Symbolism In O Captain ! My Captain By Walt Whitman

â€Å"O Captain! My Captain† by Walt Whitman is a poem written as a way to honor Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in 1865. The poem is about a sailor who is praising his captain for leading the ship through a long, hard voyage. As everyone starts to celebrate the homecoming of the vessel, the sailor notices his captain lying on the deck, dead. Whitman uses symbolism to aid not only himself, but the country, in the mourning of their president. The poem as a whole has a symbolic meaning; using the captain to represent President Lincoln, the ship to represent the United States and the voyage to represent the journey he took to get the country out of war and into a state of peace. By Whitman using these symbols, it helps one better†¦show more content†¦The captains ship had been through tough situations, having â€Å"weatherd every rack† (line 2). Whitman uses the ship as a symbol for the United States, which had been affected greatly by the Civil War causing mass amounts of casualties in both people and land. Despite the difficulties faced, the ship had successfully been â€Å"anchord safe and sound† (line19). Continuing the idea that Whitman is using these symbols, instead of blatantly stating his actual reasons for writing the poem, to help a reader relate and be more understanding of the message behind the poem. In the one case, the ship is the United States, but in another it could just as easily be a large family that went through a difficult time but in the end everything turned out alright. The ability to relate to a poem is beneficial to understanding it and by whitman using these symbols it makes the poem much easier to comprehend. Both the captain and the ship embark on a voyage, which symbolizes the Civil War. The Civil War held many battles that resulted in advances towards an end as well as setbacks which cause the war to last longer than expected. But like the Civil War, the fearful trip the captain has endured is over. It wasn’t an easy journey and it took quite some time, but now it is over and the prize is won. The United States stayed together; the north and the southShow MoreRelated A True Patriot: Walt Whitman Essay1081 Words   |  5 Pages A True Patriot: Walt Whitman When one talks of great American Poets, if the person has any since of intelligence, then they can in now way fail to mention Walt Whitman. Whitman is unmistakingly a great American poet, So great, that Ralph Waldo Emerson said that he was an â€Å"American Shakespeare† (Tucker 247). While the debate still goes on about that comment, there is no debate about the greatness of Whitman. Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, NY on May 31, 1819 on Long Island. 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