" , " When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd ", " Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day ", and " This Dust Was Once the Man " were all written on Lincoln's death.

What is the best poem of the Civil War?

In 1892, The Atlantic wrote that "My Captain" was universally accepted as Whitman's "one great contribution to the world's literature", and George Rice Carpenter, a scholar and biographer of Whitman, said in 1903 that the poem was possibly the best work of Civil War poetry, praising its imagery as "beautiful".

When did Whitman's poem "My Captain" disappear?

In an analysis of poetry anthologies, Joseph Csicsila found that, although "My Captain" had been Whitman's most frequently published poem, shortly after the end of World War II it "all but disappeared" from American anthologies, and had "virtually disappeared" after 1966.

What does Whitman say about the loss of the captain?

In addition to expressing deep sorrow about the loss of the captain, Whitman hints at the inevitable cost of war —for victory in battle always comes at a cost. Whitman juxtaposes the commemoration of a victory with the death of the ship’s captain throughout the poem.

What is the first line of the poem?

The first line of the poem is an example of diacope, or the repetition of a word with intervening words in between. By forcefully repeating the word “Captain,” Whitman immediately emphasizes the subject of the poem while also establishing rhythm.

What is the refrain in Whitman's poem?

A refrain is a line or group of lines that repeat throughout a text, usually at the end of a stanza. By concluding each stanza with a reminder that the captain has died, Whitman creates a vivid contrast between the celebration and the captain lying dead on the ship’s deck. — Wesley, Owl Eyes Editor. 9.

What is Whitman's extolling the shores to exult?

13. Whitman’s extolling the shores to exult is an example of personification, in which nonhuman things are given human-like characteristics or qualities. Personifying the shores is possibly a form of metonymy, a device in which something is referred to not by its name but by something closely associated with it.

What does the word "keel" mean in the poem "The Ship Returns Home Victorious"?

Whitman portrays the triumphant celebration after the ship returns home victorious. — Wesley, Owl Eyes Editor. 6. The noun “keel” is an archaic term for ship. Whitman’s speaker describes the ship as a “steady keel” to possibly suggest that, though it suffered many hardships, the vessel has remained strong and capable.

What does "to exult" mean in the poem?

— Wesley, Owl Eyes Editor. 5. The verb “to exult” means to rejoice or feel intense joy.

What is the speaker's exclamation in Whitman's book?

In his exclamation of “O Captain! my Captain!” the speaker expresses a strong emotion that quickly shifts from triumphant to despairing.

What does "o Captain my captain" mean?

Here, the “ship” is a symbol of the civil war fought for liberating the slaves. According to the poet, the ship is sailing nearer to the shore, meaning the war is about to end.

Who wrote "My Captain"?

My Captain!’ was authored by famous American poet Walt Whitman. It alluded to President Abraham Lincoln’s death in 1865. The poem was a part of his controversially famous collection of poems “Leaves of Grass”. The poetic collection continuously was revised to add new poetic pieces from Walt Whitman as a result.

What literary device does Walt Whitman use?

Literary Devices. Most of Walt Whitman’s poems use repetition and rhythm for rendering a spellbinding poetic beauty. He uses anaphora constantly as several verses begin with the same word/ phrase. For instance ‘When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomers’ uses ‘when’ 4 times to render a lyrical sound.

What themes does Whitman use in his poem?

He may use inanimate objects for that end. Apart from that, Whitman uses the themes of victory, lamentation, grief, sadness, and loss in his poem, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’. Though this poem concerns the theme of victory, it contains a sad note on the death of Lincoln.

What meter does the poet use in the poem?

Thereafter, the poet mostly uses the iambic meter in this poem. For instance, the first line is in iambic hexameter. The following two lines are in iambic heptameter. While the second quatrain does not follow a specific metrical scheme.

What is Walt Whitman's masterpiece?

Walt Whitman’s masterpiece, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ moves with a sheer melancholic tone throughout its entirety. He was the new-age poet, poised with breaking away from the shackles of established poetic practices and forming new ones just as America is created for a different purpose, tearing away from the yoke of colonialism ...

What is the mood of the poem after Lincoln's death?

After his death, the nation is fatherless. In this agony, the poet writes the verses. However, the mood of the poem is not gloomy. Even if they have lost Lincoln, the dream Lincoln has seen is not lost.

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