O Captain! My Captain! is a poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865. The work was created in the form of monologue, where the nameless character says about the death of the captain of his ship. Experts say the poem describes the death of Abraham Lincoln in the metaphoric way, but readers can not see this idea without a context. While Whitman did not use many details and focused on feelings and surrounding, it is possible to create narrator’s profile that is based only on poem’s words.
Lines “Here Captain! dear father! [and] My father does not feel my arm” (Whitman) make readers to suggest the narrator is the dead man’s son. He also could be a crew member, like an assistant, who was really close to the captain. Whitman did not use words that could show character’s sex, but I think it was male. Author was a man, and there is a proverb that woman on a ship will lead to bad luck. The ship was the main place of actions, so there were low chances the narrator was a woman. It is easy to suggest the narrator was a ship mate.
Whitman did not say anything about character’s age, but I think he was under 35. Sets of short lines at the end of each stanza can be a sing of adolescent fervor or emotionality. Each such fragment starts with exclamation like “But O heart! heart! heart!” (Whitman). It is easier to imagine a young man who screams out these phrases, than a person after 35. Young narrator also looks more suitable for the “father-child” pattern, mentioned in the poem. If the captain was not the father of the character, he was really lonely person. Narrator was focused only on the captain’s body during the whole poem. It felt like the dead man was the only close person in the ship crew for the character.
Narrator in the O Captain! My Captain! showed mixed emotions. His ship came from the long, dangerous trip and successfully fulfilled its mission. “Our fearful trip is done, the ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won” (Whitman). This is a happy event both for the crew and people from port, but the narrator can not chare these emotions because of the captain’s death. The character is in sorrow, but he regrets more about the captain than about himself. He feels bad that the leader of this trip would not see its triumph: “For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths - for you the shores a-crowding, for you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning” (Whitman). The narrator does not say anything about events or people that caused captain’s death. He also does not criticize people’s happiness. However, the character reserves the right to feel sorrow about his loss: “But I with mournful tread, walk the deck my Captain lies, fallen cold and dead” (Whitman).
Whitman’s narrator is a young man. He has quite introverted personality, because it looks like the captain was his only close person on the ship. Demonstration of feelings show the narrator is very emotional, but he does not feel sorry for himself. The character is a gentle person, because words “the bleeding drops of red” (Whitman) can be a sign of a crime, but he did not say anything about the revenge. I think this character is admirable. He experienced a big tragedy that affected other crew members too. However, the narrator acknowledge people’s right to celebrate regardless of the loss, and does not try to focus their attention around himself.
Works Cited
Whitman, Walt. “O Captain! My Captain!”. Poetryfoundation.org. n. d. Web. 21 March 2016.
