Critical Appreciation of O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! My Captain! Is one of the celebrated poems of famous American poet Walt Whitman. This poem expresses the love of the poet for the former American president Abraham Lincoln. Here we are going to discuss the critical appreciation of the poem O Captain! My Captain!. We will also discuss some other aspects of this poem like the summary and context of writing this poem. So, let’s see.

Critical Appreciation of O Captain! My Captain!

“O Captain! My Captain!” is one of the famous poems of Walt Whitman, a great American poet who was contemporary with President Abraham Lincoln, the 16" President of America. The poem is an elegy on the death of President Abraham Lincoln who ruled America from 1860 to 1865, and who was assassinated by Wilkes Booth, an actor of drama. 

Lincoln was very kind and gentle; he was rather too full of the milk of human kindness. He could not endure the wretched and subhuman conditions of the negro-slaves in the South of America. Immediately after he became the President of America, he took a firm decision to abolish slavery. The Southern states objected to his decision and decided to break away from the Northern States. 

But Lincoln was too determined to let them go easily. He decided to fight a bloody civil war against the Southern States. He fought the Civil War successfully, preserved the Union, and abolished slavery. But shortly after his successful completion of War, and abolition of slavery, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in a theatre. 

The entire nation was plunged into mourning. Whitman loved Lincoln very much as his most favourite leader. He regarded the death of Lincoln as his personal loss. He expressed his grief in this elegy. 

The poet has expressed his grief not directly, but indirectly through the use of rhetorical figures, mainly metaphor and symbol. The ship stands for the whole nation of America, the Captain is his metaphorical figure representing Abraham Lincoln. The civil war fought under the leadership of Lincoln is the dangerous and fearful voyage of the ship. 

Though the ship faced many dangers, the skillful captain successfully concluded the voyage. The people were very happy and exultant. They wanted to welcome and honor their leader. But he died soon after he achieved success. 

The poet’s expression of grief becomes all the more poignant and intense because of his use of metaphor and symbol. His personal grief has become universal, as it appeals to every heart. 

Some critics opine that Whitman was bad at form. But this poem is well-organized. As a matter of fact it is his best poem as regards form. It is a poem of three stanzas of eight lines each. Each stanza has a regular rhyme. The first four lines have end rhymes, and the second or last 4 lines rhyme alternately. The first four lines have the same meter, and the last four lines of each stanza have the same meter. 

Characterically the poetic diction is highly evocative. The images perfectly express the strong emotion of grief the poet feels at the loss of his dearest leader. The repetitions of the phrases like “O Captain! My Captain!”, “O heart! heart! heart!” and “fallen cold and dead” are particularly noticeable. They sincerely express the heartrending grief of the poet for the dear president whom he regards as his “father”.

Summary of O Captain! My Captain!

The poet expresses his grief in the form of symbol, metaphor, and other rhetorical figures. The captain is a metaphor for President Abraham Lincoln, the ship for the American nation, and the dangerous voyage of the ship is the campaign for abolition of slavery. The poet addresses the captain, and declares that the fearful trip is ended. The people are exulting on shores, following the approach of the ship. But the captain of the ship is lying dead, blood oozing out from his head. 

The poet asks the captain to rise up; the people are waiting for him on shores to welcome him with bouquets and wreaths. He raises the captain’s head, putting his hand behind his head, forgetting that he is dead. 

The captain does not answer. He is dead. The ship anchors safe and sound, the people exult over the captain’s success, but the poet walks the deck on which the captain lies cold and dead. He walks with a mournful tread.

Occasion of writing O Captain! My Captain!

The occasion for the writing of the poem was the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States who died on 15" April, 1865. As President of America he took the decision to abolish slavery from America, and passed the edict Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The Southern States opposed this decision, and the Civil War ensued. Lincoln handled the Civil War very skillfully and brought it to a successful conclusion. The whole of America mourned his death. 

Conclusion

All these factors make the poem a successful one. That was all about the critical appreciation of the poem O Captain! My Captain!. I hope this discussion helped you a lot to understand this poem. You visit other pages of our website to read more about English Literature and language teaching.