Held the post toll
bring out the different descriptions given by the narrator for himself to accept
the fact that his captain is dead.
Answers
Answer:
& Analysis
Walt whitman o captain my captain.small Download this LitChart! (PDF)
“O Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy written by Walt Whitman in 1865 to commemorate the death of President Abraham Lincoln. It was first published in Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865), a collection of Whitman’s poems inspired by the events of the American Civil War. The poem is perhaps Whitman’s most famous—which is ironic, since it is far more conventional in meter, form, and subject than much of Whitman’s other work. Although some critics have suggested that Whitman regretted ever writing “O Captain! My Captain!” it undeniably captured the mood of a nation in mourning and has remained one of Whitman’s best-loved and most-quoted poems.
You can read the full text of “O Captain! My Captain!” here.
“O Captain! My Captain!” Summary
Oh Captain, my Captain! Our hard journey is over. The ship has survived every storm, and we’ve won the prize we've been fighting for. The port is close by and I hear bells ringing and people celebrating. All their eyes are on the steady ship, that bold and brave vessel. But oh, my heart! heart! heart! Oh, look at the drops of blood on the deck where my captain is lying cold and dead.
Oh Captain, my Captain! Get up and listen to the bells. Get up—they're waving the flag for you—they’re playing the bugle for you. They’ve brought bouquets and wreaths with ribbons for you—all these people are crowding on the shore for you. The swaying crowd is calling for you, and all the people's eager faces turning towards you. Here Captain! My dear father! I'll put my arm under your head. I must be dreaming that on the deck, you're lying cold and dead.
My Captain isn’t answering me. His lips are pale and unmoving. My father doesn’t feel my arm beneath his head, since he has no pulse or consciousness. The ship has anchored safely, and its journey is over. After this hard journey, the victorious ship has returned with its prize. Let the crowds celebrate and the bells ring! Meanwhile I, slowly and sadly, walk across the deck where my Captain is lying cold and dead.
“O Captain! My Captain!” Themes
Theme Victory and Loss
Victory and Loss
Even as the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” celebrates the end of the American Civil War, it is also an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln. Victory and loss are thus closely intertwined throughout the poem. On the one hand, its mourning is tempered with joyful reminders that the war is won. Its celebrations, on the other hand, are haunted by melancholy. In this sense, Whitman’s poem illuminates the lingering pain and trauma of losses sustained in war—as well as the impossibility of ever separating the triumph of victory from its human costs.
In its juxtaposition of the language of loss and victory, “O Captain! My Captain!” uses poetic form to model the close relationship between triumph and pain. At first, it seems as if this will be a poem celebrating the victory of the Union in the Civil War. The speaker congratulates President Lincoln on steering the metaphorical ship of state through “every wrack,” i.e. storm, and declares that “the prize we sought is won.” However, halfway through this triumphant first stanza, the speaker breaks off: “But O heart! heart! heart! ... my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead.” The sudden appearance of a qualification—"But O heart!”—reveals to the reader that not all is well. The poem scarcely has time to celebrate triumph before facing loss.