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However, "O Captain, My Captain" does not use personification in the poem. Drops of blood are flowing on the ships deck, the blood of Abraham Lincoln. The speakers coming to terms with the death of his fallen comrade is the focal point of the poem at hand. My Captain! was authored by famous American poet Walt Whitman. Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. The ship is a symbol for the United States, which had just emerged from the Civil War (18611865) at the time Whitman was writing. [11] Whitman's brother, Union Army soldier George Washington Whitman, was taken prisoner in Virginia in September 1864, and held for five months in Libby Prison, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp near Richmond. On the other hand, Walt Whitman uses similar poetic devices like that of William Wordsworth and Dante Alighieri. Moreover, the fallen ships captain is a reference to Abraham Lincoln, whereas the ship is also an allusion to the United States of America during its early years of independence. My Captain! makes use of father and heart to mourn the death of assassinated Abraham Lincoln. [84], "Oh Captain, My Captain" redirects here. In 1980, Whitman's biographer Justin Kaplan called the poem "thoroughly conventional". According to the poet, the ship is sailing nearer to the shore, meaning the war is about to end. The poem cannot be fully understood unless students are aware of the historical background represented by the captain, his ship, and their fates. Again, the poet uses synecdoche to represent the entire American audience at large as the poem relates to the death of Abraham Lincoln. heart! As students read through stanza by stanza, they will need to identify the figurative meanings behind Whitman's word choices. With Lincoln's death, "the sins of America are absolved into a religio-sentimental, national family". My Captain!" by Walt Whitman? ^O APTAIN! As a result, he has recorded the events, moods, and spirit of the time magnificently. It is famously featured in Dead Poets Society (1989) and is frequently associated with the star of that film, Robin Williams.