O Captain! My Captain!
E68907
"O Captain! My Captain!" is a famous elegiac poem by Walt Whitman mourning the death of Abraham Lincoln through an extended ship-and-captain metaphor.
Aliases (1)
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
elegy
→
poem → |
| addedToCollection |
1867 edition of Leaves of Grass
→
|
| author |
Walt Whitman
→
|
| collection |
Leaves of Grass
→
|
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
→
|
| dateOfEventDescribed |
1865-04-14
→
|
| dedicatedTo |
Abraham Lincoln
→
|
| firstPublishedIn |
Sequel to Drum-Taps
→
|
| form |
lyric poem
→
|
| genre |
elegiac poetry
→
|
| hasClosingLine |
"Walk the deck my Captain! You’ve fallen cold and dead."
→
|
| hasOpeningLine |
"O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;"
→
|
| historicalContext |
post–Civil War Reconstruction era
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|
| influencedBy |
American Civil War
→
Lincoln’s leadership → |
| language |
English
→
|
| lineCount |
24
→
|
| literaryDevice |
anaphora
→
apostrophe → extended metaphor → imagery → |
| meter |
irregular
→
|
| movement |
American Transcendentalism
→
|
| notableFor |
popularity in American schools
→
unusually regular rhyme and meter for Whitman → |
| originalPublicationYear |
1865
→
|
| period |
American Romanticism
→
|
| placeOfEventDescribed |
Washington, D.C.
→
|
| portraysAsMetaphor |
captain as Abraham Lincoln
→
ship as the United States → voyage as the Civil War → |
| refrain |
"Fallen cold and dead"
→
"O Captain! my Captain!" → |
| rhymeScheme |
regular end rhyme
→
|
| stanzaCount |
3
→
|
| subject |
American Civil War
→
assassination of Abraham Lincoln → leadership → mourning and grief → national trauma → |
| theme |
cost of victory
→
heroic sacrifice → public celebration versus private grief → |
| tone |
mournful
→
reverent → |
| writtenInResponseTo |
death of Abraham Lincoln
→
|
Referenced by (4)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Leaves of Grass
→
|
notablePoem |
|
Walt Whitman
→
|
notableWork |
|
O Captain! My Captain!
(""O Captain! my Captain!"")
→
|
refrain |
|
Walt Whitman
→
|
wrote |