Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Whitman creates an almost lyrical poem to help his readers understand that Lincoln, as a great man, will go down in history followed by lyric and song, just as a sailor sings songs about his ship and captain. Whitman is asking his readers to take pride in Lincoln and his accomplishments as well as the fact that everyone has the power to create and destroy and that the U.S., post Civil War, is a place of much potential. The stanzas also reflect a song or lyric, as Whitman may have expected his poem to be turned into a song or some sort of patriotic verse. It is metered like a song, and this meter is meant to capture the hope, praise, and great relief; while at the same time acting as a final farewell.
The melancholy of the poem also speaks to Whitman's personal sadness over Lincoln's death. He is asking, quite uselessly, for the Captain...
This cannot happen because Lincoln is dead, perhaps killed before he could be recognized for his great deeds. Whitman was trying to convey the fact that the great Captain was slain before his accomplishments could be appreciated, even though the rest of the ship's crew (Americans) have survived the storm because of the Captain's actions. Whitman is asking his readers to reflect on the accomplishments of a man who cannot be thanked, but who is responsible for the existence of the Union and the United States in a post Civil War world. He, like many others are sad to see Lincoln, the father of the Union, killed at the height of his popularity and accomplishments, and he wants the readers and everyone in the nation be know that Lincoln was the Captain that saved them all from a terrible fate.
O Captain Three Themes in "O Captain! My Captain!" Walt Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" In 1865 and it serves as an elegy to the President Lincoln, who had just been assassinated. As a patriotic American and the "poet of America" (as he called himself), Whitman was duty-bound to mourn the loss of the 16th U.S. president in verse. That he did so in a way completely opposite from his free
Walt Whitman�s�O Captain! My Captain!� is a poem by Walt Whitman. It is an ode to the fallen Abraham Lincoln�or, better yet, an elegy for President Lincoln, who had been assassinated the previous year. Whitman was a strong supporter of Lincoln and his presidency, and the poem reflects both the sorrow of his death and the hope for the future that Lincoln represented. The image of the ship of state
The full tragedy of war is expressed in the longer narrative poem "Come Up From the Fields, Father." This poem tells the story about a family who receives a letter from their son, Pete, who is fighting in the war. It soon becomes clear, however, that the letter is not from Pete at all. Whitman brilliantly draws this out by pointing out, from the perspective of one of the family
Walt Whitman's poetry is unique in American literature. He used imagery of nature to transcend genre. Most of his works deal with individual human emotion, such as love or lust or hate. However, he also used these techniques to create beautiful images of individual people. Another characteristic of many of Whitman's poetry is the use of cataloging or listing of moments which all relate back to the central theme of
American History 1600-1877 In the period from 1600 to 1877, it could be argued that the United States was only basically establishing itself as an independent nation in its own right -- the period in question builds up to the climax of the Civil War, in which the contradictions inherent in the national identity would finally reach armed conflict. Who, then, could be nominated as the best of the American enterprise
It seems that Lincoln was probably happy. He was doing an important job, and he had a family that loved him. He never had a lot of money, but he seems as if he was content with his life. In this, he was different than Cory. He would not have chosen to end his life the way Cory did, because he was content, and because he had important responsibilities.