While these poems do not specifically mention Lincoln, they turn the assassination of the president into a sort of martyrdom.[16][17]. The O Captain! [2][3] The brief volume, first released in 1855, was considered controversial by some,[4] with critics particularly objecting to Whitman's blunt depictions of sexuality and the poem's "homoerotic overtones". dear father!This arm beneath your head!It is some dream that on the deck,Youve fallen cold and dead. Each stanza of the poem ends with the refrain fallen cold and dead. A refrain is a line or group of lines that repeat throughout a text, usually at the end of a stanza. My Captain!' He usually began or ended the lectures by reciting "My Captain", despite his growing prominence meaning he could have read a different poem. Although most of the poetic devices share the same qualities as literary devices, there are some which can only be used in poetry. In the first stanza, you would have observed the phrase O Captain! Whitman noticed the president-elect's "striking appearance" and "unpretentious dignity," and trusted Lincoln's "supernatural tact" and "idiomatic Western genius. O Captain! In an analysis of poetry anthologies, Joseph Csicsila found that, although "My Captain" had been Whitman's most frequently published poem, shortly after the end of World War II it "all but disappeared" from American anthologies, and had "virtually disappeared" after 1966. [23] Vendler writes that the poem utilizes elements of war journalism, such as "the bleeding drops of red" and "fallen cold and dead". Fallen cold and dead. with revision notes by Whitman, 1888, Originally "Walk the spot my captain lies". We also have the stark image of the fallen captain on the deck. Author Julian Hawthorne wrote in 1891 that the poem was touching partially because it was such a stylistic departure. In the third stanza, he switches to reference Lincoln in the third person ("My captain does not answer"). The speakers coming to terms with the death of his fallen comrade is the focal point of the poem at hand. Anaphora is generally used for joyous chants and rendering celebratory feelings in a poems entirety. The civil war occurred during his lifetime with Whitman a staunch supporter of unionists. "Fallen cold and dead." [56] In 1892, The Atlantic wrote that "My Captain" was universally accepted as Whitman's "one great contribution to the world's literature",[45] and George Rice Carpenter, a scholar and biographer of Whitman, said in 1903 that the poem was possibly the best work of Civil War poetry, praising its imagery as "beautiful". 24 Fallen cold and dead. Youve fallen cold and dead. Every single person that visits Poem Analysis has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. My Captain! [78], In the second and third stanzas, according to Schberlein, Whitman invokes religious imagery, making Lincoln a "messianic figure". My Captain! It is famously featured in Dead Poets Society (1989) and is frequently associated with the star of that film, Robin Williams. rise up and hear the bells; Rise upfor you the flag is flungfor you the bugle trills. Juxtaposition is a literary device in which two things are placed alongside each other in order to highlight their differences. 12For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; 13 Here Captain! heart! [64] Author James O'Donnell Bennett echoed that, writing that the poem represented a perfect "threnody", or mourning poem. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Walt Whitman Poetry: American Poets Analysis, Walt Whitman American Literature Analysis, https://literarydevices.net/figure-of-speech/.
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