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O Captain! My Captain!
By Walt Whitman
Saddened by the results of the American civil war, Walt Whitman wrote the elegy, ‘O Captain! My
Captain!’ in memory of deceased American President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The civil war occurred
during his lifetime with Whitman a staunch supporter of unionists.
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Walt Whitman
Nationality: American
Poet Guide
Walt Whitman is known as the father of free verse poetry.
His deeply emotional, spiritual, and nature-based poems appeal to poetry lovers around the world.
Biography
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Key Poem Information
Central Message: Lincoln's leadership was critical.
Themes: Celebration, Death, Journey
Speaker: A sailor
Emotions Evoked: Grief, Pain, Sadness
Poetic Form: Free Verse
Time Period: 19th Century
Walt Whitman’s masterpiece, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ moves with a sheer melancholic tone throughout
its entirety. He was the new-age poet, poised with breaking away from the shackles of established
poetic practices and forming new ones just as America was created for a different purpose, tearing away
from the yoke of colonialism and steering clear of undermining the proletariat class.
On the other hand, Walt Whitman(Bio | Poems) uses poetic devices similar to that of William
Wordsworth(Bio | Poems) and Dante Alighieri(Bio). Speaking in the language of ordinary men, Walt
Whitman aspired to become the voice of the nation, speaking at the behest of the American population
at the time. As a result, he has recorded the events, moods, and spirits of the time magnificently.
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
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 drops 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 arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip 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.
Explore O Captain! My Captain!
1 Summary2 Poem Title’s Meaning3 Structure4 Literary Devices5 Themes6 Analysis, Stanza by Stanza7
Historical Context8 Similar Poetry
O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
Summary
‘O Captain! My Captain!’ by Walt Whitman(Bio | Poems) is a heart-touching elegy on the death of the
American President Abraham Lincoln(Poems).
The speaker’s coming to terms with the death of his fallen comrade is the focal point of the poem at
hand. At the start of the poem, the speaker attempts to come to reality as he observes his dead captain
on the deck. Slowly and gradually, he realizes that the change is permanent and life must go, regardless.
The end of the Civil War was supposedly a moment of rejoicing for the American populace; instead, it
became an event of mourning. The conclusion of the Civil War has brought with it national mourning
and a period of reflection.
Poem Title’s Meaning
The title of the poem, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ refers to Abraham Lincoln(Poems) as a captain of the
ship. Here, the “ship” is a symbol of the civil war fought to liberate the slaves. According to the poet, the
ship is sailing nearer to the shore, meaning the war is about to end. They have achieved their coveted
goal. Being a moment of victory, everyone is happy. However, they have to consider, at the same time,
that their metaphorical “captain” of the ship is no more. When he lived, he guided the multitude with
his fatherly guidance. After his death, the nation is fatherless. In this agony, the poet writes the verses.
However, the mood of the poem is not gloomy. Even if they have lost Lincoln, the dream Lincoln has
seen is not lost.
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Structure
The poem, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ consists of 3 stanzas in totality, having 2 quatrains in each. A
quatrain is a stanza consisting of four lines. Besides, this poem is an elegy. An elegy is known as a
mourning poem. Apart from that, Whitman uses the free verse form while writing this poem. For this
reason, the lines of the poem do not rhyme at all. Yet there are some instances where one can find the
use of rhyming. As an example, in the second part of the first stanza, the words “red” and “dead” rhyme
together. Thereafter, the poet mostly uses the iambic meter in this poem. For instance, the first line is in
iambic hexameter. The following two lines are in iambic heptameter. At the same time, the second
quatrain does not follow a specific metrical scheme.
Literary Devices
Most of Walt Whitman’s poems use repetition and rhythm to render a spellbinding poetic beauty. He
uses anaphora constantly, as several verses begin with the same word/ phrase. For instance, ‘When I
Heard the Learn’d Astronomers’ uses ‘when’ 4 times to render a lyrical sound. Anaphora is generally
used for joyous chants and rendering celebratory feelings in a poem’s entirety. ‘O Captain! My Captain!’
makes use of ‘father’ and ‘heart’ to mourn the death of assassinated Abraham Lincoln(Poems).
Moreover, the fallen ship’s captain is a reference to Abraham Lincoln(Poems), whereas the ship is also
an allusion to the United States of America during its early years of independence.
Themes
Whitman emphasizes the importance of self in the majority of his poems, ranging from ‘I Hear America
Singing’ to others; he prizes the American populace to believe in themselves. More so, he even uses
symbolical allusions to drive home a point. He may use inanimate objects for that end. Apart from that,
Whitman uses the themes of victory, lamentation, grief, sadness, and loss in his poem, ‘O Captain! My
Captain!’. Though this poem concerns the theme of victory, it contains a sad note on the death of
Lincoln. The poet creates contrast by transposing the images of the joyous crowd beside the lifeless
body of the captain. This concoction of emotions resembles the nature of life. Along with that, the
themes of grief and lamentation are important aspects of this piece.
Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
Stanza One
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 drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
In the first stanza of ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ the speaker shouts with sheer excitement to the ship’s
captain about making it home safe and sound. The ship, after enduring tough storms and impenetrable
winds, made it back on the dock. Jaded and exhausted after a tiresome journey, the mission has been a
roaring success. Although the ship is yet to arrive safely in the harbor, ‘land ahoy,’ ‘land ahoy’ as the ship
is close by and people are seemingly exulted by its sight.
The church bells are ringing, and people act animatedly as the ship nigh the shore. The excitement
escalates as the boat nears the harbor. The keel has been thrown in to steady the moving ship. The keel
is a reference to a ‘ship’ as well, same as ‘all hands on deck’ means all people should be ready.
As the ship draws near the harbor, the poem takes on a dark turn, foreboding something unfavorable to
be revealed. ‘Grim and daring’ are the terms referring to the twisting mood. The would-be ghost ship
carries some unwanted news for the awaiting crowd.
Thereafter, he speaks from the heart. The heart has shattered and torn over the death of the ship’s
captain. The breakdown of emotions is surging from the sailor as the fallen comrade lies beside him, in
all his glory but dead. Drops of blood are flowing on the ship’s deck, the blood of Abraham Lincoln.
Stanza Two
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.
The sailor implores the now-dead captain to rise from the dead. The act of talking to the dead is known
as an apostrophe. The reason is that the people ashore await their prized captain to lead the way and
stamp his mark on history. The crowd is jubilant as they celebrate using some devices such as raising the
flag in victory, holding flowers, and cheering for the captain. The crowd is getting restless as anticipation
rises to catch a glimpse of their ship’s captain. Alas! He’s no longer with them.
In actuality, the ship’s captain is not his biological father, but truly, his respect and reverence for him
stand greater than his actual father. The sailor looks at the fallen comrade and wishes this nightmare
was just a dream. Alas! As the reality sets in, the sailor realizes the damage is irreparable.
Stanza Three
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip 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.
In the last stanza of ‘O Captain! My Captain!’, the sailor looks sadly at the dead captain in pure agony.
He observes his lips to have paled a la that of a corpse. The captain fails to respond to his cries of
helplessness. The liveliness from the captain’s face has drained now. His pulse has stopped, and he’s
unlikely to move from now on. The ship has landed safely in the harbor with its anchor thrown in. The
voyage is now complete. The sailor reminisces about the trip to be extremely arduous, yet they crossed
the line with a trade-off.
The concluding lines of the poem explicate the fact that the sailor has some bad news to share with the
awaiting crowd. He appeals directly to the loud jeers, cheers, and ringing bells for the much-awaited
captain. Again, the poet uses synecdoche to represent the entire American audience at large as the
poem relates to the death of Abraham Lincoln. The sailor feels uncomfortable as he needs to relay the
bad news to the populace at large, as the victory celebrations come to a standstill.
Historical Context
‘O Captain! My Captain!’ was authored by famous American poet Walt Whitman(Bio | Poems). It alluded
to President Abraham Lincoln’s death in 1865. The poem was a part of his controversially famous
collection of poems, “Leaves of Grass.” The poetic collection was continuously revised to add new poetic
pieces from Walt Whitman(Bio | Poems) as a result. ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ at the time of its
publication became an intensely popular poem for classics, read in schools over the years to come. For
Whitman, the praise was redundant by all means. Commenting on Whitman’s poetry, he said that the
audience of his time appreciated poetry with form, rhyme, and meter, still unfamiliar with the free-verse
concept. The poem moves its reader with utter undertones of remorse and sadness over the conclusion
of the Civil War and its dramatic ramifications later, rendering a powerful period poem in the process.
Similar Poetry
The following poems are similar to the themes and subject matter of Whitman’s lyric, ‘O Captain! My
Captain!’.
Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay(Poems) – This poem portrays the spirit of Lincoln
wandering in the streets, having awakened from his eternal sleep due to the devastation of World War I.
from The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg(Bio | Poems) – This poem is about Abraham Lincoln(Poems), his
leadership, and how he stood firm with his countrymen during the Civil War.
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d by Walt Whitman(Bio | Poems) – This poem is another elegy
written upon the death of Lincoln. It highlights the inevitability of death.
Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day by Walt Whitman(Bio | Poems) – Whitman wrote this poem in memory of
Lincoln. Here, he presents the reasons for writing this poem.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes(Bio | Poems) – It’s one of the best-known poems of
Langston Hughes. This poem concerns a man who has seen the great ages of the world and listened to
Mississippi while Lincoln was sibling down it.
Poetry+ Review Corner
O Captain! My Captain!
Explore an expert's insights on this poem. Join Poetry+ to instantly unlock fully understanding the poem.
Poet:
Walt Whitman (poems)
98
Period:
19th Century
95
Nationality:
American
97
Themes:
Celebration
53
Death
88
Journey
50
Emotions:
Grief
59
Pain
60
Sadness
50
Topics:
Death of a Loved One
63
History
65
Mourning
60
Presidents
78
Form:
Free Verse
93
Genre:
Elegy
90
Walt Whitman
98
Walt Whitman is considered one of the most important poets in American literary history, known for his
unconventional free verse style, as is demonstrated in this poem, and his celebration of individualism,
democracy, and the beauty of the natural world. His poetry reflects the changing social and cultural
landscape of the United States in the 19th century and continues to inspire readers today.
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Home » Walt Whitman » O Captain! My Captain!
Omer Asad Poetry Expert
About Omer Asad
Omer joined the Poem Analysis team back in November 2015. He has a keen eye for poetry and enjoys
analysing them, providing his intereptation of poems from the past and present.
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8 COMMENTS
Tomeni
Tomeni
no way you actually did a perfect job do more
Lee-James Bovey Member
Lee-James Bovey
Reply to Tomeni
Thank you.
Shankar Nath Sen
Shankar Nath Sen
There is an abundance of l sounds (liquids) in the poem which conveys the feeling that the ship is
moving over the sea.There is also abundance of sibilants (s and sh sounds) in the poem which echoes
the swaying sound of the sea.
Lee-James Bovey Member
Lee-James Bovey
Reply to Shankar Nath Sen
Great observation. Thank you for adding this.
wendy thijn
wendy thijn
is very good
Lee-James Bovey Member
Lee-James Bovey
Reply to wendy thijn
Thank you.
0
bruce
bruce
very good!
Lee-James Bovey Member
Lee-James Bovey
Reply to bruce
Thank you.
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