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American Literature Unit 4 Poetry
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Poetry
ENGLISH
American Literature
- Anne Bradstreet, The Prologue.
- Walt Whitman, Selections from Leaves of Grass: 0 Captain, My Captain.
- Passage to India. (lines 1-68) Robert Frost, “Mending Wall” Alexie Sherman Alexie ‘Crow Testament’
The Prologue : Anne Bradstreet
1. What is the analysis Of Anne Bradstreet’s “The Prologue”?
Ans: “The Prologue” is often considered Anne Bradstreet’s personal statement about her role as a female poet in a male-dominated Puritan society, and even though the tone of the poem is at times light-hearted, Bradstreet is critical of those who restrict women’s roles.
In the first four stanzas, Bradstreet essentially denigrates her ability as a poet. She cannot, for example, discuss such things as “Wars, of Captains, and of Kings’ ‘ because “My foolish, broken, blemished Muse” is not up to that task. She sadly notes that even though she reads the poetry of Du Bartas she doesn’t have the skills to write like Du Bartas and wishes that the Muse of Poetry had given her some bit of Du Bartas’ skill.
Bradstreet’s tone changes markedly in the fifth stanza when she complains that people disparage her attempts at poetry and tell her that she should be wielding a needle not a pen. And, she notes, even if her poetry is good, she will be either be accused of plagiarism or of accidentally writing something worthwhile.
The sixth stanza discusses the views of classical Greek culture, which were much less harsh toward women than the people of Bradstreet’s society, but even the Greeks failed to exalt the role of women in intellectual matters.
In the last stanza, Bradstreet acknowledges that it is a waste of time to battle men, who “have presidency and still excell” in an intellectual war, but she asks men to at least make a “small acknowledgement” that women have intellectual abilities.
2. In the poem “Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet, explain how she rationalises and legitimises her role as a female writer and show how she uses that tactic to disarm or ward off those who might be critical of her verse.
Ans: I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits.
This is perhaps the best illustration from this poem by Anne Bradstreet of her rejection of the idea that she, as a woman, should listen to the “carping tongues” of those who feel she would be better occupied in sewing than in sharing her opinions as a writer. In this poem, Bradstreet openly acknowledges that she is by no means infallible: she states in the opening stanza that she has only a “mean Pen,” poorly equipped in her “poor lines,” when she is contrasted with the output of “Poets and Historians.” However, the initial two stanzas of the poem do not mention her gender at all. On the contrary, in these stanzas the humility she expresses has nothing to do with her womanhood at all. Bradstreet is stating simply that all modem writers should feel a similar sense that “simple am I according to my skill.”
Bradstreet is evidently unwilling to accept any suggestion that she, as a woman, is less capable of commentary than other humans of any gender. However, she does attempt to preempt critical commentary from readers by noting that “From School-boy’s tongue no Rhet’ric we expect.” She then describes her own “Muse” as “blemished” and notes that it cannot be expected, therefore, to produce perfect notes, as could be expected from a broken instrument. Bradstreet therefore elicits audience sympathy and engagement by com-paring herself to an innocent school child—notably, a boy.
However, Bradstreet is unrepentant in her commentary that any scorn cast “on female wits” will fall upon deaf ears in her case. She states that “men have precedency and still excel / It is but vain unjustly to wage war.” This suggests, first, that men get angry about female intelligence out of sheer vanity, as they already have more power; it also indicates perhaps that this anger is driven by a fear that, should they not “wage war,” women’s intelligence might push them toward equality. At the end of this stanza, Bradstreet asks simply that men “grant some small acknowledgement” of the intelligence of women. The implication of this is that it is a small thing to ask, and it will do no harm to the men involved.
3. What is the connection between the form and the content in “The Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet?
Ans: Anne Bradstreet, one of the primary poets of the Puritan era, is being rather ironic in this poem. Notice that Bradstreet’s content rejects the idea that men are “superior” to women (indeed, there is much irony in stanza seven as she defers to men!) and that men possess superior talents in writing to those of women. She seemingly plays down her own talents, expressing that she surely cannot write better than the Greeks with her “mean” pen (read “mere” in today’s meaning). But then in stanza five, Bradstreet outwardly rebels against the traditional female role—a move that was rather brave for her day.
In terms of poetic form, Bradstreet further rebels against the idea that her verse is inferior by composing finely-crafted lines, each of which contains ten syllables. The predominant metre throughout is iambic pentameter. This is one of the most common metres in poetry, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable so that each line has five stressed syllables. See the example below, wherein the words or letters in all caps receive the stress when the poem is spoken :
To SING of WARS, of CAPTAINS AND of KINGS
Of CITIES FOUNDED, COMMONWEALTHS BEGUN
and so on. There might be a bit of variation in some lines, but the dominant pattern is iambic pentameter. Note also that the last two lines in each stanza consist of a rhyming couplet.
Thus, Bradstreet echoes her content arguing for the talents of women by composing a tightly crafted poem that proves her case.
4. What are some examples of sarcasm in the poem “The Prologue”?
Ans: “The Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet is full of sarcasm. It sounds as if she is imitating things that critics have told her and pretending to agree in her poem.
In the very first stanza, she says her lines would dim the worth of epic stories and history. However, we can be fairly sure that she is not actually agreeing that her writing cannot capture any great stories—or else she would not be writing.
Throughout the poem, she continues to list reasons she cannot possibly produce art and ends each stanza with an insult to herself or her writing. The end lines of each stanza are a great place to look for sarcasm, as she lets the bitterness with which she writes ooze through each word.
I love stanza five, where she mentions that instead of a pen, she should be holding a needle. This stanza goes into the sexism of the time and the resistance that she faced as a woman writer. The ending of this stanza suggests that when her writing does well, people will make any excuse to keep from attributing the praise to her.
She goes on to point out that men had an advantage in almost every way and to say that women are able to accomplish so little that what they do should.be acknowledged, since in the end men still have so many more opportunities.
The end of the poem is also a sarcastic punch, as she says that her writing, if it is bad, is meant to make the writings of men look better.
5. How does John Milton’s Il’ Penseroso compare to Anne Bradstreet’s “Prologue”?
Ans: Three important elements that these poems share are allusions to Greek mythology, flowery diction, and a first-person perspective.
Bradstreet compares her own poetry to that of the Ancient Greeks and notes that the Greeks made the Muses female, therefore being more lenient towards women than people of her own era. Milton uses extensive classical allusions to describe how the speaker can benefit from melancholy.
Both poems use extremely flowery diction, which is to say that they say what they have to say in unnecessarily complex and pretty ways. For example, Bradstreet calls on “oh ye high flown quills that soar the skies,” while Milton refers to “him that yon soars on golden wing.” However, Milton’s diction is more consistently flowery throughout than is Bradstreet’s.
Finally, both poems use the first person, perhaps suggesting that the speaker is Bradstreet or Milton, respectively. Bradstreet’s speaker is explicitly a woman writing about writing poems, while Milton’s poem refers less directly to his personal identity.
6. Discuss the use of symbols and symbolism in “The Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet.
Ans: We can pick out a lot of symbolism in this short poem. Bradstreet’s key theme is women’s work and how it should not be seen as a “war” waged against the preeminence of men for her to do something thought befitting a woman. As a symbol in this regard, she smokes the image of an instrument with “broken strings.” The broken strings symbolise the lesser figure of woman as compared to man: as an instrument not fully compiese. she suggests, she cannot be expected to produce as pure a sound as a better instrument might—so men Need not worry that she is trying to challenge them.
Later. we come across the symbols of the “needle” and the “pen.” The needle, which critics would rather see in the speaker’s hand, symbolises all forms of traditional women’s work, including sewing and knitting. The needle here represents all the things thought to be better uses of a woman’s time than writing, such as house docs , childcare, and so on. The “pen” Bradstreet wields is her own small war against this, but note that it is “a Poet’s pen”—suggesting that it is borrowed, rather than being her own. “Quills’ ‘ later make an appearance in the poem to symbolise the same thing: poetic creation.
Toward the end of the poem, Bradstreet uses a very powerful image contrasting the symbols of ore and gold. The “ore” here is Bradstreet’s self-deprecating reference to her own poetic output—she is suggesting that it is storefined ” and meagre. However, she is arguing, this does not mean she should not be allowed to produce it; on the contrary, male writers should be happy that she is writing, because her “ore” makes the “gold” of their output look even more beautiful by contrast.
7. What is the analysis Of Anne Bradstreet’s “The Prologue”?
Ans: “The Prologue” is often considered Anne Bradstreet’s personal statement about her role as a female poet in a male-dominated Puritan society, and even though the tone of the poem is at times light-hearted, Bradstreet is critical of those who restrict women’s roles.
In the first four stanzas, Bradstreet essentially deni-grates her ability as a poet. She cannot, for example, discuss such things as “Wars, of Captains, and of Kings” because “My foolish, broken, blemished Muse” is not up to that task. She sadly notes that even though she reads the poetry of Du Bartas she doesn’t have the skills to write like Du Bartas and wishes that the Muse of Poetry had given her some bit of Du Bartas’ skill.
Bradstreet’s tone changes markedly in the fifth stanza when she complains that people disparage her attempts at poetry and tell her that she should be wielding a needle not a pen. And, she notes, even if her poetry is good, she will either be accused of plagiarism or of accidentally writing something worthwhile.
The sixth stanza discusses the views of classical Greek culture, which were much less harsh toward women than the people of Bradstreet’s society, but even the Greeks failed to exalt the role of women in intellectual matters.
In the last stanza, Bradstreet acknowledges that it is a waste of time to battle men, who “have precedency and still excel” in an intellectual war, but she asks men to at least make a “small acknowledgement” that woman have intellectual abilities.
Walt Whitman,Selections from Leaves of Grass : 0 Captain, My Captain ? Passage to India? (lines 1-68)
8. What’s the main idea in “0 Captain ! My Captain”?
Ans: It is well known that Whitman’s “0 Captain! my Captain !” is a lament for the death of Abraham Lincoln. Even without that knowledge, however, the poem remains effective and moving, in large part because the idea and emotions it conveys are not necessarily tied to that singular situation.
The main idea, or point of emphasis, in this poem is underlined through Whitman’s use of repetition: the Captain is “fallen cold and dead.” Whitman repeats this phrase three times, and it is the final line in the poem and thus the idea retained by the reader. The death of the captain has not been for nothing—after all, the “fearful trip is done,” “the prize we sought is won,” and the people are “all exulting.” So,. the tone of the poem, while melancholy, is not without its lighter elements. The captain has died in achieving his goals, and the people recognize that, with “the flag . . . flung” for the fallen captain, while “the bugle trills.” In recognition of the captain’s sacrifice, there are “bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths,” and the shores are “a-crowding.”
We know that, for the speaker himself, this “victory” is not yet sufficient to override his sadness over the loss of his captain. He moves “with mournful tread,” his heart “bleeding drops of red.” However, there is a glimmer of hope at the end of the poem that, in fact, he does recognize that the sacrifice may have been worth it. He encourages the celebration of victory which validates his captain’s sacrifice : “Exult 0 shores, and ring 0 bells !” So, arguably, the key idea in this poem is that to die for a “dream” is a sacrifice which may ultimately be worth it, if the “ship is anchored safe and sound,” whatever the sadness suffered for the loss of a “father.”
9. What are the main themes developed by Whitman in the poem “0 Captain”?
Ans: The overarching theme is the death of Abraham Lincoln. His death heralded not only the end of the Civil War (Whitman’s original motivation for writing “Song of Myself’ was, according to Whitman scholar Ed Folsom, an attempt to use poetry to keep the nation together) but also the end of a great presidency. The passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments attempted to make the nation more equal.
Each stanza addresses a more specific theme in relation to this general one. In the first line of the first stanza, the narrator speaks of a “fearful trip [that is] done.” This is a metaphor for the Civil War. The speaker continues: “The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, / The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting….” The “ship” could be the nation, which Whitman envisions as a moving vessel that has “weather’d” every storm, or “rack.” By using the pronoun “we,” the narrator establishes an allegiance with the Union, which “won” the prize—both the war and the right to keep the country together. “The port” is the end of the war, at which everyone exults. Bells signal jubi-lation, which abruptly ends at the sight of “bleeding drops of red”—an allusion to the shot that killed Lincoln.
The second stanza is the nation’s period of mourning and includes direct references to aspects of Lincoln’s funeral (“[f]or you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths,” “the swaying mass”). The narrator, like most of the nation, cannot imagine a nation without the president: “It is some dream that on the deck, / You’ve fallen cold and dead.”
The third stanza is about reckoning with the reality of Lincoln’s demise: “My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, / My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will….” Notice here that Lincoln is not only the nation’s leader, or “Captain,” but also a paternal figure, guiding the nation morally. He is responsible for having birthed a new nation that will no longer sanction slavery.
The nation has been made safe, and the war has ended (“The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, / From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won…”). However, the narrator remains in mourning for the loss of a great man: “But I with mournful tread, / Walk the deck my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead.”
10. What is Walt Whitman’s tone in his poem “0 Captain! My Captain !”?
Ans: Walt Whitman’s tone in “0 Captain! My Captain !” is largely elegiac, in that it resembles an elegy. The poem was written in honor of President Lincoln following his assassination, and it also has celebratory passages that mark the end of the Civil War.
The poem starts with a tone of praise and commendation, as “our fearful trip is done.” Whitman praises Lincoln’s efforts during the Civil War, stating that “the port is near.” In other words, Lincoln led the ship of state through the war, and the ship is about to safely be led to port. Then, the poem has a more mournful tone in the second part of each stanza (the second half of each stanza is indented). For example, the second part of the first stanza reads, “But 0 heart! heart! heart!” The repetition of the word “heart” and the reference to “bleeding drops of red” refer to the nation’s grief over Lincoln’s assassination.
The second stanza mentions the celebrations that are being conducted to commemorate the end of the war. The poem mentions the ways in which the nation is celebrating, including bells, bugle calls, and “bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths.” In the midst of this celebration, mourners are grieving for Lincoln, who is commemorated in a more sombre tone in the second half of the stanza, which begins “Here Captain ! Dear Father !”
The third stanza begins with an elegiac tone. It starts, “My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still.” The second half of the stanza is both celebratory and sombre. It begins, “Exult 0 shores, and ring 0 bells!” In other words, the poet wants the celebrations of the war’s end to continue, but he says he will be in mourning: “But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies.” This goes back to the metaphor of the ship of state, on whose deck Lincoln lies slain.
11. What is the message of “0 Captain ! My Captain !” ?
Ans: The poem was a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, who had been assassinated in 1865, the year in which the poem was written.
The poem is divided into three stanzas. The first stanza begins in a celebratory mode, for the Civil War has been won by the Union :
0 Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize
we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.
The “fearful trip” is a metaphor for the war, and “the prize” is the continued existence of the Union.
The first stanza breaks after the fourth line to acknowledge the moment in which the President was shot.
The second stanza refers to his funeral, for which there are “bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths.” His death, for the narrator, seems implausible: “It is some dream that on the deck, / You’ve fallen cold and dead.”
In the third and final stanza, there is acknowledgement of the “captain[‘s],” or president’s, mortality: “My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, / My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will.” Nevertheless, “the ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done.” In other words, the war is over. Additionally, “from a fearful trip the victor ship comes in with an object won.” This means that the Union has been saved.
The poem is a lament for the death of Lincoln, coupled with relief that the Union has remained intact. He is our “captain” because he successfully led the nation during a very difficult time.
12. In “0 Captain ! My Captain” by Walt Whitman, what does the ship symbolise and what message does it give the reader?
Ans: There is a familiar metaphor that is germane to this elegiac poem; namely, the ship of state. The lines 19-20
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
The Civil War has been won by the North, arresting the secession of the Confederate States–the Union is preserved after “fearful” battle and great loss of American lives. But, it also has been won, it seems, at the price of losing the captain of this ship of state: President Abraham Lincoln has been assassinated. Now, with the captain slain, the president murdered, the ship of state is not safe, though it be in harbor. Furthermore, the poet Whitman, who felt strongly about Lincoln, is himself lugubrious :
But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
With the captain of the victorious ship dead, there now is a sense of futility in the poem that conjures another familiar expression, “At what price glory ?”
13. What is the tone, mood, rhythm, and the conflict of “0 Captain ! My Captain !”?
Ans: First of all, this poem is an elegy. Disillusioned with President Pierce, Whitman felt that he had found an ideal in Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln was shot after the North’s success in the Civil War, Whitman, like the “son” in the poem, feels abandoned by his “father,” President Lincoln. Having rejoiced that “the fearful trip” of the war is over, Whitman moves the tone of his poem in three stanzas from the exultation of triumph to despair as the country is now without a leader. The speaker himself feels a personal loss: “But I with mournful tread/ Walk the deck my Captain lie,/Fallen cold and dead.”
This poem’s extended metaphor is that of a ship and its captain. “Captain” is the President, the “ship” is the “Ship of State,” or America, “the swaying masses,” are the citizenry. Initially, the crew of the ship express a tone of exultation, with longer phrases than in the latter part of the poem, as the victory is won, but the tone/ mood changes as the crew member discovers the Captain is dead. He speaks in choked sentences of exclamation : “0 heart ! heart ! heart !–the rhythm here is the rhythm of a fast-beating heart. Then, the tone changes to that of disbelief: “Rise up–for you the flag is flung, four you the bugle trills…” Lovingly, the speaker addresses the captain as “father,” implying the caring leadership of Lincoln. Finally, the mood changes despairingly inward : But I, with mournful tread,/Walk the deck my Captain lies,/Fallen cold and dead.” That “Fallen cold and dead” is repeated several times before this last line indicates the shock and disbelief (inward conflict) of the speaker as well as his sense of personal loss. Left alone, he has to assume control of the helm now. The individual must assert himself and not just be part of the “swaying masses.”
This lyrical poem is balanced with the religious number of three stanzas. With a conventional metre (ia-bic) and rhyme and parallelism, which is unlike Whitman, its appeal is also conventional as the poet intended.
14. To whom does Whitman refer when he speaks of “My Captain,” and what “fearful trip” has been concluded in the poem “0 Captain, My Captain”?
Ans: In his famous poem “0 Captain, My Captain,” Walt Whitman is referring to Abraham Lincoln. The “fearful trip” which has just concluded is the American Civil War.
Walt Whitman, who had lived in Washington during most of the Civil War, was a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln. “0 Captain, My Captain” expresses poignantly the deep sense of grief and despair which completely overshadowed the feeling of relief that the long war was finally over when Lincoln was assassinated in its immediate aftermath. Published in 1865, a little over six months after Lincoln’s death, the poem became arguably
Whitman’s most popular work, and frequently appears in anthologies. Current readers of the poem may remember that it was used in the 1989 movie Dead Poets’ Society, starring Robin Williams.
15. What are the figures of speech in “0 Captain ! My Captain !” by Walt Whitman?
Ans: If we define a figure of speech as figurative language, the poem includes metaphor and personification.
In Whitman’s 1865 poem, Whitman metaphorically compares late president Abraham Lincoln to the “captain” of a “ship” that has weathered storms (“every rack”) and battles, a metaphor for America during the Civil War. The poem’s first stanza begins with the ship approaching port with the captain fallen dead on the deck. Since Lincoln was assassinated five days after the surrender at Appomattox, the ship is meant to metaphorically represent America heading home to its reunification after the many battles of the war, without its commander-in-chief.
In the third and final stanza, the ship has made it safely to port, but without its commanding officer alive to savor the moment of victory. Crowds gather to greet the ship, bells ring, wreaths and bouquets are offered, but even though the crowds call for the captain, he cannot hear them or share in their celebration, just as Lincoln was unable to greet the reunified nation he had steered through four years of war.
Using personification, Whitman’s speaker walks with “mournful tread” because he cannot leave his beloved Still, he urges, “Exult, 0 shores,” as he acknowledges that the country is entitled to celebrate the ‘victor ship” that brought the “object won”—the reunification of the country.
16. What are the stylistic devices and epithets used in “0 Captain! My Captain !”? I need some examples and explanations.
Ans: Walt Whitman’s elegy, “0 Captain! My Captain !” is written as an extended metaphor whose elegiac tone is evoked through the poem’s rhythm and repetition and apostrophe. While there is no fixed metre, Whitman writes four longer lines followed by four short ones, creating a rhythm much like that of a heart beat.
The first two stanzas begin with apostrophe as the poet addresses his metaphoric “captain,” President Abraham Lincoln; however, in the final stanza the poet recognizes that the captain of the “ship” of state–the country–has died even though the “victory,” the end of the Civil War, has been won.
The opening couplets of Stanzas one and two establish positive moods as the poet celebrates the end of the Civil War in the first stanza and the recognition of the American people–“the swaying mass”–who honour him for saving the Union in the second stanza. However, in each of these stanzas, the tone changes with the shorter lines which emphasise the poet’s personal grief set against the greater victory. The repetition of the word heart certainly connotes the poet’s personal grief :
But 0 heart! Heart ! heart !
0 the bleeding drops of red
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
The personal grief of the poet is further heightened in the second and third stanzas as Whitman addresses Lincoln both with the epithets of “my Captain” and “my father.” The connotation of phrases suggests the shadow of this grief with such phrases as “grim and daring,” “bugle trills,” “bouquets and ribboned wreaths,” “flag is flung,” and “swaying mass.”
Walt Whitman’s “0 Captain ! My Captain !” expresses both the celebration of the country’s victory and his personal lamentations of death as each stanza juxtaposes both exultations over the victory of President Lincoln with personal expressions of loss and grief.
17. In the poem “0 Captain ! My Captain !” by Walter Whitman why is Abraham Lincoln referred to as the captain?
Ans: This poem by Walt Whitman was written upon the death of Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated on April 14, 1865, a scant five days after the official end of the Civil War on April 9, 1865. Lincoln is indeed the captain referred to in the poem, which is an extended metaphor, America being the ship, Lincoln being its captain, and the Civil War being the journey.
As the poem opens, the narrator is addressing the captain of the ship, i.e., the leader of the country, saying that the dreadful journey, which is a metaphor for the Civil War, is done. The captain and the country are victorious and the worst is over. The country can get on with the business of being a nation again. But the captain of the ship lies on the deck, bleeding and dying.
In the second verse, the narrator is telling the captain that everyone is celebrating the end of the voyage, the end of war, and everyone is calling for the captain, their father, who has led them through this voyage successfully, praising him for having saved the ship, in other words, the nation. But the captain lies there, with the narrator’s arm beneath his head. It is like a nightmare to the narrator and to the country that the captain is now dead.
In the third verse, the narrator says the captain doesn’t answer because he is gone, and while the voyage is over and the ship is soundly and safely at anchor, the narrator and the country must mourn the loss of the captain who has guided the ship to this victorious point.
My father read and recited a great deal of poetry when we were children, and this poem was one that we often requested. Even at a young age, we understood this metaphor, the president of a country being the captain of a ship, and even with its tragic subject and mournful tone, it appealed to us.
18. What is the central theme of “0 Captain ! My Captain !”?
Ans: “0 Captain! My Captain!” is a lament. The story involves a captain who brings his ship through a rough storm, only to perish in the act. He is a heroic figure, whose nobility of character makes his loss all the more tragic.
The poem mixes feelings of grief and triumph in its language. It begins with celebration: “the prize we sought is won.” In the second half of each stanza, however, the mood darkens when the topic changes and returns to the loss of the captain. The victory becomes bitter-sweet.
The grief of the speaker is contrasted with the communal joy of the “swaying mass” that arrives to greet the ship with cheers and flower wreaths. Even the wreaths take on a double meaning, as they are used to decorate graves as often as living heroes.
The poem relates to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, who became an icon of nobility, courage, and moral principle after his death. The poem’s valorization of the Captain reflects this secular quasi-deification that Lincoln achieved posthumously.
19. What in the poem “0 Captain My Captain”by Walt Whitman seems to recall Lincoln?
Ans: The poem “0 Captain! My Captain” is a requiem to the late President Lincoln, referring to the recently restored unity of the United States as a ship that has “weather’d every rack” (2)–survived the divi-siveness and bloodshed of the Civil War and Recon-struction–with “the people all exulting” (3) because “the prize we sought is won” (2).
The choruses specifically refer to the late president. Consider the first :
But 0 heart! Heart ! heart !
0 the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies.
Fallen cold and dead.
Whitman had developed great affection and respect for Lincoln over the course of the war, and the president’s death was a personal tragedy for him (“Oh heart!”). The President had been shot at point blank range in the back of the head, hence the “bleeding drops of red” (6). The Captain now lies “on the deck” of the ship (of state), “fallen cold and dead.”
20. Does Walt Whitman’s poem “0 Captain ! My Captain !” teach anything or have any controlling ideas about loss?
Ans: A useful way to think about poetry is that poems make observations about the human experience. “0 Captain! My Captain!” was inspired by the death of Abraham Lincoln, a man Walt Whitman greatly admired: in fact, the poem is an elegy, a formal poem of mourning.
Because Whitman does not name Lincoln as the subject of the poem, it can be read as a work that captures the emotions surrounding the death of a greatly admired or respected leader. The speaker exhorts his captain to rise from the deck where he has fallen dead: he wants the captain to be able to enjoy the rewards of the successful journey they took together and join the people who are gathered to celebrate. He implores the captain to rise and receive the adulation of the crowds gathered in his honour. At the end of the poem, the speaker sorrowfully observes that his captain cannot answer and has not lived to share in the triumph.
Whitman’s controlling idea is the tragedy inherent in the death of a leader who doesn’t survive to witness his legacy. Though in this case he means, particularly, the president who has led the reunification of the United States in the Civil War, the poem’s lament is generally for anyone who does not live to see the fruits of his or her labour.
21. Justify the following : “Passage to India” is Men dot celebrates globalisation and space exploration.
Ans: Whitman’s “Passage to India” can be regarded as a poem that celebrates globalisation and space exploration. That said, while globalisation is a march parallel to make, space exploration needs much interpretation to support.
Globalisation
The poem speaks to the important changes made to insure that travel was easier for people. The poem speaks to fact that the ability for people to communicate and travel distances which were previously impossible.
In the Old World, the east, the Suez canal,
The Hew by its mighty railroad spanned,
The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires.
Whitman, in these lines, is referring to the Suez canal ( a made canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea Red Sea–which offered travellers to make a safer shorter passage between Europe and Asia), the first transcontinental railroad in the United States, and the instillation of a transcontinental telegraph (allowing information to be passed more quickly over longer distances). In essence, this is where one could justify that the poem speaks to globalisation.
Space Exploration
As stated earlier, one needs to dig a little more to find ideas about space exploration within the poem. Essentially, one needs to be familiar with French to make the connection.
0, vast Rondure, swimming in space !
Cover’d all over with visible power and beauty !
“Rondure,” in French, means a rounded or spherical object. When connecting the idea of a spherical object with the rest of the images (space, covering all) one could justify that Whitman’s speaker is talking about the importance of space exploration.
22. How does India appeal to Whitman in his poem, “Passage to India?”
Ans: I think that India, as a concept, represents a type of unifying force whereby all consciousness can find common ground. Whitman does not specify this in terms of India, as a nation. Rather, he looks to India as the same type of symbol that Columbus saw it as when he commenced his voyage. Remember that Columbus lands in what is now called “America” thinking that he landed in India. It is here where Whitman finds connection and relevance. Columbus landing in “India” represents a realm where new horizons can be created and where possibilities are endless, as human freedom is expanded beyond measure. It is here where Whitman sees India as a representation of all that is possible. The idea of a “passage to India” is one where individuals revel in the capacity of what can be done. The promises and possibilities of a limitless future lies at the very essence of what Whitman see as “India.” This is something that Whitman sees as transcendent and universal.
Hi, I’m Dev Kirtonia, Founder & CEO of Dev Library. A website that provides all SCERT, NCERT 3 to 12, and BA, B.com, B.Sc, and Computer Science with Post Graduate Notes & Suggestions, Novel, eBooks, Biography, Quotes, Study Materials, and more.
