UNIT 2 WALT WHITMAN - 'O Captain, My Captain'

& Passage to India' (Lines 1-68)

Contents
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Whitman
2.3 'Passageto India'
2.3.1 Outline of the poem
2.3.2 Interpretation
2.3.3 Poetic Devices in 'Passage to India'
2.4 ‘O Captain! My Captain!’
2.4.1 Outline of the poem
2.4.2 Interpretation
2.4.3 Poetic Devices in the poem
2.5 Summing Up
2.6 check your answers

2.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading the unit, you should be able to analyse critically the following poem
of Whitman:
'Passage to India' and
'O Captain! My Captain!'

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous Unit, we discussed two poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson. We
shall discuss in this Unit two poems by another American poet called WaltWhitman
who wasa contemporary of Emerson. We shall, in the following sections, study and
analyse the poems "Passage to India" and "OCaptain! My Captain!" by Whitman.

2.2 WHITMAN (1819-1892)

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As a journalist, Whitman worked
w on various
v newspapers suchh as 'The LongL Islandeer',
'The New York Aurora' andd 'The Brookklyn Eveningg Star'.' In 1855 he publlished the firrst
edition of his maagnum opus, Leaves of Grass. Beinng a prolific writer, he prroduced manny
poemms till his deeath in 1892.
On reading
r the first edition aves of Grass written by
n of the Lea b Whitman,, Thoreau-hiis
conteemporary writer and a frriend of Emeerson-comm mented that thhe book wass 'wonderfullly
like the Orientalls'. Emersonn found in it 'a mixture of the Bhaggavad Gita of the Hindu us
and the New Yo ork Herald. Sir
S Edwin Arnold
A and R
Roma in Rollland perceivved the Indiaan
paralllels in Whitman. Swam mi Vivekannanda read aand re-read the 'Song ofo Myself annd
conccluded that Whitman was w a greatt Sanyasin. Rabindranaath Tagore declared "nno
Ameerican has caaught the orriental spirit so well as WWhitman." SarvepalliR Radhakrishnaan,
in hiis Eastern Religions
R an
nd Western Thought, wrote:
w "Whhitman turns to the East in
his anxiety
a to escape
e from the compleexities of civvilisation annd the bewillderment off a
bafflled intellectu
ualism'?

2.3 'PASS
SAGE TO
O INDIA'
Singging my dayss
Singging the greaat achievemeents of the prresent
Singging the stronng light workks of engineeers
Our modern wonnders, (the an ntique pondoous seven ouut vied)
he old world,, the east, thee Suez Canaal
In th
The New by its mighty
m railrooad spann'd
The seas inlaid with
w eloquennt gentle wirees;
Yet first
f to sound
d, and ever sound,
s the crry with
thee O soul,
The Past!.the passt! the past!
The Past-the darrk unfathom'd retrospect!
The teeming gullf-the sleeperrs and the shhadows!
The past-the infiinite greatness of the parrt!
For what
w is the present
p after all but a gro
owth
out of
o the past?
(As a projectile form'd,
f impeell'd, passingg a certain linne, still keepps on,
So th
he present, utterly
u form'dd, impell'd by
b the past.)

Passage O Soul to India!

Eclaircise the myths Asiatic, the primitive fabler,
Not you alone proud truth of the world
Nor you alone Ye facts of modern science,
But myths and fables of old, Asia's, Africa's fabler,
The fardarting beams of the spirit, the unloos'd dreams
The deep diving bibles and legends;
The during plots of the poets, the elder religions,
O You temples faires than lilies pour'd over by the
rising sun,
O You fables spurning the known, eluding the hold
of the know, mounting to heaven!
You lofty and dazzling towers, pinnacled, red as roses,
burnish'd with gold!
Towers of fables immortal fashion'd from mortal dreams!
You too I welcome and fully the same as the rest!
You too with joy I sing.
- Passage to India!
Lo, soul seest than not God's purpose from the first?
Passage to India!
Lo soul for thee of tableau twain
I see in one the Suez Canal initiated, opn'd,
I see the procession of steamships, the Empress
Engenie's leading the van,
I mark from on deck the strange landscape,

the pure sky, the level sand in the distance,

I pass swiftly the picturesque groups, the work
men gather'd
The gigantic dredging machines,
In one again, different, (yet thine, all thine, O soul the same,)
I see over my own continent the pacific railroad surmounting every burrier,
I see continual trains of cars winding along the
Platte carrying freight and passengers,
I hear the locomotives rushing and roaring and the shrill steam-whistle,
I hear the echoes rever-berate through the
grandest scenery in the world,
I cross the Larmic plains, I note the rocks in grotesque shapes, the butter,
I see the plentiful larkspur and wild onions, the burrer, colourless, sage-deserts,
I see in glimpses afar or towering immediately above me the great mountains,
I see the Wind river and the wahsatch mountain,
I see the Monument mountain and the Eagle's Nest,
I pass the promontory, I ascend the Nevadas,
I scan the Nobel Elk mountain and wind around its base
I see the Humboldt range, I tread the valley and cross the
river,
I see the clear waters of lake Tahoe, I see forests of majestic pines,
Or crossing the great desert, the alkaline plains,
I behold enchanting mirages of waters and meadows.
Marking through these and after all, in duplicate slender lines,
Bridging the three or four thousand miles of land travel,
Tying the Eastern to the Western Sea,
The road between Europe and Asia.

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Passage to India!
Struggle of many a captain, tales of many a sailor dead,
Over my mood stealing and spreading they come,
Like clouds and cloudlets in the unreach'd sky.
Along all history, downsthe slopes,
As a rivulet running, sinking now, and now again to the surface rising,
A ceaseless thought, a varied train-lo, soul, thee, thy
sight, they rise,
The plans, the voyages again, the expeditions:
Again Vasco de Gama sails forth,
Again the knowledge gain'd, the mariiler's compass,
Lands found and nations born, thou born America,
For purpose vast, man's long probation fill'd
Thou rondure of the world at last accomplish'd.

O vast Rondure, swimming in space.

Cover'd allover with visible power and beauty,

Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness,

Unspeakable high processions of An and moon and countless stars above,

Below the manifold grass and waters, animals, mountains, trees,

With inscrutable purpose, some hidden prophetic intention,
Now first it seems my thought begins to span thee.

Down from the gardens of Asia descending radiating,

Adam and Eve appear, then their myriad progeny after them,
Wandering, yearning, curious, with restless explorations,
With questionings, baffled, formless, feverish, with never-happy-hearts,

With that sad incesant refrain, Wherefore unsatisfied saul? and Whither
O mocking life?
Ah who shall soothe these feverish children?
Who justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassive earth? Y
Who bind it to us? what is this separate Nature so unnatural?
What is this earth to our affections? (unloving earth, without a throb, to
answer ours, Cold earth, the place of graves.)
Yet soul be sure the first intent remains and shall be carried out,
Perhaps even now the time has arrived.
After the seas are all cross'd, (as they seem already cross'd,)
After the great captains and engineers have accomplish'd their work,
After the noble inventors, after the scientists, the chemist, the
geologist, ethnologist,
Finally shall come the poet worthi that name,
The true son of God shall come singing his songs.
Then not your deeds only O voyagers, O scientists and inventors, shall be justified,
All these hearts as of fretted children shall be sooth'd,
All affection shall be fully responded to, the secret shall be told, - -
All these separations and gaps shall be taken up and hook'd and link'd together,

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The whole earth, this cold, impassive, voiceless earth, shall be completely justified,

Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplished and compacted by the true son of God,
the poet,
(He shall indeed pass the straits and conquer the mountains,
He shall double the Cape of Good Hope to some purpose,)
Nature and Man shall be disjoin'd and diffused no more,
The true son of God shall absolutely fuse them.

(6)

Year at whose wide-flung door I sing!

Year of the purpose accomplish'd!
Year of the marriage of continents, climates and oceans!
(No mere doge of Venice now wedding the Adriatic,)
I see 0 year in you the vast terraqueous globe given and giving all,
Europe to Asia, Africa join'd, and they to the New World,
The lands, geographies, dancing before you, holding a festival garland,

As brides and bridegrooms hand in hand.

Passage to India!
Cooling airs fro'- Caucasus far, soothing cradle of man;
The river Euphrates-Rowing, the past lit up again, . .
Lo soul, the retrospect brought forward,

The streams of the Indus and the Ganges and their many affluents,
(I my shores of America walking to-day behold, resuming all,)
The tale of Alexander on his warlike marches suddenly dying,
On one side China and on the other side Persia and Arabia,
To the south the great seas and the bay of Bengal,
The flowing literatures, tremendous epics, religions, castes,
Old occult Brahma interminably far back, the tender and junior Buddha,
Central and southern empires and all their belongings, possessors,
The wars of Tamerlane, the reign of Aurungzebe,
The traders, rulers, explorers, Moslems, Venetians, Byzantium,
the Arabs, Portuguese,
The first travelers famous yet, Marco Polo, Batouta the Moor,
Doubts to be solv'd, the map incognita, blanks to be fill'd,

The foot of man unstay'd the hands never at rest,

Thyself O soul that will not brook a challenge.
The mediaeval navigators rise before me,
The world of 1492, with itsawaken'd enterprise,
Something swelling in humanity now like the sap of the earth
in spring,

The sunset splendor of chivalry declining.

And who art thou sad shade?
Gigantic, visionary, thyself a visionary,

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With majestic limbs and pious beaming eyes,
Spreading around with every look of thine a golden world,
Enhuing it with gorgeous hues.
As the chief histrion,
Down to the footlights walks in some great seena,
Dominating the rest I see the Admiral himself,
(History type of courage, action, faith,)
Behold him sail from Palos leading his little fleet,
His voyage behold, his return, his great fame,
His misfortunes, calumniators, behold him a prisoner, chain'd.
Behold his dejection, poverty, death.

(Curious in time I stand, noting the efforts of heroes,

Is the deferment long? bitter the slander, poverty, death?
Lies the seed unreck'd for centuries in the ground? lo, to God's due occasion,

Uprising in the night, it sprouts, blooms,

And fills the earth with use and beauty.)

Passage indeed Osoul to primal thought,

Not lands and seas alone, thy own clear freshness,
The young maturity of brood and bloom,
To realms of budding bibles.
O soul, repressless, I with thee and thou with me,
Thy circumnavigation of the world begin,
Of man, the.voyage of his mind's return,
To reason's early paradise,
Back, back to wisdom's birth, to innocent intuitions,
Again with fair creation.
Owe can wait no longer,
We too take ship O soul,
Joyous we too launch out on trackless acts,
Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail,
Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me,
Osoul,)

Caroling free, singing our song of God,

Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration.
With laugh and many a kiss,
(Let others deprecate, let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation,)
O soul thou pleasest me, I thee.
Ah more than any priest O soul we too believe in God,
But with the mystery of.God we dare not dally.
O soul thou pleasest me, I thee,
Sailing these seas or on the hills, or waking in the night,
Thoughts, silent thoughts, of Time and Space and Death, like waters flowing,

Bear me indeed as through the regions infinite,

Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, leave me all over,
Bathe me OGod in thee, mounting to thee,
I and my soul to range of thee.

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OThou transcendent,
Nameless, the fibre and the breath,
Light of the light, shedding forth universes, thou centre of them,
Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving,
Thou moral, spiritual fountain-affection's source-thou res'ervoir,
(Opensive soul of me-0 thirst unsatisfied-waitest not there?
Waitest not haply for us somewhere there the Comrade perfect?)
Thou pulse-thou motive of the stars, suns, systems,
That, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious,
Athwart the shapeless vastnesses of space,
How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out of myself,

I could not launch, to those, superior universes?

Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God,
At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death,
But that, I, turning, call to thee Osoul, thou actual Me,
And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs,
Thou matest Time, smilestconterit at Death,
And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space.
Greater than stars or suns,
Bounding Osoul thou journeyest forth;
What love than thine and ours could wider amplify?
What aspirations, wishes, outviethine and ours Osoul?
What dreams of the ideal? what plans of purity, perfection, strength?
What cheerful willingness for others' sake to give up all?
For others' sake to suffer all?
Reckoning ahead Osoul, when thou, the time achiev'd
The seas all cross’d, weather'd, the capes, the voyage done.
Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest, the aim attain'd
As fill'd with friendship, love complete, the Elder Braother found,
The Younger melts in foundness in his arms. t

Passage to more than India!

Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights?
Osoul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like those?
Disportest thou on waters such as those?
Soundest below .the Sanscrit and the Vedas?
Then have thy bent unleash'd.
Passage to you, your shores, ye aged fierce enigmas!
Passage to you, to mastership of you, ye strangling problems!
You, strew'd with the wrecks of skeletons, that, living never reach'd you.

Passage to more than India!

O secret of the earth and sky!
Ofyou O waters of the seal O winding creeks and rivers! '
Ofyou O woods and fields! of you strong' mountains of my land!
Of you O prairies! of you gray rocks!
O morning red! O clouds! O rain and snows!
Oday and night, passage to you!
Osun and moon and all you stars! Sirius and Jupiter!
Passage to you!

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Passage, immediate passage! the blood bums in my veins!
Away O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawser-haul out-shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not grovel'd here long enough, eating and drinking like
mere brutes?

Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
Sail forth-steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
Omy bravesoul!
O farther farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!

Glossary
1) Empress Eugenie: Empress of France, Wife of Napoleon III. She was aboard the
ship leading the procession at the formal opening of the Suez Canal.
2) Christopher Columbus: Discoverer of America.
3) Vasco da Gama: Portuguese navigator; the first European to sail to India.
4) Trinitas: Whitman's approximate Spanish for 'the Holy Trinity'.'
5) The Doge : Chief magistrate of the city-state of Venice (697-1797) symbolized
the union of Venice and the sea by annually casting a gold ring into the Adriatic.
6) Caucasus: Area in Russia between the Black and Caspian seas.
7) Euphrats: River flowing from Turkey to the Persian Gulf.
8) Tamer-lane : Mongol conqueror
9) Marco Polo : Venetian traveller to India.
10) Admiral : Columbus
11) BatontatbeMoor : Explorer of Africa and Asia.
12) Palos:Sparishseafort from which Columbus sailed.
'.
2.3.1 Outline of the Poem
Walt Whitman's poem, 'Passage to India', which was first published in 1868, has nine
sections. Sections 1 to 3 deal with a journey through space and the exploration of
the physical environment by explorers. Sections 4 to 6 deal with a journey through
time. Also, the growth of man's culture to explore in these sections. Sections 7 to 8
deal with the exploration of the divine, and the merger of the human soul with the over
soul. In section 9, the poet appeals to his soul, to sail out and achieve the spiritual union
for which the rounding of the globe has been just a preparation.
Three significant events of 1869 and 1870 inspired Whitman to write 'Passage to India'.
The first was the completion of a railroad across North America from 'East to West; the
second was the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable; and the third was the opening of the
Suez Canal. These spectacular achievements of science and technology brought the
countries of the world-closer. Deep reflections on these achievements form the
background to the poem.

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2.3.2 Interpretation
In the previous section, we have referred to three achievements of science
and technology: a) the completion of a railroad across North America from East, to
West; b) the laying of the trans-Atlantic cable; and c) the opening of the Suez Canal.
After reflecting a lot over the events, Whitman came to the conclusion that the
historic sequence of events had a spiritual meaning. He wanted to harmonize the past
with the present and he was keen on proving that the past was a part of the present. As
a mystic-poet, he thought that he must give a new faith to inspire the future generations.
He wrote as follows:
"The past-the dark unfathomed retrospect!
The seeming gulf-the sleepers and the shadows!
The past-the infinite greatness of the past!
For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past".
But, to get into the past i.e. the history of mankind, one should know the contributionof
Asia in general and of India in particular. So, the poet wanted his fellowmen to
understand 'myths and fables of old, Asia's Africa's fables'. He asked the captains,
the voyagers, the explorers, the engineers and the architects to appreciate the beauty
of the 'temples fairer than lillies' and admire the 'lofty and dazzling towers,
pinnacled, red as roses, burnished with gold'. For, it would serve God's purpose:
"The earth to be spann'd, connected by network,
The races, neighbours, to marry and be given in marriage,
The Oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together".
Of course, this quest for knowledge would bring forth many struggles and a few
casualties. But, there would be a lot of achievements too, hands would be born;
nations would come into existence. (Thus America was born.) At this juncture, the
poet wondered as follows:
"Ah who shall sooth these feverish children?
Who justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassion earth? "
Who bind it to us? What is this separate Nature so unnatural?"
According to Whitman, the poet's role would begin in this context. The poet would sing
the divine songs about the deeds of the Voyagers and the scientists. Also, the poet would
play a vital role in the following activities:
"All tiese hearts as of fretted children shall be sooth'd,
All affection shall be fully responded to, the secrets shall be told,
All these separations and gaps shall be taken up and book'd and link'd together,
The whole earth, this cold, impassive, voiceless earth, shall be completely
justified,
Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish'd and compacted".
Finally, the poet would fuse Nature and Man together and the spiritual union would be
achieved. The poet (in Whitman) would not stop even at this point. He would tell his
soul about the 'Passage to more than India'. Further, he would say:
"O my brave soul! I -
O farther, farther sail!
Odaring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
Ofarther, farther, farther sail!

“Passage to India” is, indeed, a passage to more than India. The poem tells about
the poet's faith in the 'oneness of all'; his pride in the achievements of mankind in the

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field of science and technology; his conception of the role of a poet; and, finally, the
union of the human soul with the universal soul.

Further, the poem symbolises, first, the physical exploration carried out by the navigators
and explorers through railroad-and seas. Secondly, it symbolizes mankind's exploration
of its past. Thirdly, it symbolises the intellectual exploration to unite the past, the present,
and the future. Fourthly, the poem also symbo1ises) man's spiritual exploration which
will lead to a fusion of the human soul with the Universal Soul.

2.3.3 Poetic Devices in 'Passage to India'

1) Whitman, perhaps, was the first poet to exploit to the full the possibilities of
free verse. There is a rare compatibility between his form and his themes: the
long, unrestrained line in its free flow captures in its very form the spirit of
democracy and freedom. For instance :
"Singing my days,
Singing the great achievements of the present,
Singing the strong light works of engineers,
Our modern wonders, (the antique ponderous Seven outvised)
In the Old World the east the Suez Canal,
The New by its mighty railroad spann'd,
The seas inlaid with eloquent gentle wires".
(By the way, do you know what 'free verse' is? 'Free Verse' (or in the French term
vers libre) has a more controlled rhythm than ordinary prose, but it lacks the regular
stress pattern.)

2) Whitman's unit of rhythm is the phrase instead of the foot and his unit of thought is
the line instead of the sentence. Keeping in view this point, you should. examine the
following lines :
"Passage to India!
Lo, soul, seest than not God's purpose from the first?
The earth to be spann'd, connected by network,
The races, neighbours, to marry and be given in marriage,
The oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together".

3) One of the salient features of Whitman's poetry is 'the catalogue'. For instance :
"The far-darting beams of the spirit, the unloos'd dreams,
The deep diving bibles and legends,
The daring plots of the poets, the elder religions;"

4) 'Repetition' is another feature of the poetry of the Sage of Manhattan. Take a look at
the following lines :
"Ah who shall sooth these feverish children?
Who justify these restless explorations?
Who speak the secret of impassive earth?
Who bind it to us?"
5) 'Alliteration' is another literary device used by Whitman. The examples are as
follows :
budding bibles, singing his songs. Alliteration, as you know, is the repetition
of speech sounds in a sequence of nearby words.

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6) Do you know what 'Consonance' is? It is the repetition of a sequence of consonants,
but with a change in the intervening stressed vowels. For example: deep diving.

7) Another literary device used by Whitman is 'assonance' which is the repetition

of identical or similar vowel sounds-especially in stressed syllables--in a sequence of
nearby words. For instance: brood and bloom.

8) If you have studied 'Passage to India’ closely, you would also, like us, feel
that Whitman's style can be called functional. It was admirably adapted to describe
the immigrant and emigrant American on the move, the still unshaped landscapeof a
new continent, the energy and the romance of pioneering and the dreams of a nation
sure of an illimitable future.

9) Thebrilliance of Whitman's lines sometimes arises from his use of concrete,

vivid imagery, at other times from a piling up of simple details, and at other times
from a use of telling metaphor. Keeping in view this point, you should take a look
at the following lines :
"The old, most populous, wealthiest of earth's lands,
The streams of the Indus and the Ganges and their many affluents,
(. .................................................................... .)
The tale of Alexander on his-warlike marches suddenly dying,
......................................................................
The flowing literatures, tremendous epics, religion, castes,
Old occult Brahma interminably for back, the tender and junior Buddha."

Self-check Exercise 1
Answer the following questions:
1) Write a note on 'Passage to India'. (200 words)
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2) Write a brief note on the poetic devices used in 'Passage to India! (100 words)
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2.4 O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

OCaptain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done,

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The ship has feather'd every rock, the prize we sought
is war,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people allexulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and
daring;
But Oheart! heart! heart!
Othe bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
OCaptain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the
bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths-for you the
shores a crowding,
For you they call, the swaying man, their eager faces
turning:
Here captain! dear father!
The arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead. t
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyaged used, and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with.
object won;

Exult Oshores, and ring Obells!

But I with mournful tread.
Walk the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

2.4.1 Outline of the Poem

The poet's grief is expressed through the use of symbol and metaphor, The United States
is compared to a ship whose captain is Abraham Lincoln. The civil war fought under
Lincoln's leadership is called a dangerous voyage. As the captain is brave and skilful, he
brings the ship home after the successful completion of the voyage. The people are
naturally happy and they want to honour their captain. But, they cannot do so for their
captain is assassinated at the very moment of victory. The people eagerly wait on the
shore for their captain, but, unfortunately, he is dead. Finally, the poet is left alone on the
deck of the ship where his captain lies fallen and dead.

2.4.2 Interpretation

"O Captain! My Captain!" is one of the well-known poems of Whitman. It is an elegy on

the death of Abraham Lincoln, who was the President of the USA from 1860 to 1865.
Being kind and, gentle, he could not bear the sight of the wretched and subhuman
existence of the negro-slaves of the southern states of his country and thereby, he wanted
to abolish slavery. The Southern States at this juncture decided to break away from the
Northern States. Abraham Lincoln as the President of the country did not approve of the
decision of the Southern States and decided to fight a \ civil war in the interest of his
country.

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 He fought the war bravely and skillfully and saved his country from disintegration. But
hardly a year later, Lincoln was assassinated by an actor, John Wilkes Booth, in a
theatre. Consequently, the entire nation plunged into mourning. Walt Whitman, who was
an ardent admirer of Lincoln, feltthat the death of his leader was a personal loss. This,
accounts for the poignancy of the poet's grief in the elegy. A closer analysis of the poem
reveals that the opening lines have a measured rhythm that suggests speaker's tone filled with
celebration. The lines are made up of two rhyming couplets, so the rhyme scheme follows a
regular pattern of AABB.
The opening lines of the poem give us a clear description of the scenes of rejoicing
following victorious return of the ship to harbour. The speaker addresses the captain as
he congratulates him on navigating the ship through a "fearful" and challenging journey
filled with "racks," or storms. After all these dangers, the ship has returned home, having
won the "prize" of victory. The lines celebrate the victorious ship with cheers and bells.
The ship is described as "steady" but also battle-hardened, "grim," and "daring," thus
emphasizing its bravery and longevity in the face of long dangers.
It is to be noted that the poem opens with a repeated apostrophe—which, from context,
you will be able to understand that the poem is addressed to Abraham Lincoln. In each
stanza, four seven-beat lines (each the equivalent of two standard ballad lines of
tetrameter and trimeter), are followed by a slightly changing ballad refrain. The refrain—
after two trimeters—returns to the tetrameter / trimeter ballad beat. The poem, by its use
of this form, implies that soldiers and sailors have a right to verse written for them in the
sort of regularly rhyming stanzas that they like best.
In the beginning, it is hinted as if the speaker is a kind of spokesperson for the crowds
who cheer the return of the ship, noting that "our fearful trip is done" and "the prize we
sought is won." In due course, however, the poem brings out a gap between the speaker
and the celebrations around him. While the people are "exulting" or celebrating, the
speaker fixates on the drops of blood on the deck of the ship and expresses his grief that
the captain has "fallen cold and dead" even at the height of his triumph.
The poem sets up a comparison and projects President Lincoln to a captain and the
United States to a ship. This prize is a metaphor for the Union’s victory in the war, which
had finally come about, after a long struggle, in 1865. The speaker describes how the
“ship is anchor’d safe and sound,” just as the Union emerged triumphant after years of
struggle against the Confederacy.
But although the ship’s voyage comes to an end, this is not the conclusion of the
extended metaphor. What looks like a triumphant nautical metaphor for President
Lincoln’s able leadership and the Union’s victory soon turns tragic, as it turns out that
the “captain” of the poem’s governing metaphor has in fact died, even as the city
celebrates the victorious ship. In this way, the poet takes a conventional extended
metaphor—comparing a political leader to a captain of a ship—and recasts it in a more
melancholy and reflective tone.
The word “fearful” is used twice in the poem, used both times in the phrase “fearful
trip.” This is done to underlines the fact that the journey undertaken by the ship was full
of challenges and “fearful” in the sense of “inspiring fear.” However, despite the
frightening challenges faced by the ship, it has nonetheless returned victorious.
Whitman had written of Lincoln: “UNIONISM, in its truest and amplest sense, formed
the hardpan of his character.” The ship of state did, of course, hold and sail into the
Union “port,” but at the cost of even Lincoln himself, who was shot on April 14, 1865,
by a Secessionist five days after the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee surrendered at
Appomattox. The surrender, the viability of the Union, and the end of slavery are all part
and parcel of the “prize we sought” (line 2) and the “object won” (line 20).

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Modern critics have often been seen arguing that the poem is aesthetically inferior to
Whitman’s later, more experimental poetry, and adding Whitman’s own statement later
in life that he wished he had never written it.
At the same time, however, proponents of the poem have suggested that the poem’s
accessible and regular language and meter offers a vehicle through which to express
powerful emotions in a more regulated form. Needless to say, The poem was enormously
popular when it was first published and is still regularly memorized and recited,
suggesting that it offered a way for the American people to express their collective grief.
2.4.3 Poetic Devices in the Poem
1) 'O Captain! My Captain!' is not a formless poem. In fact, it is Whitman's best poem
in rhyme and near regular metre. It is a poem in three stanzas of eight lines each,
each stanza having a regular rhyme-pattern.

2) We have already said that 'O Captain! My Captain!' is an elegy. What is an elegy?
An elegy is a formal and sustained poem of lament for the death of a
particular person. The present poem is a lament for the death of Abraham Lincoln.

3) ‘Metaphor' is used by Whitman in this poem. The USA is the ship and its captain is
the president, Abraham Lincoln. The war waged against the Southern States was the
voyage undertaken by the captain. ,
Self-Check Exercise 2

Answer the following questions.

1) Write a brief note on the outline of 'OCaptain!' My Captain! (100 words)

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2) Write a brief note on the poetic devices used in 'OCaptain! My captain!' (100
words)

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3) "Again Vasco de Gama sails forth

Again the knowledge gain'd the mariner's compass,
Lands found and nations born; thou born America"
Explain the above lines. (100 words)

2.5 SUMMING UP
I

WaltWhitman wasanother American poet who was profoundly influenced by Indian

Thought. The poem, 'Passage to India' contains passages describing India's greatness and
its glorious contribution to world thought; of course, 'Passage to India' is a passage to
more than India. 'OCaptain! My Captain! is an elegy written by Whitman to
commemorate the sacrificemade by Abraham Lincoln. Both poems reflect the essential
features of Whitman's poetry.

2.6 ANSWERS TO SELF-CHECK EXERCISES

Self-check Exercise 1
1)Read Sections 2.2.3 and 2.3.4 thoroughly and then answer the question.
2) Read the poem again and refer to the section devoted to the poem.
Self-check Exercise 2
1) Refer Section 2.4.2
2) Read the poem thoroughly and refer Section 2.4.3

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