The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Whitman, Walt. “O Captain! My Captain!.” Poetry Foundation Online. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45474/o-captain-my-captain.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the line numbers in which the quotation appears.

Taken at face value, “Oh Captain! My Captain!” is a twenty-four-line poem from the point of view of an unnamed shipman. Though his ship has returned triumphantly from a venture out to sea, the shipman must come to terms with the death of his ship’s beloved Captain. In fact, Whitman wrote “Oh Captain! My Captain!” in response to the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Although Whitman had never met Lincoln in-person, he felt a spiritual connection with the President and was deeply grieved by his death.

"Oh Captain! My Captain!" begins with the speaker announcing that their trip at sea has ended and the people on land are happy to welcome them back. However, the mood quickly shifts as the speaker realizes that the captain of the ship is dead. The speaker encourages the captain to "rise up and hear the bells" (9), hoping that he is still alive. As the poem concludes, the speaker accepts that the captain has died and acknowledges that while everyone else celebrates the return of the ship, he alone mourns for his leader.