O Captain! My Captain!

by Walt Whitman

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 upfor you the flag is flungfor you the bugle trills; For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreathsfor you the shores acrowding; 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.

April 15, 1865 Abraham Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth, almost exactly four years after the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter. As the note says this was written about Abraham Lincoln who had captained the ship of state through the storms of the Civil War. The lines interposed between the verses such as " This arm beneath your head; It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead." are symbolic of him lying dying in the theatre after Booth had shot him.

This poem symbolizes the war and Lincoln himself, and how the people really were proud of him for leading them to victory. When the ship has weathered every rack, it represents how many were killed, and in order to claim freedom, you have to make sacrifices, o the bleeding drops of red, where on the deck my captain lies, fallen cold and dead. The poem also shows a great sense of irony. In the sense, that there were such a great amount of sacrifices that not only Lincoln made to unite the country but also the country within its own self. And to finalize it, Lincoln made his greatest Sacrifice...himself. "His gaze, though somewhat abstracted, was directed steadily in my eye." From an essay Whitman wrote on Abraham Lincoln when Whitman lived in Washington, and saw Lincoln almost daily. Lincoln was the reason the Civil War was fought. The melancholy that permeated Lincolns 56 years of life finally disappeared after he had made certain the United States would remain ONE COUNTRY. He had accomplished the immense and awful task higher forces had assigned him and his role on Earth was done.