O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops o red!

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! 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 crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here, Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head!

It is some dream that on the deck

You’ve fallen cold and dead.

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;

Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

   – Walt Whitman

Figure of Speech:

Alliteration:

The ship has weather’d  every rack, the prize we sought is won – v

The port is near, the   bells I hear, the people all exulting – p

While  follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring – v

Rise up – for you the flag  is flung – for you the bugle trills – f

For you they call, the   swaying mass, their eager faces turning – t

It is some dream that on   the deck – d

My father does not feel  my arm, he has no pulse nor will – f, n

The ship is anchor’d safe  and sound, its voyage closed and done – s

From fearful  trip the victor ship comes in with object won – f

Allusion:

Here, Captain! dear father!

My father does not feel my arm,   he has no pulse nor will

Father here refers to Abraham   Lincoln. The assassination of Abraham   Lincoln and the victory of American civil war is referred throughout the   poem.

Metaphor

O Captain! My Captain! Our   fearful trip is done

The ship has weather’d   every rack, the prize we sought is won

O Captain! My Captain! Rise up   and hear the bells

Here, Captain! dear father

Anaphora:

The  ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The  port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting

for you  the flag is flung – for you the bugle trills,

For you  bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths – for you the shores crowding,

For you they   call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Exult, O shores! and   ring, O bells

Repetition:

O Captain! My Captain!   Our fearful trip is done

But O heart! heart! heart!

Apostrophe:

But O heart! heart! heart!

Rise up – for you the flag is   flung – for you the bugle trills

Exult, O shores! and ring, O   bells!

Rhyme Scheme

aabb – done, won; exulting, daring; bells, trills;   crowding, turning; still, will; done,   won;

abcb – Red, dead; head, dead;

abab – Bells, lies; tread, dead;