summary of o captain my captain
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Answer:
Explanation:O Captain! My captain!- Summary
In the first stanza, the speaker, a sailor, salutes his captain. He reports that their
voyage is successful and nearly complete and that “the prize we sought is won.” As
the ship approaches port, the speaker describes the bells tolling and the celebratory crowds gathering. But in a sudden shift, the speaker exclaims that his captain has fallen on the deck “cold and dead.”
In the second stanza, the speaker implores his captain to “rise up” and see the
crowd eagerly rejoicing in his victorious return. As the speaker tells his captain, “for you the flag is flung,” “for you the bugle trills,” and “for you the shores a- crowding.” Again, the tone shifts as the speaker acknowledges that his captain has “fallen cold and dead” but expresses hope that “it is some dream.”
In the third and final stanza, the speaker examines his deceased captain, whose
“lips are pale and still” and who “has no pulse or will.” Though the voyage is
complete and the ship safely harbored, the speaker is wracked with grief. He calls
for the bells to be rung and for the crowds to exult, but he walks “with mournful tread[...] the deck my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead.”
O Captain! My Captain! – Summary
The poem is a straight elegy and does not create confusion about the inner meaning of the lines. The three stanzas reflect the mourning state of the speaker. The speaker starts with joyful shouts calling out his captain as he sees the port. He states that the trip is complete after an exhausting journey and they have emerged victorious. He hears the bells and people cheering for their triumph in the sea. The jubilant mood changes as the speaker finds the captain dead on the deck.
The speaker cannot believe that his captain is dead. He pleads the captain to rise as there are lot of cheers and expectations for him on the shore. He describes the tolling of bells, flung flags on his honor, bugles playing, cheering of crowds with bouquets and wreaths in their hands. He implores the captain to look at the eager faces of the crowd as he keeps his hand beneath the head of his captain. The speaker feels that it is some sort of dream watching his captain dead on the deck.
Captain is motionless; his lips turn pale and cannot feel the arm of the speaker. He observes that there is no pulse nor does the captain possess a will to live. As he mourns the death, the ship slowly reaches the port completing its voyage. He asks the bells to ring and the shores to exult on the victory the ship was able to achieve.
However, the speaker is aware of the death of the Captain and says that he will mourn for his captain dead on the deck.
Answer:
Whitman composed “O Captain! My Captain!” to commemorate Abraham Lincoln in the wake of his assassination in 1865, just five days after the end of the American Civil War. The three-stanza poem employs a layered conceit which represents Abraham Lincoln as the eponymous “Captain” of a ship returning to port.