O Captain, my Captain

Authors Note: I read the poem “O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman. The ship is metaphorically America.  

The Civil War was an awful time for Americans. We were separated into two and it was hard to join back together. That’s when Abe Lincoln put his foot down, and slowly we fused back together.  The fights, the battles, and the war had ended and everybody had won the American dream. After reading “O Captain, my Captain” I really understood how he lead our country to stop fighting and slavery.

The poem “O Captain, my Captain” is an extended metaphor. Although the poem says it’s about a Captain and his ship, it’s really about Lincoln and American. During the poem he repeats things often. He wants you to know that Lincoln has died, and no matter how much we try to wake him up we cannot.

Throughout the poem you can really tell Whitman thinks Lincoln is an awesome man. It says “The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won”; what Waltman is trying to say is America has been damaged so much, but finally we’re united again. When the Captain falls dead on the deck the crew tries to wake him up, but he will not wake. In Whitmans heart he is the crew, because he wants Lincoln to live on.

After Lincoln lead America to be united once again, he was assassinated in the Ford Theater.  Lincoln wanted to live to see the country become even closer. In “O Captain, my Captain” the captain falls dead on the deck of the ship. This really symbolizes Lincoln’s death.

Subsequent  to reading “O Captain, my Captain” I know that Walt Whitman thought Abe
Lincoln did amazing things for our country.  Whitman wanted Lincoln to live  longer to see what else he could do for America. Whitman felt Lincoln was an inspiring man, and without him at the helm, the ship that is America surely would have lost its way.