O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
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—for 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 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 O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Extended metaphor in “O Captain! My Captain!”
Walt Whitman wrote the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” after being deeply affected by
President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865, only five days after the end of the Civil
War. The poem captures the sense of tragedy that suddenly overwhelmed the nation, at the very
moment when many people were celebrating the war’s end.
Lincoln’s assassination was the first murder of a president in the history of the United States. It
shocked the country. In fact, historians have questioned how much Lincoln’s murder influenced U. S.
history. Some historians believe, for example, that Reconstruction—the reorganization of the
governments of the Southern states—might have been very different if Lincoln had lived (Elements 779).
Read the poem closely several times and determine what the following metaphors represent in the
larger poem’s extended metaphor.
Term from poem:
Metaphor for:
Captain
President Lincoln
trip
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ship
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weather’d every rack
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prize
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port
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vessel
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heart! heart! heart!
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deck
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father
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object
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1. The stages of grief commonly begin with denial—an unwillingness to accept the tragedy.
Write the line or lines in stanza 2 that reflect the speaker’s denial:
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
2. The final stage of grief is acceptance. Write the lines in stanza 3 that reflect the speaker’s
acceptance of his Captain’s death: _______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. In one complete sentence, explain the poet’s purpose and the evidence to support it:
______________________________________________________________________________