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Walt WhitmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“O Captain!” cannot be fully appreciated without understanding its context as a poem in celebration of the end of the American Civil War and in mourning over the death of Lincoln. The poem uses generalized imagery of celebration to express the feeling of glee as the war ends; however, on a personal level, the speaker feels he cannot participate in the celebration because he mourns the loss of his captain.
Many people across the north would have shared this feeling of competing emotions, but it was particularly powerful for Whitman who both detested war and loved Lincoln. His four poems written after Lincoln’s death (linked in the Further Reading and Resources section of this guide) show the depth of his mourning.
Though Whitman authored the poem in response to the end of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, the competing feelings of joy and sadness can apply to the end of any conflict. At the end of any war, a populace must simultaneously celebrate the end of conflict while commemorating and mourning the dead. These contrasting feelings can create great strife and imbalance in people’s hearts and minds, and Whitman centers on that imbalance in his poem.
By Walt Whitman
A Glimpse
A Glimpse
Walt Whitman
America
America
Walt Whitman
A Noiseless Patient Spider
A Noiseless Patient Spider
Walt Whitman
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Are you the new person drawn toward me?
Walt Whitman
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days
Walt Whitman
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
Walt Whitman
For You O Democracy
For You O Democracy
Walt Whitman
Hours Continuing Long
Hours Continuing Long
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
I Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman
I Sing the Body Electric
I Sing the Body Electric
Walt Whitman
I Sit and Look Out
I Sit and Look Out
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
Song of Myself
Song of Myself
Walt Whitman
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night
Walt Whitman
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
Walt Whitman