Oh Captain My Captain Poem

609 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Legacy of the assassination of Lincoln

“O Captain! My Captain!” “Oh Captain! My Captain!” in a poem by Walt Whitman in 1865 shortly after the death of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. This poem shows how a leader, or captain, can bring people through very difficult times. The example the poem itself uses is the captain of the ship leading his crew through perilous weather and conditions on the sea, but still getting them through it. However, he may have got his crew through the journey, but he himself is overcome by the burden. The poem is written in a way that it could almost be sung like a song. The entire poem is an allusion to the assassination of President Lincoln. The first stanza of the poem is sort of a rise and fall in happiness. In lines 1 and 2, the speaker calls out to his captain in joy that they’ve finally made it home after such a long, frightening journey. The ship has made it through every “rack” and the crew has finally accomplished what they needed to do, “the prize we sought is won.” Lines 3 and 4 begin signifying that the boat is not yet safely docked yet, the speaker is just a...

Show More
Related

  • Poem Analysis: Always Something More Beautiful By Stephen Dunn

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    The overall themes of this poem are beauty, love, and destiny. The speaker constantly discusses beautiful things and how they can help us. Love can be felt throughout the entire poem. In the first stanza, the speaker verbalizes how he “came with love of the race.” He also expresses love for the beautiful things around him. The theme destiny can be seen in the third stanza when the speaker talks about staying on course. It can also be identified in the last stanza when he describes something inevitable that was about to

    Read More

  • Themes in The Boat by Alistair MacLeod

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...He is still anchored to his past and transmits the message that one makes their own choices and should be satisfied with their lives. Moreover, the story shows that one should not be extremely rigid and refuse to change their beliefs and that people should be willing to adapt to new customs in order to prevent isolation. Lastly, reader is able to understand that sacrifice is an important part of life and that nothing can be achieved without it. Boats are often used as symbols to represent a journey through life, and like a captain of a boat which is setting sail, the narrator feels that his journey is only just beginning and realizes that everyone is in charge of their own life. Despite the wind that can sometimes blow feverishly and the waves that may slow the journey, the boat should not change its course and is ultimately responsible for completing its voyage.

    Read More

  • Walt Whitman Oh Captain My Captain Analysis

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Walt Whitman’s poem Oh Captain! My Captain! He talks about the death of America’s commander and chief, Abraham Lincoln. Whitman published this poem in his book of poems about the civil war causing him to become one of a handful of people to be the only ones who did not participate in the war, but wrote about it. In fact, Whitman uses various metaphors to tell of the death of Abraham Lincoln to the common people of the Union.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of 'America' By Tony Hoagland

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Principal themes in the poem consist of consumerism, capitalism, and most importantly greed. The poem described the journey of the poet as he went--goes through an implied spiritual transformation starting with getting annoyed with one of his students wanting to yell at him “how full of shit” he is, after that he recalled his dream, after dowsing off, he recalled something else a poem by Karl Marx a major communist. “I was listening to cries of the past when I should have been listening to the cries of the future,” after the fact, he came to an understanding with the student while imagining the mediforeical nightmare. Grouping themes together there are dreams, nightmares, waking life, dream life, sleeping, and clarity exactly, and being aware that the person is dreaming. When Hoagland references people drowning in the river, it could be compared to people working across seas in different countries, manufacturing goods for the average American while the workers live in harsh environments, but no one thinks of that when running around in new Nike shoes. The “you” in the pleasure boat is American people or America frankly, or even the ideals of consumerism were the normal person needs a new IPhone ever year when it is released. In the poets dream when he talks about stabbing his father and “Ben Fra...

    Read More

  • Sir Patrick Spence Essay

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another form of irony is in line 21 with “my mirry men,” which would suggest that they are happy. However, this is most likely not the case considering the dangers of the job, the men would probably been very angry or displeased with having to hurry of to their deaths. In line 22 “guid schip” is used, which means good ship, but no ship during this time period could withstand the enormous storm that they were sailing into. In line 23 & 24 one of the sailors speaks up, hoping that Sir Patrick Spence will change his mind about the voyage. His attempts are in vain Sir Patrick Spence has been given orders by the king and he has to carry them out.

    Read More

  • Abigail Deutsch's Poem After The Disaster

    512 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the combination of enjambed and end-stopped lines, the reader almost physically feels the emphasis on certain lines, but also feels confusion where a line does not end. Although the poem lacks a rhyme scheme, lines like “…not long after the disaster / as our train was passing Astor” and “…my eyes and ears…I couldn't think or hear,” display internal rhyme. The tone of the narrator changes multiple times throughout the poem. It begins with a seemingly sad train ride, but quickly escalates when “a girl came flying down the aisle.” During the grand entrance, imagery helps show the importance of the girl and how her visit took place in a short period of time. After the girl’s entrance, the narrator describes the girl as a “spector,” or ghost-like figure in a calm, but confused tone. The turning point of the poem occurs when the girl “stopped for me [the narrator]” and then “we [the girl and the narrator] dove under the river.” The narrator speaks in a fast, hectic tone because the girl “squeez[ed] till the birds began to stir” and causes her to not “think or hear / or breathe or see.” Then, the tone dramatically changes, and becomes calm when the narrator says, “so silently I thanked her,” showing the moment of

    Read More

  • The Open Boat

    379 Words  | 1 Pages

    Another attribute to the story is the insight which the third person narrator offers to the reader regarding the sailors' state of mind. Particularly interesting, is the reference to the poem "Bingen on the Rhine". Until the correspondent must contemplate his own death on the cold and desolate seas, he does not realize the tragedy of a soldier of the legion dying in Algiers. Also, not only did he not realize the significance, he says that, "it was less to him than the breaking of a pencil"(385). Again, towards the end of the story, the narrator describes the bitterness the correspondent feels towards nature when he realizes that after all his efforts he may not live to appreciate his being.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Diver By Robert Hayden

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    I think from the attitude of the diver, he was suicidal. As he dove into the sea, he does so at a high speed and with reckless abandon, taking to account all the details of everything he sees as he plunged deeper into the sea. “swiftly descended/free falling, weightless”. He was doing all he could to forget about life as he descends “…. Lost images/fadingly remembered.” Initially in his descent into the ocean, the diver, having decided to end his life, treated the images in the sea as if they would be the last things he will see before his death, so I think he thought it best to savor his last moments while he had the time. When he got to the ship, he described all that was there. While I read the poem, I couldn’t help but conjure those images in my mind. The ship was very quiet and cold when he entered it but the silence drew him in and he was eager to go in, not minding the cold because at that moment he was suicidal and didn’t care about life. With the help of a flashlight, he saw chairs moving slowly and he labeled the movement as a “sad slow dance”. From this, I think the speaker is trying to point out that there are sad memories on the ship. There is no story of how the ship got to the bottom of the sea, but it seems the ship used to be a place of fun, celebration, and happiness. Now that it is wrecked and in the bottom of the sea, the

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'The Boat, And Simple Recipes' By Alistair Macleod

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    The reading of “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod is an interesting and sad story that displays many elements figuratively and literally. The first figurative element is the boat. At a literal perspective, the boat is used for fishing and boat rides, although these are not the only things that the boat represents. We learn that the father in some way, as been sacrificing his working life for his family, for something that he doesn’t absolutely love. This shows that he is in some way trapped, or imprisoned. The boat displays

    Read More

  • Relationship between the Individual and Nature in The Open Boat

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    The human voyage into life is basically feeble, vulnerable, uncontrollable.  Since the crew on a dangerous sea without hope are depicted as "the babes of the sea", it can be inferred that we are likely to be ignorant strangers in the universe.  In addition to the danger we face, we have to also overcome the new challenges of the waves in the daily life.  These waves are "most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall", requiring "a new leap, and a leap."  Therefore, the incessant troubles arising from human conditions often bring about unpredictable crises as "shipwrecks are apropos of nothing."  The tiny "open boat", which characters desperately cling to, signifies the weak, helpless, and vulnerable conditions of human life since it is deprived of other protection due to the shipwreck.  The "open boat" also accentuates the "open suggestion of hopelessness" amid the wild waves of life.  The crew of the boat perceive their precarious fate as "preposterous" and "absurd" so much so that they can feel the "tragic" aspect and "coldness of the water."   At this point, the question of why they are forced to be "dragged away" and to "nibble the sacred cheese of life" raises a meaningful issue over life itself.  This pessimistic view of life reflects the helpless human condition as well as the limitation of human life.

    Read More

  • Use of Poetic Devices in Thomas Hardy's Poem, The Convergence of the Twain

    413 Words  | 1 Pages

    In addition to the use of colorful diction, Hardy employs detailed imagery. The phrase “Dim moon-eyed fishes near Gaze at the guilded gear” depicts fishes looking at the sunk Titanic and wondering what “this vaingloriousness” was doing under the sea. He also mentions in the third stanza how the “jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind” were all lost and covered by darkness. Using these detailed images, Hardy is portraying the contrasts of before the ship sunk and after.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson's The Feet Of People Walking Home

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    The tone in the first stanza is of joyousness and excitement, as people make their way to heaven. Dickinson uses the words “gayer,” “hallelujah,” and “singing” to emphasize the uplifting feeling here. It could be argued that this is the point in the humans’ lives (or deaths, or afterlives, depending on how one looks at it) when they reach the pinnacle of happiness, for they have finally entered heaven. The humans, now dead, would then acquire wings, immortality, and an angelic status that rises far above that of humans. Much like Dickinson’s other poems, this one uses metaphors to represent similar things, such as “home,” which represents “heaven,” “snow,” which represents the “clouds” on which heaven resides, and “vassals,” which represents the “angels” who serve God.

    Read More

  • The Meaning of Home in The Seafarer

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is important to consider the meaning of home when analyzing The Seafarer. The narrator of this poem seems to feel a sense of belonging while traveling the sea despite the fact that he is obviously disillusioned with its hardships .The main character undergoes a transformation in what he considers home and this dramatically affects his life and lifestyle. Towards the end of The Seafarer the poet forces us to consider our mortality, and seems to push the notion that life is just a journey and that we will not truly be at home until we are with God.

    Read More

  • Duffy Little Red Cap poem

    1809 Words  | 4 Pages

    The poem “Little red cap” is among others where Duffy has based this poem on a fairytale story, in this case, little red riding hood. However, this poem has a few differences to the original version of the story. For example, this poem uses imagery to create a very sexual feeling, where as the original fairytale was not in any way sexual, but had a more simplistic idea of ‘good – little red riding hood’ and ‘bad – the sly wolf’.

    Read More

  • The Character of the Captain in Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    Symbolism was used to express the Captains minds set. In the beginning paragraphs, the Captain is viewed as depressed, apprehensive, and insecure. The Captain viewed the land as insecure, whereas the sea was stable. The Captain was secure with the sea, and wished he were more like it.

    Read More

More about Oh Captain My Captain Poem

Open Document