“O Captain, My Captain!’’ Analysis

ORIGINAL PROMPT: Analyze Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My Captain!” investigating the author’s use of extended metaphor to make his message apparent to the audience.  

·         Understand the poem – what it says literally

·         Understand the poem – what it says symbolically

·         Interpret the author’s ATTITUDE toward his subject

·         Identify/ explain how the extended metaphor “helps” him make his point

Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My Captain” is literally about a crew member who is returning from a long voyage on a ship, and on this voyage the captain has died. Now the captain lies dead on the deck at the feet of the speaker. The ship is pulling into port, and the speaker notices that on shore all the citizens are waiting in excitement to greet the sailors. The attitude of the people on shore is shown in the lines 11-12 when the narrator tell us the people wait with “bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths… their eager faces turning.” This shows us the people likely do not know the captain is dead, because they seem excited for the ship to arrive. In contrast, the speaker feels mournful. He goes so far as to say he walks with “mournful tread” and on lines 14-16 he states,

“This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You’ve fallen cold and dead.”

The speaker literally holds the captain’s head in his hands and wishes that this is a dream. Because the speaker wants this to be a dream, we conclude he wants scene to go away – to be unreal.

The poem has a literal meaning with the ship coming into harbor. However, the poem also carries a symbolic meaning. When Whitman wrote this poem, President Lincoln had been assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in the Ford Theater. Whitman was a supporter of Lincoln and Lincoln’s fight to end slavery. With this knowledge, we recognize that the poem is really about Lincoln’s death, so we must look for links between the captain and Lincoln. A president and a Captain both lead: A captain leads the crew and pilots the ship whereas a President leads and pilots a country. In the poem, the “fearful trip is done” telling the reader the voyage is finished – they are done with their journey. Likewise, Lincoln’s major trial was to end the Civil War and abolish slavery. By the time Lincoln is killed, he has won the Civil War and abolished slavery. The captain lies dead having accomplished his task and Lincoln lies dead having accomplished his.

The speaker of the poem we have already said he mourns the captain’s death. We know he loved and admired the captain because he says, “Here captain! Dear father!” and father is a term we use for someone we look up to and feel is family. Because the author is Whitman, and we know he is speaking about Lincoln’s death, we can conclude that Whitman feels heartbroken over the death of the President he admired. He creates a speaker who is crushed that his beloved captain is now dead, and we get the sense that some great event led to the leader’s death. This parallels the real-life historical events playing out with Lincoln’s assassination and the mourning of a nation. The extended metaphor of captain to President and ship to nation helps Whitman convey to the reader his admiration of Lincoln as a great leader and his (sadness) over the loss of Lincoln’s life.