Historical Heroes
TPCASTT
Poetry Analysis
A b o u t t h e Subjects
Before Reading (2-3 min)
Brainstorm (think & reflect) on what you know about
the following:
• American Civil War
• Abraham Lincoln
• Frederick Douglass
Historical Heroes
TPCASTT
Poetry Analysis
“Oh Captain, My Captain”
by Walt Whitman
About theAuthors
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) is now considered one of America’s
greatest poets, but his untraditional poetry was not well
received during his lifetime. As a young man, he worked as
a printer and a journalist while writing free-verse poetry. His
collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, first came out in 1855, and
he revised and added to it several times over the years.
Robert Hayden (1913 –1980) grew up in a poor neighborhood of
Detroit, won a scholarship to college, and became a politically
active writer. One of his interests was African American history,
which he explores in some of his poetry.
“Fredrick Douglass”
by Robert Hayden
Word Connections:
Allegory
Allegory has the Greek roots -allo- or -all-,
meaning “other” and -gor- from the words
marketplace and speaking publicly.
The essential meaning of allegory is speaking
“otherwise” or “figuratively.”
Historical Heroes
TPCASTT
Poetry Analysis
“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman
The poem “O Captain! My Captain!” is an example of an allegory.
Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons,
and actions in a narrative have meanings outside the narrative itself.
The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political
significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract
ideas such as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with
two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
Whitman wrote this poem as a memorial for Abraham Lincoln after
his death.
“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman
http://youtu.be/HSAymj4hp7Y
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d 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— or you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d 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.
1. As you read the poem,
note in the text all words
having to do with a ship
or voyage. Also note the
word Captain and its
synonyms in the poem.
2. Who is Whitman referring
to as the “Captain” of the
ship?
3. What do you think the
ship is representative of?
“Fredrick Douglass”
by Robert Hayden
http://youtu.be/XeD9XYeIRoI
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this
beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,1
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
“Frederick Douglass”
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
As you read this poem, note in
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
the text the words it
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
and thing every time they are
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
used in the poem.
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
1) What do the words it and
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
thing refer to in the poem?
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.
_______________________________________________________________________________
1 diastole, systole: the normal, rhythmic opening and closing of the heart.
After Reading
1st listening, 2nd reading , 3rd TPCASTT-ing
“Oh Captain, My Captain”
by Walt Whitman
“Fredrick Douglass”
by Robert Hayden
1) In small groups, use the TP-CASTT strategy to
analyze and discuss both poems.
2) Write your analysis on a separate paper.
After Reading
Writing Prompt
“Oh Captain, My Captain”
by Walt Whitman
“Fredrick Douglass”
by Robert Hayden
Using your TP-CASTT notes, write a literary analysis paragraph in which
you address the following questions. Use textual evidence to support
your analysis.
• What traits
do Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass exhibit to
be considered heroes?
• How does the tone of either poem support the perception of
Lincoln or Douglass as a hero?