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Comparative Essay 'O Captain ! My Captain'

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Comparative Essay
Whether we acknowledge it or not, most of us fear death. Death remains a great mystery to all of us. The poem “O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman is about a ship captain who was successful in battles and returns home, where everyone is waiting to celebrate his victory. “The Chambered Nautilus” is a poem written by Oliver Wendell Holmes. This poem is about a “Chambered Nautilus” which is a snail-like marine creature that can float. The inside of the shell has a look of pearl. These poems have many similarities and differences such as imagery,death, and symbolism. There are many different elements found in these poems, the ones above are examples of a few.
In “O Captain! My Captain!,” Walt Whitman is very good at showing …show more content…

Another example of imagery is, “it’s dim dreaming life”(Holmes 11). This makes the Nautilus seems as a human capable of dreaming. He also uses the theme of death in his poem. Some examples would be, “leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!”Holmes-35). This shows that there is life after you die, and life will still go on.Holmes also says, “from the dead lips a clearer note is born”(Holmes-25) and this shows that life after death is beautiful and you don’t need to be afraid. Holmes also uses symbolism in his poems. “As the tenant shaped his growing shell”(Holmes-12), the growth of the shell represents the the constant growing of humans. Another example of imagery is, “Let each new temple, nobler than the last”(Holmes-31/32). Holmes hopes to learn a life lesson from the Nautilus.
In both “O Captain! My Captain and “The Chambered Nautilus” the main themes are death. But they have many different other themes, “The Chambered Nautilus” other themes are beauty and nature. “O Captain! My Captain” other themes are struggle, independence, and imagination. The other themes that the poems have are very different. “The Chambered Nautilus”, has a lot more noticable imagery then “O Captain! My Captain” has. Symbolism is used equally by both poems I think, some were hidden more than

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