#O captin my csatpin archive
2 (1915) at the The Walt Whitman Archive Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman: A Life (1980) “O Captain! My Captain! By Walt Whitman Historical Period: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877, Library of Congress William A. “No longer as celebrated,” Pannapacker concludes, “O Captain” “continues to be a revealing representation of the rhetorics of despair and celebration that followed the war, and it remains Whitman’s most successful attempt to reach a national audience.”īibliography and Further Reading Betsy Erkkila, Whitman the Political Poet (1989) Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden vol. Nevertheless, he almost always concluded his lectures with an emotional reading of “O Captain!” What makes this one of Whitman’s most famous poems is the sense of relief the fearful trip is over to celebrating victory the war is over and it wasn’t for naught, and then somber at the prospect of accepting the Captain’s death and loss. ‘Damn My Captain,’ he said, ‘I’m almost sorry I ever wrote the poem’ (With Walt Whitman 2:304). Pannapacker writes, “Whitman thought ‘O Captain!’ to be one of his weaker poems and often tired of reading it. “O Captain! my Captain!” is one of Whitman’s most recognized and anthologized poems––so much so that later in life Whitman was quoted as saying that he was almost sorry he ever wrote the poem. The relationship between the captain and the sailor (in this case the speaker) is one of admiration for the captain’s leadership, and charisma. The speaker is completely distraught at the fact his captain has passed away. The captain lying cold and dead on the deck of the ship sets a solemn and somber tone by contrasting the scene before with celebrations of the ship’s arrival in the harbor and the captain’s death.
Six lines later the speaker notices the captain on the deck of the ship after having survived tough winds. The underlying meaning of the ship is the Union and the captain is Abraham Lincoln. The metaphor extends throughout the poem. This dramatic elegy is broken into three stanzas and begins with the speaker shouting to his captain that their trip is done. A revised version of the poem then appears in “President Lincoln’s Burial Hymn” in Passage to India (1871) and finally in the “Memories of President Lincoln” cluster in Leaves of Grass (1881). “O’Captain! My Captain!” first appeared in the Saturday Press on November 4, 1865, and was later published in Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865-1866). The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,įrom fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills,įor you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths-for you the shores a-crowding,įor you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
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