The Road Not Taken And Walt Whitman's O Captain !

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Recommended: Metaphors in the poem of the road not taken

“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman and The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Huzayfah Shabana

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” represents an emotional journey, addressing personal feelings, and using plenty of symbolism and analogies to directly affect the reader. Both poems use literal descriptions of events/actions to symbolize a deeper meaning. Both pieces of poetry are not necessarily light hearted, with a deeper, darker truth hidden behind all the literary usages. Furthermore, each poem contains many analogies to hide the exact meaning behind them, letting you decide what to feel and think, relating them to your own personal experiences. Walt Whitman's “O Captain! My Captain!” and Robert …show more content…

My Captain!” is about the narrator mourning something out of his control while at the same time celebrating and rejoicing in their victory. “O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, 1 the prize we sought is won..” The narrator of the poem is a crew member (“my captain!”) and he goes from celebrating (“the prize we sought is won, the port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting”) to hysteria as he realizes his captain has died (“But O heart! heart! Heart!”) The Captain, who was responsible for the victorious return of his ship and crew has died before reaching port, and the narrator of the poem is sharing his grief with all to hear. “But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.” Whitman published "O Captain! My Captain!" in 1865, publishing it after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, to praise and memorialize him. The poem is a metaphor to memorialize and praise Lincoln's accomplishments. The Captain represents the assassinated president (Lincoln), while the ship represents the war-weathered nation that followed shortly after the Civil War and the crew being the men who participated in this great battle. Near the end of the poem, the narrator is begging his “captain” to rise up (“my Captain! rise up and hear the bells”) so that he can greet the people cheering for his return, (“for you the shores a-crowding, for you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces

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