O Captain My Captain Analysis

Irma Gasparyan
Professor Elham Shayegh
E&C120, Section B
18 March 2017 The Captain of the Ship

The poem “O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman was written after the murder of the second president of the United States of America Abraham Lincoln. The poem was published on November 4, 1865, in Saturday Press in New York. This poem became one of the most famous poems of Whitman, which the readers immediately accepted. In this paper, I will look at the historical background of the poem “O Captain! My Captain” by examining the time period in which the poem was written. To be more specific, it should be noted that the poem was written by the influence of the Civil War. In addition, I want to do
That feeling boost because from the very beginning of his political career Lincoln was saying that he was engaged in the war to preserve the union rather than destroy the slavery. That idea of Union was very familiar and close to Whitman. In the poem “O Captain! My Captain,” Whitman shows the heroic Lincoln who acted as a great consolidate in the Civil War. Whitman dedicated the poem “O, Captain, my Captain” to the memorial of the President who was killed by the hand of the murderer. The main character “Captain” of the poem is Lincoln, and the ship is a metaphor, which shows the state, more precisely the USA (Whitman 24). In the poem, Whitman shows the huge love of people towards Lincoln. He wrote, “For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths- for you the shores a- crowding, for you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning.” For the author of the poem, it is extremely difficult to talk about the death of the captain and this difficulty is the foundation of the poem. Though Whitman is sure that the captain is dead, however, he has high hopes that he is mistaken and it is just a dream. Nevertheless, in the last line of the poem one can see how the author shows the reader that the captain is dead with the following words, “Walk the deck my Captain Lies, fallen cold and dead.” Moreover, rejoice and the happiness, which supposed to be after the Civil War is changing into sadness and sorrow
My Captain", which was written just seven months after Lincoln's assassination, is perhaps the best known piece of verse about the president that preserved the union. Its message is not above the people, but is directly spoken to them. It directed attention to the despair and hopelessness that most Americans were experiencing during this time of national crisis. Whitman did not attempt to exploit the victory of the Union in the Civil War in overshadowing or downplaying Lincoln's death. In the poem, Whitman tries to normalize grieving in a nation who had lost hundreds of thousands of men and their beloved president. Whitman tried to pick the broken pieces of Americans following a disastrous war and murder of a "captain." He thought that Lincoln exemplified the best of America: outspokenness, common sense, and