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Comparing Walt Whitman's O Me ! And O Captain ! O Life

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Walt Whitman wrote a lot of poems in his lifetime. He wrote two of the most famous poems in history, “O Captain! My Captain!” and “O Me! O Life!”. “O Captain! My Captain!” is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, written in 1865. This is his most famous poem. “O Me! O Life!” is his way of questioning the meaning of life, and was written in 1892. The way he wrote the two poems in theme is the same sentimentally, but the structures and tones are very different. “O Me! O Life” was written by Walt Whitman for people to question their existence and find their purpose in life. It was written in 1892. With it being written in a free verse poem, -there is not a rhyme scheme. The whole poem is him questioning life until he gets to the end. He has a part of the poem that has “Answer” as the subtitle. It is his answer to his question throughout the poem. His answer is “That you are here- that life exists and identity, that the …show more content…

He means to seek meaning in your life. The line says, “Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,”. He is saying that the eyes want to see something great. Something that will make your life worth living. The rest of the poem is just a restatement of what was said earlier in the paper. He talks about the empty and useless years he has had. He used them years for sleeping. He wasn’t moving toward his dreams. These last few lines have the same meaning as the third line in this poem. “O Captain! My Captain!” is probably Walt Whitman’s best poem he has ever written. It was written in 1865. It was written in a post-Civil War America. The captain he is referring to is Abraham Lincoln. He was the 16th president of the United States during the Civil War and post-Civil War. He leaded the Union during the Civil War. He abolished slavery, and he freed many slaves throughout the United States. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth during a

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Walt Whitman was an American poet and journalist born on May 31, 1819. Whitman was influenced by transcendentalism, which was an idea emphasizing that to understand nature, one must analyze the reasoning or process behind it. Whitman had done many writings throughout his life that had been inspirations for other poets. For example, in the spring of 1855, Whitman published “Leaves of Grass”, which was a collection of twelve unnamed poems. This writing was enticed by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who thought that the collection of poems were “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom.”

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Abe Lincoln knew Walt Whitman from previous years and would even often recite some of his poems out loud or just by himself. Walt Whitman was generally inspired by Abe Lincoln and wrote many poems inspired from the president himself. When Walt Whitman traveled away from Washington D.C on 1865 to go and visit his family in Brooklyn, Walt Whitman started to go over one of his new poems called “Drum-Taps” and shortly later he received the news of Abe Lincoln's assassination. Walt Whitman with crushed within hearing about his idol being shot in the head, and to pay ovation to Abe Lincoln for all he did, Walt Whitman wrote his best known poem “O Captain My Captain”. In that poem he explained how Lincoln united the nation and succeeded in winning the Civil War, but was not able to live to see the aftermath.

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Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself is a poem where he celebrates the self. One can argue that his poem is quite arrogant especially if they only would focus on the title or the first verse “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Whitman, 1892). Despite this, Whitman had a lot of interesting

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In his opinion, he will regret his choices further down the road. He says he shall be telling his story with a sigh once the time is right. The path would negatively impact his future. The second poem is titled “O’Captain,My Captain” The poem was written by Walt Whitman as a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth president.

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For example, on line 13, 14, 15, and 16 he uses rhyme scheme at the end of the line. He uses the words deep, keep, sleep, and sleep again for the rhyme scheme. The theme of the poem is that you should put out all of your effort before it ends. The meaning of the poem is life and death. The reader can infer this because when he says “miles to go before I sleep”, it means he is not ready to die.

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In this grand poem, Whitman glorifies the unity of all people and life. He embraces the geographical diversity as well as the diversity of culture, work, as well as sexuality or beliefs. Whitman’s influence sets American dreams of freedom, independence, and self-fulfillment, and changes them for larger spiritual meaning. Whitman appreciates hard work as well as being simple and non-egotistical. His major ideas are things such as soul, good health, as well as the love of nature.

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In Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself’, one can appreciate the poem properly by understanding the poem’s voice, imagery, figures of speech, symbols, word choice, and theme. To understand it though requires a great deal of thought to arrive to the meaning behind the writing. Especially since this poem was written in the nineteenth century and is written in a very loose structure and free verse. Firstly, the speaker of the poem is an individual, Walt Whitman himself, as seen by the repetition of “I” in the poem.

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