"O Captain, My Captain" is about America's acknowledgement of Abraham Lincoln as the leader of their country. The poet uses metaphors to express his ideas. He uses "captain" as Abraham Lincoln. The "ship" is the civil war. He refers to the civil war as the "victor ship". This makes sense because Lincoln serves as the commander of the civil war. At the end of the first verse, Lincoln dies while "bleeding drops of red". "From fearful trip the victor ship comes in the with object won." Whitman focuses on that right after the Civil war ends, Lincoln dies. He does that with the poem too, by saying, "The port is near" and then later saying "where on the deck the captain lies, fallen cold and dead." Whitman also refers to Lincoln as a father, because he is the father of his nation. The speaker of the poem does not want to believe that the captain is dead, by saying, "My Captain does not answer his lips pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will." But then, sadly, he realizes that the captain will not come back.
~*~Nicole~*~