O Captain! My Captain!

Walt Whitman * Track #167 On Leaves of Grass

Download "O Captain! My Captain!"

Album Leaves of Grass

ALBUM

Walt Whitman

1855

O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman

Release Date

Sun Jan 01 1865

Performed by

Walt Whitman

About

“O Captain! My Captain!” (1865) presents an extended metaphor for the death of American president Abraham Lincoln, assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. The assassination came five days after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant effectively ended the American...

O Captain! My Captain! Annotated

1

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.

2

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.

3

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.

O Captain! My Captain! Q&A

When did Walt Whitman release O Captain! My Captain!?

Walt Whitman released O Captain! My Captain! on Sun Jan 01 1865.

Is this about President Lincoln?

Yes, Whitman wrote this poem shortly after the assassination of Lincoln, who is the “captain” of the “ship” that is America.

What is up with the poem's shape?

Whitman presents “the ship” as a metaphor for America, whose dead “captain” is Lincoln. This comparison is also found in the shape of the stanzas, which resemble the outline of a ship’s hull—likely a conscious decision of Whitman’s.

Also, only in the short stair-like lines, which force the reader t...

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