O Captain! My Captain!
"O Captain! My Captain!" is a poem written in 1865 by Walt Whitman dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.
Background and analysis
Walt Whitman wrote the poem after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He admired Abraham Lincoln and was saddened by his death. In the poem, Lincoln is represented by the captain and the United States of America is the ship. The ship has endured obstacles such as Civil War, and there is peace. The speaker is feeling bittersweet about the victory.
The poem begins with a description of a ship returning safely to port. Crying out for his captain, the speaker realizes the captain has died at sea. The onlookers onshore celebrate the ship's safe return, but the speaker mourns the death of his captain. As the voyage ends, so does the captain's life.[citation needed]
With a conventional meter and rhyme scheme that is unusual for Whitman, it was also the only poem anthologized during Whitman's lifetime. [1]
References
- ^ Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. ISBN 0671225421. p. 309.