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 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 message in O Captain Your Captain?
My Captain!”
- Lines 1-4 O Captain! my Captain! ...
- Line 6 O the bleeding drops of red, Unlock all 274 words of this analysis of Line 6 of “O Captain! ...
- Lines 9-12 O Captain! ...
- Lines 13-18 Here Captain! ...
- Lines 19-24 The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring ...
Why do people say Oh Captain my Captain?
Captain Lee has been a mentor to many during his time on Below Deck. Chef Rachel certainly tested the captain with her “eat my cooter ... And then people were like, ‘Oh yeah, she doesn ...
What is the message of the poem O Captain My Captain?
The theme of the poem is that victory comes with a price. The speaker states that no matter the ship(United States) has braved the tough storm of civil war but it has lost its Captain (Abraham Lincoln). The speaker is torn between relief and despair.
What does O Captain My Captain mean in dead Poets Society?
Originally written by Walt Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain!” is a melancholic ballad devoted to a captain (President Abraham Lincoln) who dies heroically shortly before his ship reaches her destination, having withstood a turbulent voyage (a metaphor for the end of the American Civil War).
Who is the poem O Captain My Captain addressed to?
Abraham LincolnWalt Whitman wrote “Oh Captain! My Captain!” to honor Abraham Lincoln after the President was assassinated in 1865.
Why is the narrator sad in the poem O Captain My Captain?
Tragically, however, the speaker reveals that the captain lies dead on the deck of the ship while the city rejoices—a metaphor for recent events, since President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 and was unable to celebrate his victory.
How does O Captain My Captain represent American culture?
Most of his poetry reflects on that and is representative of American ideals and culture. He wrote “O Captain My Captain” as an a kind of mourning poem, also called elegy, in order to honor Abraham Lincoln. In the poem, the speaker is shouting out to his captain that they have finally made it back after a scary trip.
What is the meaning of fearful trip?
A ship's trip can be fearful because there are many natural and man-made dangers in the sea. But the "fearful trip" that Whitman is referring to is the Civil War, during which he'd volunteered as a nurse in the army hospitals.
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 it mean to rise up and hear the bells?
Explanation : The poet asks the President Captain to rise up from the sleep and see how eager the people are to welcome him. The bells are ringing for him and the flag of victory is flying high in the air. To make the victory the bugle is being rounded.
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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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.
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.
Background
Lincoln's presidency (1861-1865) coincided with one of the most divisive times in American history. The country entered into the Civil War, encountered years of bloody fighting, saw the end of slavery in the nation, and ended the war with a lingering bitterness.
Setting and Symbolism
''O Captain! My Captain!'' utilizes a series of symbols related to sailing. There is the Captain, who is a reference to Lincoln. There are also references to the ''keel'' and ''deck,'' parts of the ship which has returned to ''port.'' The ship has ''weather'd'' a difficult voyage, a symbol for the bloody Civil War.
Themes
Loss, grief, and victory are central themes in ''O Captain! My Captain.''
Who wrote "Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead"?
Summary of “O Captain! My Captain!”. Popularity: “O Captain! My Captain!” a renowned poem written by Walt Whitman, was one of the 18 poems written with the background of the Civil War in America . It was first published in 1865 in a pamphlet named Sequel to Drum-Taps.
Why did Whitman use figurative language in the poem?
Whitman used very strong figurative language throughout the poem to express his respect and to mourn the loss of Abraham Lincoln. The expression of mourning and grief mark the center of the poem. However, what stays in the mind of the readers is the speaker ’s passionate expression of his love for his dead captain.
How many stanzas are there in a poem?
The analysis of some of the poetic devices is given below. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. In this poem, there are three stanzas with each stanza having eight verses.
What is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same lines of the poetry?
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of the poetry such as the use of /f/ in “flag is flung” and the sound of /s/ in “safe and sound.”. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds such as /g/ sound in “flag is flung.”.