1) The title of the poem is “O Captain! My Captain!”.

2) The poet’s name is Walt Whitman.

3) The rhyme scheme is: aabbcded

4) Favourite Lines:

“But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”



5) Theme/Central Idea:

The central idea of the poem is the poet mourning the loss of his great leader. There is mixed emotions in the poem as there is celebrations for victory in battle but also sadness for the death of their leader and captain. This poem is said to refer to the death of President Abraham Lincoln after the American Civil War.

6) Figures of Speech: Alliteration, Antithesis, Apostrophe, Hyperbole, Inversion, Metaphor, Repetition.

7) Special features: This is an emotional poem where the poet is addressing his great leader and captain President Abraham Lincoln. There is use of Metaphor to show the relation between the American Civil War, the contribution of its leader and the mixed feelings after his death. The poem has 8 lines in each of its stanzas and the seventh line the rhyme is broken.

8) I like this poem as it is quite emotional and shows the love and respect by the poet towards his great leader.