What was o captain my captain about

It is an extended metaphor intended to memorialize Lincoln's life and work. The Captain represents the assassinated president; the ship represents the war-weathered nation following the Civil War; the "prize won" represents the salvaged union.

The speaker, torn between relief and despair, captures America's confusion at the end of the Civil War. It was a time of many conflicting sentiments, and Whitman immortalizes this sense of uncertainty in "O Captain!

My Captain! Whitman's poetry places a lot of emphasis on the individual. This particular poem explores a variation on that theme: the self vs. The speaker struggles with balancing his personal feelings of loss with the celebratory mood resulting from the successful voyage. While the Civil War claimed many lives, it led to the reunification of the Union, so many Americans felt similarly divided. In Whitman's poem, the speaker believes that he should be part of the "other" group, celebrating the return to safety.

However, his inner thoughts set him apart from the crowd as he tries to reconcile his emotional reaction to the Captain's death. Often hailed as "the father of free verse," Whitman tended to write his poems without following any kind of ordered poetic form.

However, "O Captain! The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better.

Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Question about this poem? Ask us. Cite This Page. Full Text. Lines It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Being quieted by the Captain with a draught of cold tea, and made to sit down, the examination of the book proceeded. He sat glum and thoughtful, his mind in unproductive travail, until the captain was announced.

This Captain Kirton was really the best of the Kirton bunch: a quiet, unassuming young man, somewhat delicate in health. New Word List Word List. Save This Word! We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.