The poem creates a melancholy mood as its theme is the death of the 16th president of America Mr Abraham Lincoln. O captain! The mood shown in the first stanza in the beginning is happy and cheerful.
The trip is almost over and the ship is returning to port. The people are cheerful and waiting to give a grand welcome to the Captain. The stanza changes to despair and gloomy after four lines showing the grief due to loss of the captain. The speaker wants the Captain to hear the bells ringing and the bugle trills and see the flag being waved, the flowers and the cheering crowds who have come to welcome the captain.
Firstly, it is end of the battle and secondly it is referred to as the life of the captain or the victory completed. While everyone is celebrating on the shore the speaker is mourning the death of the Captain lying dead on the deck. The bleeding drops of red mean all the bloodshed that happens during the battle figuratively, and literally it refers to the captain lying dead in a pool of blood on the deck.
The speaker is in a state of confusion whether to celebrate the victory or mourn the loss of his beloved captain. At least he clears the confusion by deciding to mourn the loss of his captain while asking the other people to keep celebrating.
The way the speaker addresses the captain in the poem reveals that he was greatly attached to him and had great regard for him and his abilities in leading the war. He also calls him as a fatherly figure that shows that the Captain might have played a great role in shaping his life as well. Whitman chooses to use the symbol of captain, a boat and a journey at sea for this poem because this aptly describes the journey of life, where joys and sorrows go hand in hand.
Sacrifices are needed for victory, and in fairness of life a person responsible for victories may not enjoy them. All would not have felt the same way as all would not be attached to the captain the same as the sailor was. O Captain! My Captain! Word-Meanings O captain! Textbook Exercises A. Mary, despondent over the death of son Willie, likely from typhoid caused by well water polluted from the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses dumping waste upstream of the open sewer that was the Potomac River, desperately needed a change of locale.
He would travel by horse or buggy each day during the summer months. Walt Whitman would watch him pass, noting that they had begun to recognize each other with a formal nod each day. Whitman remembers:.
My Captain! O Captain! The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,. Keel has been thrown off the ship so as to keep ship stable.
In the next lines, this enthusiasm is replaced by gloom. The captain is dead now and blood is oozing from his body. In the second stanza, Whitman tries to talk to the Captain, who, he knows well, is dead. This technique of talking to the dead is called apostrophe. The poet asks the captain to rise up as for him, bells are being rung, flags are being hoisted, musical instruments are being rung, flowers are being curled etc.
The people are eagerly waiting for his arrival, but he is dead now. It should be noted that the captain is dead now and hence these ceremonies are of his funeral. The poet goes in reminiscence and tries to consider this death to be fancy but at last, he has to believe that Captain is dead. Poet calls him father because, for him, Lincoln is not just a military leader but the father of the nation and laments over his loss.
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