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O Captain My Captain Poem Essay

Decent Essays

Have you ever experienced that aching feeling when you lose a valuable person or a loved one? Losing someone with power, or a loved one, who influenced and affected the society can inflect a person's emotions. )One way to by writing any huh) The two poems “In memory of W.B Yeats” by Wystan Hugh Auden and “O' Captain My, Captain”, by Walt Whitman, both mourns the death of a loved on. “In memory of W.B Yeats” is written about an Irish poet named Walter Butler that died in a hotel room, while “O'Captain My, Captain” is about Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated on Friday, April 14, 1895. The poem by Auden was written in 1940, a year after the poet W.B died, Whitman wrote his poem in 1865 the same year Abraham was assassinated. Both Auden's and …show more content…

Auden talks about a poet and Whitman talks about the 16th us president Abraham Lincoln. They both show sorrow for the death of well-known people.“In the poem of w.b Yeats” Auden is directly talking to William butler by saying “You” but in “O' Captain My, Captain” Whitman is using an extended metaphor to present or describe the captain as Abraham Lincoln and that shows how the sailor (Whitman) admires the captain. Auden also mentions on why he admires WB Yeats and his products. Although Whitman, which is the sailor through the poem, admires the captain himself, he emphasizes Abrahams success and all of his hard work, but Auden was mostly admiring all of WB's work and poems, more than the poet himself. Whitman implies that the Abraham Lincoln which is the captain was stern but fair. The captain was leading the ship which is the people of us, so basically Abraham Lincoln was powerful and was a good …show more content…

They both use symbolism, imagery and much more. There are many metaphors all over the two poems. For example, it was used in Auden's poem when he says the “Irish vessel” which is William Yeats, and in Whitman's poem, he uses the vessel to present the people of the USA. The “Irish vessel” which is Williams body lying down on the ground but that body is only carrying nothing but poetry, while the “vessel” in “O Captain My Captain” is the ship and it is comparing it to the people of the USA, and how they felt. For example “the vessel grim and daring” this shows that the people of the USA are celebrating the end of the civil war. Yet the Auden doesn’t really talk about the people, but he does mention Ireland is mad by saying “Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry”. Here he is using personification, and it shows us that the Irish history has influenced Yeats

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