The “bleeding drops of red” are both the Captain’s bleeding wounds and the speakers wounded heart. The poem is then as much about the “I” of the poem and how he comes to terms with his misery, how he processes this information, as it is about the central figure of the Captain. More importantly, the repetition “heart! heart! heart!” talks of the speaker’s consternation and revulsion at realizing that his Captain has died. Lines 5-8 correspond the obnoxious news that the Captain has somehow fallen dead after the battle. The repetition helps to emphasize the indecision he feels at the Captain’s loss. In one sense the speaker is addressing his Captain straightforwardly, but in another respect he seems to be speaking to himself about his Captain. The utterance “O Captain! My Captain” is predominantly interesting in this light. Thus the ship is returning home to reassuring crowds having won “the prize” of victory, just as the Union, led by Lincoln, had returned triumphant from the Civil War. “The fearful trip” is the Civil War, which had ended just prior to Lincoln’s assassination. In this poem, the “Captain” is a replacement for Abraham Lincoln, and the “ship” is the United States of America. A metaphor is simply a figure of speech in which one thing is substituted for another, and a calculating metaphor is a metaphor that forces, directs, or unifies the entire poem. The opening lines of the poem serve to begin the controlling metaphor upon which the rest of the poem builds. The civil war occurred during his lifetime with Whitman a staunch supporter of unionist through and through. ![]() Saddened by the results of first American civil war, Whitman wrote an elegy in memory of deceased American President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Speaking in the language of ordinary men, Whitman aspired to become the voice of the nation, speaking on the behest of the American population at the time.Ĭonsequently, he has recorded the events, moods and character of the time superbly. Whitman is the new-age poet, committed to breaking away from the shackles of established poetic practices and forming new ones, just as America is created for a different purpose, tearing away from the bondage of colonialism and steering clear of undermining the proletarian class.Īlternatively, Whitman uses similar poetic devices as that of William Wordsworth and Dante Alighieri. The poem stirs the reader with its utter despondent tone throughout its entirety. A good friend of Robert Ingersoll, Whitman was at most a Deist who scorned religion. In 1881, the book had the compliment of being banned by the commonwealth of Massachusetts on charges of immorality. Leaves of Grass was published in nine editions, with Whitman elaborating on it in each successive edition. After a stroke in 1873, which left him partially paralyzed, Whitman lived his next 20 years with his brother, writing mainly prose, such as Democratic Vistas (1870). His health compromised by the experience, he was given work at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. Emerson, whom Whitman revered, said of Leaves of Grass that it held "incomparable things incomparably said." During the Civil War, Whitman worked as an army nurse, later writing Drum Taps (1865) and Memoranda During the War (1867). Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842).Īfter working as clerk, teacher, journalist and laborer, Whitman wrote his masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, pioneering free verse poetry in a humanistic celebration of humanity, in 1855. ![]() Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.īorn on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War in addition to publishing his poetry. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. ![]() Walter Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist.
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