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 “O Captain! My Captain!”    by Walt Whitman O C APTAIN! 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.

When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, the United States, worn out in strength and endurance as a result of a demoralizing Civil War, was forced into shock. The last great battles of the Civil Was were still a recent memory, and the murder of the president seemed to be a bloody, pointless ending to four years of conflict and instability. Walt Whitman was one of the many who grieved over the loss of Lincoln and admired how Lincoln embodied the American virtues of plane spokenness and courage. The poem “O Captain! My Captain!” is dedicated to Lincoln, representing him as the captain and the United States as the ship. The speaker’s difficulty in coming to grips with the death of his captain after a long voyage out at seas is the subject of the poem. While he knows his captain is dead, he hopes he is dreaming and is somehow mistaken. However the last line, in repeating refrain “Fallen cold and dead;” leads a sense of finality to the poem and leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind. The captain, Lincoln, the speaker’s father figure and leader is indeed dead, and what should have been a time of great rejoicing at the end of the Civil War has been turned into a time of national grief and mourning.
 * Written by Walt Whitman in memory of Abraham Lincoln
 * Lincoln, the US, and the Civil War are all represented by the captain, ship, and voyage.
 * Even though voyage is over, the speaker is in a state of grief
 * Bittersweet victory

This reference to Lincoln as the speaker calls out to his captain but sees him lying dead on the sea deck and not being able to respond is the apostrophe Walt Whitman uses to further his purpose regarding the tragic death of Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War. The speaker’s cry out to his captain represents the million cries heard all over America after the assassination and exhibit the impact that the death has on the United States. As a result, Lincoln would never again get the chance to fulfill his presidential duties and act on behalf of his country, or see the outcome of all the hard work he put into eliminating slavery. The speaker’s repetition of “O Captain! My Captain!” in the first and second stanza represents his dire need he has for his captain to be alive and celebrate the ending of a hard battle just won. “O Captain! My Captain! Rise up and hear the bells; rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills;” This constant use of apostrophe throughout Walt Whitman’s piece of speaking to the captain as if he were able to respond back sadly comes to an end as the speaker says “My Captain does not answer, his lip are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;” Not only do the personal referenced to “My Captain, my father” convey a sense of personal loss, but the self consciousness of his actions in the poem’s last three lines shows loneliness and apprehension. “But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.”
 * Apostrophe is seen through the constant outcry to the captain
 * Him not being able to respond represents Abraham Lincoln’s death

A. Hartwell

"Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." __PERSONAL WEB PAGES - home.att.net__. 11 Feb. 2009 . __ Harrycr profile on Sulekha.com __. 11 Feb. 2009 . "193. O Captain! My Captain! Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass." __Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more__. 11 Feb. 2009 .