¡Descarga Analysis of W. Whitman's 'O Captain, My Captain' y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura Universal solo en Docsity! O’ CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN – WALT WHITMAN (1865) SUMMARY The text bellow is O Captain, My Captain a poem written in 1865 by Walt Whitman following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It is set on a ship that is coming into harbor. In the first stanza, the speaker celebrates the successful return of the ship and describes hearing people cheering. Despite the celebration of the safe homecoming, the speaker reveals that the Captain’s corpse is lying on deck. In the second stanza, the speaker whishes the dead man could witness the elation and admits that the loss feels like a bad dream. In the last stanza, the speaker expresses his feeling of mourning. 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 dope 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 arms, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d sage and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful tip 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. STRUCTUR E Regarding the structure, we find a repetitive use of exclamations – O’ Captain, My Captain!, O heart!, heart! heart!, dear father! – which are usually used in poetry to exalt emotion. All stanzas begin with exclamations (O’ Captain!), except for the last one which slightly varies (My Captain…) All three end the same way – (You’ve) fallen cold and dead. This creates a certain sense of repetition throughout the poem. We find examples of ALLITERATION in both second and third stanzas; The flag is flung (fl – fl) Sage and sound (s – s) Known as the “father of free verse”, Whitman tended to write his poem without following any kind of ordered poetic form, However, O Captain, My Captain is organized into three eight-line stanzas, The first with an AABB-c-c rhyme scheme. The second is a DDEE-c-c one, and the last one is GGAA-c- c. SYMBOLS As said before, the poem was written shortly after President Lincoln’s death. It constitutes an extended metaphor intended to memorialize Lincoln’s life and work. The Captain (also the steady keel) represents the assassinated president, the ship represents the shattered nation after the Civil War, the “prize won” represents the preservation of the union and the port represents the end of the war and the new legislation. In his poem, Whitman immortalizes the sense of uncertainty during this period of American history. Other symbols are the bells, the flag and the bouquets ornamenting the harbor. Even though they may be seen as depictions of welcoming and celebration. These are also used at state funerals. A PARALLELISM is established in the way Abraham Lincoln is portrayed; President (head of the country) Captain (head of the ship) and Father (head of the family). One of the verses in the third stanza “The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done” means that the war is finally over, and that the President did a good job. THEMES The poem explores the theme of the individual (self vs. the other) While the crowd on land are celebrating, the speaker struggles with his personal feeling of loss. The Civil War claimed many lives, but it also led to a collective sentiment of reunification, so many Americans felt similarly divided. The speaker did not try to overshadow or downplay Lincoln’s death with forced triumph, Instead, Whitman’s poem told people that grieving is
