A Comparison Of 'O Captain ! My Captain'?

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The presidents of the U.S. are very important people. Every president made a piece of history and without them, history wouldn’t be the same. Although, the ones that were unfortunately assassinated made a bigger impact. This is because they would become martyrs and people would continue their legacies. Two key presidents in U.S. history would be, J.F.K. and Abraham Lincoln. Both presidents were killed and remembered. Elegies were written for both of these presidents. “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman, was written about Abraham Lincoln, and “Elegy for J.F.K.” by W.H. Auden, was written for J.F.K. Both of these poems had a great impact on the U.S., and they have been read many people worldwide as well. The poems, “O Captain! My Captain!” …show more content…

In “O Captain! My Captain!”, the rhyme scheme is, “AABBCDEDFFBBGDHDIIAA”. On the other hand, in “Elegy for J.F.K.”, there no rhyme scheme. Although they have completely different rhyme schemes, neither poem has perfect rhyme. This is because if the poems had perfect rhyme it would sound like a song. These poems also have significantly different meter. In “O Captain! My Captain!”, the meter is iambic. ‘"O Captain! My Captain!" is the only Walt Whitman poem that has a regular meter and rhyme scheme’(David 4)Although, there is no specific amount of feet in each line. On the contrary, “Elegy for J.F.K.” has no meter. But similar to “O Captain! My Captain!”, there is no specific number of feet per line. The physical layout of the text, including the white space, is very similar. Both poems separate their paragraphs with one line of white space. Although, “O Captain! My Captain!” has every other paragraph spaced in an increasing …show more content…

In “O Captain! My Captain!” there is alliteration. ‘Two examples of alliteration are in line 10 "flag is flung", as well as in line 19 "safe and sound"’(O Captain 7). On the other hand, “Elegy for J.F.K.” has no alliteration. On the other hand, “Elegy for J.F.K.” is free verse, while “O Captain! My Captain!” has meter and rhyme. One similarity would be that both poems have refrains. ‘Repetition occurs many times in “O Captain! My Captain!”, for example "O Captain! My Captain", and "fallen cold and dead"’(O Captain 9). Similarly, “Elegy for J.F.K.” repeats a whole