O Captain! My Captain!
by Walt Whitman
Saddened by the results of the American civil war, Walt Whitman wrote the
elegy, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ in memory of deceased American President
Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The civil war occurred during his lifetime with
Whitman a staunch supporter of unionists.
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 and steering clear of undermining the proletariat class.
On the other hand, Walt Whitman uses similar poetic devices like that
of William Wordsworth and Dante Alighieri. Speaking in the language of
ordinary men, Walt Whitman aspired to become the voice of the nation,
speaking on the behest of the American population at the time. As a result, he
has recorded the events, moods, and spirit of the time magnificently.
Summary
‘O Captain! My Captain!’ by Walt Whitman is a heart-touching elegy on the
death of the American President Abraham Lincoln.
The speaker’s coming to terms with the death of his fallen comrade is the focal
point of the poem at hand. At the start of the poem, the speaker attempts to
come to reality as he observes his dead captain on the deck. Slowly and
gradually, he realizes that the change is permanent and life must go, regardless.
The end of the Civil War was supposedly a moment of rejoicing for the
American populace, instead, it became an event of mourning. The conclusion of
the Civil War has brought with itself national mourning and a period of
reflection.
O Captain! My Captain! Meaning
The title of the poem, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ refers to Abraham Lincoln as a
captain of the ship. 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. They have achieved their coveted goal.
Being a moment of victory, everyone is happy. However, they have to consider,
at the same time, that their metaphorical “captain” of the ship is no more. When
he lived, he guided the multitude with his fatherly guidance. 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.
Structure
The poem, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ consists of 3 stanzas in totality having
2 quatrains in each. A quatrain is a stanza consisting of four lines. Besides, this
poem is an elegy. An elegy is known as a mourning poem. Apart from that,
Whitman uses the free verse form while writing this poem. For this reason, the
lines of the poem do not rhyme at all. Yet there are some instances where one
can find the use of rhyming. As an example, in the second part of the first
stanza, the words “red” and “dead” rhyme together. 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.
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. Anaphora is
generally used for joyous chants and rendering celebratory feelings in a poem’s
entirety. ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ makes use of ‘father’ and ‘heart’ to mourn
the death of assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Moreover, the fallen ship’s captain
is a reference to Abraham Lincoln, whereas the ship is also an allusion to the
United States of America during its early years of independence.
Themes
Whitman emphasizes the importance of self in the majority of his poems,
ranging from ‘I Hear America Singing’ to others, he prizes the American
populace to believe in themselves. More so, he even uses symbolical allusions
to drive home a point. 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. The poet
creates contrast by transposing the images of the joyous crowd beside the
lifeless body of the captain. This concoction of emotions resembles the nature
of life. Along with that, the themes of grief and lamentation are important
aspects of this piece.
Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
Stanza One
ship’s captain about making it home safe and sound. The ship after enduring
tough storms and impenetrable winds made it back on the dock. Jaded and
exhausted after a tiresome journey, the mission has been a roaring success.
Although the ship is yet to arrive safely in the harbor, ‘land ahoy’, ‘land ahoy’
as the ship is close by and people are seemingly exulted by its sight.
The church bells are ringing and people act animatedly as the ship nigh the
shore. The excitement escalates as the boat nears the harbor. The keel has been
thrown in to steady the moving ship. The keel is a reference to a ‘ship’ as well,
same as ‘all hands on deck’ means all people should be ready.
As the ship draws near the harbor, the poem takes on a dark turn, foreboding
something unfavorable to be revealed. ‘Grim and daring’ are the terms referring
to the twisting mood. The would-be ghost ship carries some unwanted news for
the awaiting crowd.
Thereafter, he speaks from the heart. The heart has shattered and torn over the
death of the ship’s captain. The breakdown of emotions is surging from the
sailor as the fallen comrade lies beside him, in all his glory but dead. Drops of
blood are flowing on the ship’s deck, the blood of Abraham Lincoln.
Stanza 2
The sailor implores the now dead captain to rise from the dead. The act of
talking to the dead is known as an apostrophe. The reason being, the people
ashore await their prized captain to lead the way and stamp his mark on history.
The crowd is jubilant as they celebrate using some devices such as raising the
flag in victory, holding flowers, and cheering for the captain. The crowd is
getting restless, as anticipation rises to catch a glimpse of their ship’s captain.
Alas! He’s no longer with them.
In actuality, the ship’s captain is not his biological father, but truly his respect
and reverence for him stand greater than his actual father. The sailor looks at the
fallen comrade and wishes this nightmare was just a dream. Alas! As the reality
sets in, the sailor realizes, the damage is irreparable.
Stanza Three
In the last stanza of ‘O Captain! My Captain!’, the sailor looks sadly at the dead
captain in pure agony. He observes his lips to have paled a la that of a corpse.
The captain fails to respond to his cries of helplessness. The liveliness from the
captain’s face has drained now. His pulse has stopped and he’s unlikely to move
from now on. The ship has landed safely in the harbor with its anchor thrown in.
The voyage is now complete. The sailor reminisces about the trip to be
extremely arduous yet they crossed the line with a trade-off.
The concluding lines of the poem explicate the fact that the sailor has some bad
news to share with the awaiting crowd. He appeals directly to the loud jeers,
cheers, and ringing bells for the much-awaited captain. Again, the poet
uses synecdoche to represent the entire American audience at large as the poem
relates to the death of Abraham Lincoln. The sailor feels uncomfortable as he
needs to relay the bad news to the populace at large, as the victory celebrations
come to a standstill eventually.
Historical Context
‘O 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. ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ at the time of its
publication became an intensely popular poem for classic, read in schools over
the years to come. For Whitman, the praise was redundant by all means.
Commenting on his poetry, he said that the audience of his time appreciated
poetry with form, rhyme, and meter, still unfamiliar to the free-verse concept.
The poem moves its reader with utter undertones of remorse and sadness over
the conclusion of the Civil War and its dramatic ramifications later, rendering a
powerful period poem in the process.
