The poem “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman is a fascinating poem to break down in attempts to gain full meaning, because on the surface level, the wording and content is not necessarily difficult to understand. Unlike in Emily Dickinson’s works, there does not seem to be an enigmatic “it”, and unlike E.E. Cummings, Whitman (for the most part) adheres to conventional English literary standards. Upon a first read, I had interpreted the poem to be more like a eulogy- the remembrance of a successful life that is intertwined in the mournful sadness of grief. The beginning lines of the stanzas would begin jubilantly, and then suddenly take a sorrowful turn where the lines visually are shifted to the right. It would be simple to see the poem as a collection of happy-then-sad, but there are numerous clear and distinctive stylistic choices Whitman made that make his work more difficult to understand- highlighting an underlying meaning a quick primary read skips over.
Upon a second read, I began to pick up on certain literary devices that indicated a much bigger meaning than I had originally thought. First, I noticed that not all sentences begin with a capitalized letter, but the “captain” was always spelled with a capital “C”. For example, the very first line of the poem states, “O Captain! my
Captain! our fearful trip is done”. Clearly, “captain ” is always capitalized, but “my ” and “our’ is lowercase even though it follows an exclamation point. I began to notice a pattern- following every exclamation point, the next word is lowercase. This is observable in line five which says “But O heart! heart! heart!”, and line nine that states “O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells”. Whitman clearly constructed these lines with a lack of capitalization in mind, to draw attention to a certain concept. Through the dismissal of this standard English literary convention, Whitman portrays the stark contrast between celebrat
ion and tragedy that is observable through the meaning of the words themselves. The entire poem is a juxtaposition; a jubilant occasion in conflict with the sudden catastrophe of death, which is perpetuated through Whitman’s use of capitalization.
Furthermore, there is also an obvious and visually notable shift in the poem that again seems to convey the stark contrast between triumph and woe. Each stanza is made up of eight lines, the first four formatted normally, but the last four indented so that they sit shifted
to the right. I think this reinforces, in a much more obvious way, the concept of a jubilant moment gone tragic. The beginning four lines of the first stanza depict ringing church bells and high amounts of excitement, but as the boat approaches, things take a sharp turn when the Captain is on the dock of the boat, dead.
Another thing I noticed in my re-reading of Whitman’s poem was his deliberate choice in words, pointing to the ultimate backstory of his work. If I have learned anything about poetry this past month, I have learned that EVERYTHING means something. There is no word that is not an intentional, carefully considered choice. So, when the joyful tone is developed utilized with phrases such as “the bells I hear, the people, the people all exulting” (line 3), “for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills” (line 10), “the swaying mass, their eager faces turning” (line 12), I realized that there is something much deeper than just happiness. When I first read the poem, these lines made me think of a celebration, but my second read made me realize how massive and ‘war-like’ the celebration really was. It was reminiscent of pictures and videos I had seen in APUSH; of soldiers returning home to packed train stations- the flag raised high and bells ringing all around in a moment of national pride and unity.
So, all of this combined (and my reading on Walt Whitman that helped me understand he was a very patriotic poet, as seen through other poems such as “I Hear America Singing”), I was able to piece together that Whitman had encapsulated Abraham Linconn’s sudden death following the end of the American Civil War. Every aspect of the poem’s ‘solution ‘ then made sense to me (in a very Perrine-esque way!)- the emphasis on such a massive celebration, abruptly ended by the Captain’s death, displayed through capitalization, shifts in stanza lines, and commemorative diction. Upon first reading, I thought that this poem was simply about a sea captain who dies following a successful journey/life, but through these literary devices that added to the difficulty of the piece, I was able to understand the full backstory.
Hey Joanna, I think my brain is like wired incorrectly because everytime I hear the name Walt Whitman, I think of the main character from Breaking Bad (which I’ve never even seen before), Walter White. Then I get confused as to why they have the same name and think it’s for some sort of symbolic reason so then I google it and obviously the two separate, unrelated people come up and I have to remember that I always think this. Anyway, maybe actually reading his poem and your analysis of it will finally help me distinguish the two people. My first reaction to your poem is that there are a lot of exclamation marks, which kind of glorifies his words- they seem very important. I agree that at first read, the poem seems straight forward but with closer inspection there is a lot of nuance. I found your point about his disregard for capitalization after punctuation really interesting because it is a perfect example of the juxtaposition of the celebration and the grieving. I also liked how you mentioned how everythin has a meaning in a poem. I agree because during my analysis of my poem I struggled with trying to write about every single word, because my poem was around 200 words. I was hoping that a lot of my analysis could be applied to parts of the poem I did not touch on.
Hey Joanna! The first thing I did after I read your poem was look up when it was written. I found out that it was written when the civil war ended which lines up perfectly with your stream of consciousness. I liked that one of the first things you touched on was the phrases that were repeated several times throughout your poem. Words like captain, father, and heart were constantly added, clearly relaying the idea that there is one person in specific who has impacted/benefited the speaker. Normally a captain also leads more than one person which means this poem could very well represent Abraham Lincoln as he led our country. We talked a lot about the shift in poems in class today and I am glad you brought that up in writing. I saw the shift physically take place in each paragraph but you can also hear it throughout the word choice. We went from talking about bells, prizes, and winning to blood, death, and freezing temperatures. This shows that although you can focus on the triumphs we celebrate at the time, there was so much loss that took place in order for us to “win.” Overall great work, you always impress me!
Hi Joanna! For starters, I know of this piece already. I feel like, based off of the title, I have had to read this for English class before (maybe in sixth or seventh grade? I honestly cannot remember). I wish you could put your actual poem into your blog as well!! I would have loved to read it along with you. That said, I like your use of photos in your blog – I think they really aid in the way you read the poem, and help visually enhance the reader (so slay, that’s me) as I read it. Also, I like how confident you sound in your writing as you explain the poem. I know when I first read, I tend to be super confused, but it seems that you know exactly what you’re doing when taking apart this poem. Also also, I love how you knew to tie it back to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination! That was something I never would’ve thought of. My initial thought, when I think of (at least) the title of this poem, is the game Oh Captain, My Captain that we used ot play in show choir. The best way I can describe it is kind of like Chicken on a Hill. I never in a million years would have thought of President Lincoln (haha). Thank you for sharing your poem, Joanna!
Hey Joanna! I like how you compared this poem to both Emily Dickenson and ee cummings, since we discussed them in class and they helped me contrast this poem from theirs. When you mentioned the shift, I immediately began to understand the poem better as this is one of the first things I look for when analyzing a poem. The pattern of capitals and lowercase letters is really interesting and I agree that it helps draw attention to those concepts by contrasting them. When you say that EVERYTHING means something, I find this is what is so fascinating about poetry. The comparison to APUSH definitely brought back some memories for me, and I enjoy the historical perspective of this poem. Your final analysis, starting with your evolution of understating being about a captain and sorrow and celebration, to really being able to piece together this poem in a historical perspective helped me understand some of the poems that we have read in class together as well! I look forward to seeing more poem analysis from you in the future. How would you look towards analyzing a poem that was written in the present day? I am curious to know your thoughts.