Blog 18- LAST ONE :)

The poem that I chose to read by Walt Whitman was “O Captain! My Captain!”. This poem is about Walt Whitman’s hero, Abraham Lincoln. Walt Whitman admired Abraham Lincoln a lot and thought that he was a great president. He wrote this poem after Lincoln died.  (Lorcher)  “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 voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;” (Whitman). In this passage of the poem, Whitman writes about how they had won the victory of the war, but when he looks at his captain, he is “pale and still”. I think that Abraham Lincoln’s death affected Whitman a lot because Lincoln was such a hero to Whitman.  I think that Walt Whitman was very proud of Abraham Lincoln and thought that he was a great leader, because in one part of the poem, he says, “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 mass, their eager faces turning;” (Whitman). I think that here Whitman is giving Abraham Lincoln credit for the victory in the Civil War. He is saying that everyone is cheering for him and the flag is flying just for him and the bugles are sounding for him.

I believe that Walt Whitman was against slavery. Abraham Lincoln spent a lot of his presidency trying to abolish slavery. He is the president that declared war and ended slavery for good. Since Walt Whitman was such a huge supporter of Abraham Lincoln, I think that he probably held the same views on slavery that Abraham Lincoln held. Walt Whitman was against slavery and so were Emerson and Thoreau. Emerson and Thoreau fought in the Civil War to end slavery. They both believed that the individual was very important and that slavery should not exist. I think that this is the biggest similarity between Walt Whitman and Thoreau and Emerson.

Bibliography

Lorcher, Trent. ""O Captain! My Captain!" Analysis: The Meaning Behind Walkt Whitman's Famous Poem." Bright Hub Education. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. 

Whitman, Walt. "O Captain! My Captain!" By Walt Whitman : The Poetry Foundation. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.