Walt Whitman Oh Captain My Captain Analysis

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.

Firstly, Whitman tells of how confederate actor John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln inside a theater while the president watched a play with his wife. How Lincoln was killed seems to come out in this quote, “This arm beneath your head!” Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head, which shows that Whitman knew how the president had died in the hands of his attacker. However, it’s not exactly a metaphor in itself, but which the next few lines the metaphor comes out through the poem’s metaphor of the captain. Once

again, Whitman writes this in his poem trying to explain to the American people of the time Lincoln’s death, “It is some dream that on the deck, / You’ve fallen cold and dead”. The way this poem tells of the tragic event makes the death to the American people seem unreal. Furthermore, this is because the American people thought that Abraham Lincoln was one of the best presidents they had ever had for getting them through the war. Now hearing of the death of Lincoln is more like a dream, but all a metaphor is used for the word deck. Besides, when Lincoln was shot he was sitting in a chair on a balcony, it would make sense for the rest of the quote means they were shocked to know about how Lincoln was killed on the balcony seeing a play and knowing their commander had fallen into a cold death in a neighboring home. The way Whitman uses metaphors helps explain why he wrote the poem.
Throughout the civil war, Whitman because a very great supporter of the late 16th president of the United States.

The way he writes the poem shows how he was in love with the president on how Lincoln conducted himself during the war. He refers to Lincoln as the captain of the ship which is the Union, throughout the poem he begins to call out to the Captain acting like the president was never shot. Through this all, it seems like Whitman could never bring himself to acknowledge the assassination of the late president. He also wrote it as a way to express the grief of losing the beloved commander and chief, and also explain to the American people how Booth killed the man who helped bring the Union together once again. However, he makes the metaphor in this poem explain why he would have wrote it, it shows that through an imaginary situation that things begin to seem alright in the world. Finally, Whitman deals with the pain through the metaphor to cover up the hurt America feels even if he despised the poem later on in

life.