O Captain! My Captain!

Context

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1810, in New York. He was from a large family and his family had very little money. He spent only a few years in school, leaving when he was eleven to become an apprentice to a printer. He became interested in journalism and spent several years in New York City writing and editing for various publishers. In the early years of the Civil War, Whitman lived in Washington, D.C., learned that his brother had been wounded in battle, and went to Virginia to find him.  He spent most of the remainder of the war volunteering in army hospitals, caring for the sick and the wounded.

“O, Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy written by Walt Whitman in 1865 to commemorate the death of President Abraham Lincoln. The president was assassinated on April 14, 1865.

Purpose

Students will analyze the poem and recognize Whitman’s use of extended metaphors and juxtapositions in the poem. Students will analyze the impact that President Abraham Lincoln’s death had on the country. Students will show their understanding by completing a quiz about the poem and its meaning.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the history behind "O Captain! My Captain!"
• Describe what an extended metaphor is and how juxtapositions are used in the poem.

Instructions

• • Read the poem.
  • Watch the video and pay close attention to the recording of a reading of the poem.
  • Analyze the elegy and examine how juxtapositions are used in the poem.

1819-1892

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths- for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

 Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
 You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
 Walk the deck my Captain lies,
 Fallen cold and dead.

Contextualization

“O, Captain! My Captain!” is Whitman’s most famous poem; it undeniably captured the mood of a nation in mourning and has remained one of Whitman’s best-loved and most-quoted poems. In his elegy, Whitman uses the extended metaphor, or the consistent use of a figurative idea to portray a literary reality throughout a work of art, of Lincoln as a ship's captain to portray Lincoln as the nation's leader.

In his juxtaposition of “O Captain! My Captain!” Whitman uses the language of loss and victory as a poetic form to model the close relationship between triumph and pain. At first, it seems as if this will be a poem celebrating the victory of the Union in the Civil War. The speaker congratulates President Lincoln on steering the metaphorical ship of state through “every wrack,” i.e. storm, and declares that “the prize we sought is won.” However, halfway through this triumphant first stanza, the speaker breaks off: “But O heart! heart! heart! ... my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.” The sudden appearance of a qualification—"But O heart!”—reveals to the reader that not all is well. The poem scarcely celebrates triumph before facing loss.

One of the poem’s painful ironies is that its celebrations are intended to honor the leader who won this victory, yet President Lincoln is not there to witness the triumph. This is made all the starker by the joyous scenes that begin each stanza: there are ringing bells, “bouquets,” “wreaths,” and cheering crowds -- the war is over. Slavery is ending; my love is homeward bound. The poem juxtaposes these moments of vibrancy and happiness with the body of the “Captain”, which is “cold,” “dead,” “pale,” and “still.”

The speaker emphasizes that all of these celebrations are for President Lincoln with the repetition of the word “you”—“for you, the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you, bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, For you, they call,” the poet repeats five times. The repetition of the word further underscores the poignancy of Lincoln’s absence from his own celebration.

Even small features register the tension between celebration and mourning, as the speaker’s emotions descend from joy to grief. For example, the exclamation points after “O Captain!” in the first stanza seem like enthusiastic celebrations of victory. Later in the poem, however, the meaning of the exclamation points begins to subtly change. “O heart!” becomes an exclamation of grief and dismay. The exclamation points after “O Captain!” in the second stanza take on even darker connotations since it is now clear that the speaker is addressing a dead man rather than a living leader.

The five total exclamation points in this stanza take on a desperate quality as if the speaker is begging the fallen leader to come back to life again. By the final stanza, there is only a single exclamation point, marking the poem’s newly restrained tone of quiet grief. The speaker acknowledges that the world around him is celebrating—"Exult O shores, and ring O bells!”—but he walks with “mournful tread,” grieving even as the country rejoices.

Throughout, the speaker dramatizes the painfully close relationship between loss and victory. The celebration of the Union’s triumph is reframed by the reminder that the country has paid a dear price. More than 500,000 soldiers were killed, the number of wounded was overwhelming, and the destruction of property and the human spirit was devastating.  Whitman seems to argue that loss and victory are closely linked in all wartime settings, where victory always requires the expenditure of human life.

Each stanza of “O Captain! My Captain!” pivots between public celebration and private grief. In this way, the poem foregrounds the tension between outward emotional expression and internal emotional experience. The speaker must reconcile his personal grief for President Lincoln, whom he seems to regard as a paternal figure, with the wider grief—and joy—of the nation. Through these tensions, Whitman suggests that deep grief for a loved one can be an isolating force that makes the trauma and loss even more painful than it might otherwise be.

The tension between collective experience and private emotion is implied even in the title of the poem, “O Captain! My Captain!” The speaker compares President Lincoln to the captain of a ship and then refers to him as my captain, emphasizing his own personal connection to the president. The poem is not titled “Our Captain”; rather, the speaker seems to feel that President Lincoln is his captain in particular. Logically, the captain of a ship is indeed everyone’s captain, but the poet’s choice to emphasize the personal pronoun makes the loss seem private and personal rather than public.

The public celebrations that accompany the return of the ship into the harbor—metaphorically standing in for the victory of the Union in the Civil War—are a shared experience of joy. By contrast, the speaker’s experience of grief is private and solitary. The descriptions of the crowds give the impression of a shared public experience. The “people” are “all exulting”; they are “a-crowding” and form a “swaying mass” on the shore. They seem to have become a kind of collective, feeling together and expressing themselves as one body.

On the other hand, the depiction of the speaker himself emphasizes his isolation and solitary melancholy. Although he “hear[s] … the bells,” he ignores them and walks alone, “with mournful tread.” The poem presents an experience of collective rejoicing, but the speaker chooses to separate himself physically and emotionally from the crowd. The isolated nature of the speaker’s grief seems to result from his perception of his relationship with Lincoln. That is, his mourning seems to transcend the sorrow of a citizen for the assassination of a leader to become more like that of a son for his father. Indeed, the speaker repeatedly refers to President Lincoln as “father.”

The poem’s final stanza thus introduces another layer of emotional complexity, as the speaker’s grief becomes yet more private and personal in contrast to the rejoicing of the crowds. The speaker admits that “[m]y father does not feel my arm” and “he has no pulse,” implying that the speaker has physically touched and shaken the body to feel for a pulse. This gesture is highly private and intimate, more like a familial relationship than that of a citizen and a leader. It’s clear that the speaker feels so strongly about the fallen leader that he experiences a close, almost paternal relationship with him. The fact that the speaker’s intense, private grief contrasts so sharply with the cheering crowds suggests that losing a loved one can create a painful boundary between an individual and other people.

Contextualization in a Movie

The movie is set in 1959 at the prestigious Welton Academy, a Vermont boarding school. Most of the students of Welton come from severe, cold families—they are expected to be the best. Students of Welton are under a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed academically. Life at Welton is cold and austere; students are trained not to reveal their emotions, even if they are sad and lonely.

Most teachers are extremely rigorous and controlling. However, there is a new English teacher at school, John Keating, who is different. Mr. Keating, a spirited English teacher who breaks the mold at a strict New England boarding school to inspire his students to live bold, passionate lives. And he does it all by using literature. Keating immediately impresses his students with his charismatic, energetic lectures. While other teachers force students to do homework and obey them at all times, Keating begins the year by talking about “Carpe Diem,” the idea that humans should “seize the day”—i.e., make the most of life while they’re alive. Keating tries to teach his students how to be realistic and “survive” college. Keating wants to teach his students how to be extraordinary instead of simply following the rules.

To avoid a full-scale scandal with Welton’s wealthy alumni donors, Keating is cast as a scapegoat—he is blamed for “corrupting” the students with talk of freedom and individuality. The students are compelled to sign a document stating that Keating corrupted them with his free-thinking lessons. Keating is fired from Welton and barred from ever teaching again.

In the end, a dull teacher takes over Keating’s English class. During the class, Keating walks in to pick up his personal items. While Keating gathers his things, one of the students tried to explain to him, that the students were forced to sign the document that got Keating fired. In an act of solitary, and despite the objections of the teacher, the students stand on their desks proclaiming to Keating, O Captain! My Captain?

Watch the video: O'Captain! My Captain!

Be prepared to participate in the class discussion.