O Captain, My Captain
Walt Whitman
Background
O Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman is an elegy, as it was
written to honor the death of a person. The poem is a symbolism
poem resembling president Abraham Lincoln after his assasination.
Walt Whitman’s literary style was experimental, he expressed nature,
and self that has since been described as the first expression of a
distinctly American voice.
During the Civil War Whitman moved to Washington, D.C., where he
served as a civil servant and volunteer nurse. There he published
the poetry collections Drum Taps and Sequel to Drum Taps in 1865,
the latter containing his famous elegies for Abraham Lincoln,
"Where Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and "O Captain! My
Captain!"
I
• 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 stead 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.
II
• 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.
O captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck
You've fallen cold and dead.
III
• 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 silent tread,
Walk the spot my captain lies
Fallen cold and dead
Historical Background
• This poem is about America's acknowledgement of Abraham
Lincoln as the leader of their country, who held the nation together
through the worst crisis in its history. He led the country to victory,
and won the civil war, and ended the institution of slavery. He is
viewed, not only in the poet's eyes, but in the eyes of the nation,
America as the savior of American union and the "Great
Emancipator." Soon after the civil war ended, Abraham Lincoln was
assassinated.
• O Captain! My Captain’ is a moving poem in which Whitman
expresses his profound sense of grief at a tragic end of Abraham
Lincoln, one of the greatest presidents of the United States of
America, who fought a war (the American Civil War) against the
Southern States to give the slaves freedom and human dignity. The
war was won, the slaves were freed, but Lincoln, soon after his
election as president for a second term, fell a victim to an assassin’s
bullet.
Summary
• In "O Captain, My Captain", Whitman uses line length and word choice to
represent a wide range of emotions from joy to sorrow.
• The leader is being conceived as the brave captain of a ship who falls dead
on the deck just when the journey is over and the victory is won. Whitman
delivers the message to the captain and declares that their fearful and
dangerous trip is done. Their ship had withstood every destructive
encounter and their prized reward that they longed for is won. Their
weary ship is drawing near the sea-port, the church bells are ringing to
celebrate a victory and the people are rejoicing. Yet in the midst the
celebration, he sees that within the grim and the daring vessel, his heart
would spill profusely with drops of blood of immeasurable sadness to see
his captain lying cold and dead.
• The poem begins with the narrator feeling overjoyed because the "fearful
trip is done,“. Examples of these choice words are prize, won, bells, people
all exulting. These words give the reader a feeling of excitement and
accomplishment.
• Soon, however, the mood swings from enthusiasm to sorrow once the
narrator realizes that the Captain is dead. Whitman makes the change
from joy to sorrow seamlessly, a skill that only few possess. As the mood
swings, Whitman's word choice changes accordingly.
• Whitman pleads desperately to the captain to get up from his bed and see
that the people are flying the flag just for him. The people are blowing
their trumpets and bugles and are waiting to present him with bunches of
flowers and decorated garlands to honour him-the victor. The seashores
are swaying with crowds of cheering people. All the faces of the people on
the shore are eager to see the captain addressing them from the deck. Yet
the captain, a father to all people of the nation slept still and cold with his
arm beneath his head. It is like an unbelievable bad dream that the leader
is dead at the moment of victory.
• Whitman uses line length and line repetition to set the tone of the poem,
and also to make the reader see the true meaning. The first line of each of
the three sections begins with Captain, and the section ends with "fallen
cold and dead".
• The purpose of Whitman beginning each section with Captain is to remind
the reader that the focus remains on the Captain and nothing else, while
the purpose of placing "fallen cold and dead" at the end of each section is
to, at first, to inform the reader of what is to come, while later it's purpose
is simply to remind the reader of the tragedy.
• the captain does not answer still. His lips are extremely pale
and not moving. Whitman says that his father does not feel
his arm, and has neither pulse nor movement. The ship has
finally reached the shore. It has dropped its anchor safe
and sound. The long tiring voyage is closed and done. The
triumph for the achievement is worth the effort. Whitman
encourages the people on the shores to continue rejoicing
and ring those bells as loud as possible. For him he will
walk the heavy steps with deep sadness to the deck where
his captain lies absolutely cold and dead.
• Whitman also refers to Lincoln as a father, because he is the
father of his nation. The speaker of the poem does not
want to believe that the captain is dead, by saying, "My
Captain does not answer his lips pale and still, My father
does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will." But then,
sadly, he realizes that the captain will not come back.
Use of imagery
• The poet uses 3 of the five senses to evoke certain
reactions in the reader. The reader can see the ship and
the cold dead captain lying on the deck.
• At first, the victor ship is a joyous thing, but then
seeing the captain dead, the poem suddenly turns sad
and sorrowful.
• The reader can hear the nation calling for the captain.
But the captain cannot hear the nation. The reader can
feel the dead body of the captain, holding him in their
own arms. As it says
O captain! Dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
overall, this gives the reader a dramatic reaction, in a
sad, shocking kind of way.
• The poet is trying to communicate with the
reader his acknowledgement and love for
Abraham Lincoln, and his grief of his death. Walt
Whitman speaks not only for himself, but for his
whole nation America as Abraham Lincoln is the
savior of their nation, and they embrace him as
their hero.
• This poem has a strong significance in the movie,
"Dead Poets Society".
Rhyming Scheme
• The poem is divided into three sections.
• Each section has got 2 paragraphs.
• Each paragraph has four lines each. The first paragraph
of each section, has a rhyming scheme of a-b, a-b.
• The second paragraph of each section, has a rhyming
scheme of a-c, b-d. This gives the poem an overall
effect of a melodic character.
• In the three sections, the lines of the first paragraph
are longer than the lines on the second paragraph. The
first paragraph is the question, and the second
paragraph is the answer.