Walt+Whitman

O Captain! My Captain!
Summary: In the first stanza it seems that they are coming back from a large battle and they are victorious. They are nearing the port at their home country and the people on land are very happy that the warriors have returned but the warriors on the ship are not so happy because their captain is dead. In the second stanza it says that the people are crowding the shore and there are flags flung for him and bugles trilling. Then the voice which is a man on the ship says that it seems like a dream that the captain is dead. In the final stanza the voice says that the captain's lips are pale and still and the ship is anchored in the port. He then says the object is won which means they had accomplished the task at hand but alas the captain is still dead.

Correlation: Walt Whitman writes often of battle and death for example Hush'd be the Camps To-day, O Captain! My Captain!. I have noticed in both of these poems that the battle takes place at sea, in ships. Also in both poems the Capatain or Commander has died and the crew is mourning his death. In both of these poems the voice is coming from one of the men on the ship, but in "O Captain" the man is speaking to the Captain posthumously and in "Hush'd" the man is talking to the rest of the crew.

Reflection: In the poem O Captain! My Captain! there were many examples of techniques of poetry. anaphora: "O Captain! My Captain!" is the beginning to the first and second stanza alliteration: "For you the flag is flung" The use of f in the beginning of these words makes it an alliteration personification: "The vessel grim and daring" A vessel or ship can't have human characteristics refrain: " Fallen cold and dead" is used at the end of all three of the stanzas end stopped lines: Every line ends in some kind of punctuation