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Sherri Chapman's Wikipedia O Captain! My Captain! article for ENGL2131.03

Analysis of Article

After reading the Wikipedia article O Captain! My Captain, I feel the articles touches on the main key components of the poem but it lack the information on the emphasis of the individual in this poem.

I have decided to revise the first paragraph of the analysis. I have also decided to create an original paragraph that discusses the theme of the self-versus the other.

Reading List

Revised opening paragraph from O Captain! My Captain!

Original

Walt Whitman composed the poem "O Captain! My Captain!" after Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865. The poem is classified as an elegy or mourning poem, and was written to honor Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. Walt Whitman was born in 1819 and died in 1892, and the American Civil War was the central event of his life. Whitman was a staunch Unionist during the Civil War. He was initially indifferent to Lincoln, but as the war pressed on Whitman came to love the president, though the two men never me

Revised

Whitman composed and published this poem seven month after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Clearly the speaker of the poem was referring to Lincoln as the captain. O Captain! My Captain is an extended metaphor that was intended to honor Lincoln’s work and life. The ship stood for the war-weathered nation following the Civil War and the “prize won” represented the salvaged union. After the Civil War Americans experienced confusion and the poem captured the Americans being torn between relief of a safe homecoming and the despair of the captain not enjoying the victory because he is dead on the deck. The first line shows the relief with “our fearful trip is done” and the poem swiftly changes with the gloomy sight of the war and grimness of the ship. In this poem Whitman does not downplay or over the death of Lincoln and is was another example of despair in the poem. Also Whitman repeat things like “Fallen cold and dead” to further express his level of mourning. This was a time of conflicting attitudes for many people and Walt Whitman painted a wonderful picture of that in O Captain! My Captain! He would later read this poem at a well-known lecture about the assassination. Whitman later pinned a remake that stated “Damn My Captain...I’m almost sorry I ever wrote the poem.”

Original Contribution

Theme

In Whitman's poetry, he places great emphasis on the individual.This certain poem study a variation on that theme, the self-versus the other. The speaker struggles with balancing his personal feelings of loss with the celebratory mood resulting from the victorious voyage. Even though the Civil War claimed many lives, it was responsible for the recombining of the Union. In O Captain! My Captain, the speaker believes that he should be part of the "other" group celebrating the return to safety. But his inner thoughts set him apart from the crowd because he tries to cover his heart felt reaction to the Captain's death. Whitman thought of Lincoln as a man of courage and a man to have common sense and wanted the world to understand his love of Lincoln as a leader. The speaker and the rest of the world needed to grieve for their love ones that they lost in the war. Whitman wrote this poem to let reading not only in the era but in today's society know that mourning is okay and is very much needed. His words was a gateway for people to express the emotions during a time where an outcry of feelings was needed. O Captain! My Captain was meant to tell the people in America that just because our leader, a captain, had fallen does not mean we give up but we must come together and keep his memory alive. Whitman intended this poem be to the push that people needed to pick of the piece and continue to create a better life at the war. Also this was a way for Walt Whitman to pay homage to Abraham Lincoln. Every reader should share this poem. Where you’re thought of Lincoln may be still pass the meaning and the picture of these words. The poem has no fixed meter, however the pattern of four line in each stanza. Only with four stanzas, this short poem is filled with so much meaning.

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