Blog #18

For my Walt Whitman poem I chose O Captain! My Captain! because the title looked really familiar and I was interested in seeing what it was about. The first time I read through this poem, I kind of understood the point of it but I felt like I was missing parts so I looked up an analysis online and found one that I thought was a really interesting way of looking at things. Looking at this analysis, I learned that Walt Whitman was a huge fan of Abraham Lincoln and saw him as "The Redeemer President" of the United States (Lorcher). After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Whitman wrote this poem (Lorcher). If you think about what the poem says and then compare it to the events in the civil war, it actually makes a lot of sense. For example, in this poem Whitman says "The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won," (Whitman). Abraham Lincoln was part of the Union, and the Union won the civil war so that is how this line can be related to the events of the time. I think that this is a really interesting way to look at this poem because for once I actually know why it was written and what its meaning is. Walt Whitman was a supporter of Abraham Lincoln, who was obviously against slavery, which is one way in which this poem can be related to Emerson and Thoreau. The Civil War was between the north and the south, which is also people who were against slavery verse people who were for slavery. Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau were all against slavery which is one huge similarity between them all.

Lorcher, Trent. ""O Captain! My Captain!" Analysis: The Meaning Behind Walkt Whitman's Famous Poem." Brighthub Education. 9 Dec. 2011. Web. 07 Mar. 2012.

Whitman, Walt. "O Captain! My Captain!, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 07 Mar. 2012.