O Captain! My Captain!

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

"O Captain! My Captain!" is a poem that was written by Walt Whitman on the occasion of President Lincoln's assassination. It was first published in the New York Saturday Press in November 1865 and was an instant classic (Answers.com). For many years after its publication, children were taught this poem in school and many curricula in different schools made learning to recite it mandatory (Answers.com). In the poem, Whitman alludes that the fallen Captain is Abraham Lincoln and that his ship is actually his country—the United States of America.

In the poem, Whitman's narrator describes the feelings of people, particularly the people of the Union, in postwar America when he states, "O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done/ The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won" (1-2). Here, the "Captain" is Abraham Lincoln and the "fearful trip" is the Civil War. The "ship" is the country as a whole and when the narrator describes that it has "weather'd every rack," he is limning to his reader that the country has faced all of the adversity it could have possibly faced and has survived (2). The "prize" that has been won, in line two, is the war and the fact that the country will now be one again.

These first two lines in the poem are very important for the reader to understand because they are, in essence, the foundation of the poem. Without a clear understanding of who the Captain is and what allusions Whitman's narrator is referring to when he discusses the ship and the prize, the reader would be clueless throughout the poem. In order for the poem to make sense, this historical aspect must be fleshed out for its reader.

Whitman's narrator then segues from exultation over the winning of the Civil War to a more austere, somber situation:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead (5-8).

Here, the narrator realizes that his Captain, President Lincoln has been shot and is now dead. The concept of being shot, as is how Lincoln was killed, is described when the narrator says, "O the bleeding drops of red" (6). "Bleeding" and "red" represent the loss of blood and the word, "drops" represents a small hole that is allowing the blood to exude from Lincoln's head.

Later on, throughout the poem, Whitman makes the reader have a sense that the narrator is having trouble coming to grips with Lincoln's death. For instance, he says, "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," which seems to portray the narrator as incredulous towards the very notion that Lincoln has been assassinated (10-11). In these lines, he actually seems to be asking Lincoln's corpse to get off the ground when he cries for him "to rise up" so that he can apparently see how much he is loved by his people. There may be some binary oppositions in these lines because it is almost as if the narrator were telling Lincoln that he cannot die because he has won the war and heroes do not die. The concepts of winning and dying are seemingly antonymous to the narrator and therefore cannot occur in this instance.

Furthermore, after ordering Lincoln to rise up, Whitman's narrator asseverates, "It is some dream that on the deck/ You've fallen cold and dead" (15-16). In these two lines, the narrator seems to be finally starting to grasp the situation, but he still seems to be a little incredulous. It almost seems as though he were under the impression that he is having a bad dream wherein his Captain, Lincoln has been murdered. This is portrayed when the narrator states that "it is some dream" when referring to his Captain's falling cold and dead (15). The "deck" whereon his Captain lies may be the wooden boards of the balcony at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. whereupon Lincoln was sitting when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth on the evening of April 14, 1865 (Norton).

The narrator further exclaims, "My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still/ My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will" (17-18). Here, he is finally coming to grips with the dour situation before him. In line seventeen, his Captain is not answering his repeated cries so the narrator is almost panicking in a sense. Finally, the narrator notices that his Captain's lips are pale and still and that he has no pulse; therefore he is dead. This represents the narrator's finally moving out of his denial stage and into a stage of realization and mourning.

After realizing his Captain, Lincoln is dead, he says, "The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done/ From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won" (19-20). In the first line, the ship is said to be "anchor'd safe and sound" (19). It is here wherein the narrator is telling Lincoln that everything is going to be fine without his having to be alive to oversee it. The "ship" is the country and the "anchor" is the mark that Lincoln has left on the country. The fact that it is "safe and sound" is a testament to Lincoln's accomplishments. In the second line, the narrator is telling Lincoln that the war is won and he is the victor so he can rest in peace for all of eternity knowing this. Here, the "fearful trip" is the war, the "victor ship" is the country, and the "object won" is the Union's being united as one again.

It is important that the reader understand the allusions that Whitman's narrator is making so that he may understand what is occurring in the poem. If the reader were not told that the "trip" is the war and the "ship" is the country, he would have no clue as to what the narrator is talking about; therefore he would be lost throughout the entire poem.

Finally, at the end of the poem, the narrator is moving on from this horrific crucible. He has come to grips with the death of his Captain and, even though he still mourns him, he wants everyone to cherish and bask in his Captain's accomplishments:

Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead (21-24).

When the narrator exclaims, "Exult O shores, and ring O bells," he is telling the hoi polloi to eulogize Lincoln's life (21). The ringing of the "bells" could signify the knelling of the church bells for Lincoln's funeral, which paints a very caliginous picture for the reader. This seems to create somewhat of a binary opposition because the word, "exult" describes jubilation whereas the word, "bells" seems to import a somber meaning and both words are being used together as one, abstract meaning.

In the end, each reader may glean from this poem whatever he may, but the fact remains that Walt Whitman wrote this poem to honor President Abraham Lincoln's life and accomplishments. The fact is, though, that without a clear understanding of certain allusions that Whitman's narrator makes, this poem would be nonsensical or vague to its reader and, without an understanding of history, the context of this poem would be lost to its reader somewhere in a rift in space and time.


Works Cited

"O Captain! My Captain!" Answers.com. 2008. Answers Corporation.
http://www.answers.com/topic/o-captain-my-captain

Norton, R. J. "JOHN WILKES BOOTH'S MOVEMENTS ON THE DAY OF THE ASSASSINATION - APRIL 14, 1865." Abraham Lincoln's Assassination. 1996-2009. Abraham Lincoln Research Site.
http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln36.html