"O Capitano, mio capitano!" Chi conosce questi versi?

Non lo sapete? una Poesia di Walt Whitman, che

parla di Abramo Lincoln. Ecco, in questa classe
potete chiamarmi professor Keating o se siete un po'
pi audaci, "O Capitano, mio Capitano".

John Keating

During his first lesson, John Keating makes known to his students the most famous
Whitmans poem. Whitman, poet of which Robin Williams was in love, was the father
of American poetry and the father of the American dream. America was seen as the
land of opportunity, towards which people emigrated from all over the world.

Walt Whitman was born in New York in 1819. He had a little formal education and he
became a printers apprentice for a local newspaper. When he was about 30 years old,
he travelled to New Orleans. This journey brought him in touch with the vastness of his
country. He died in 1892.

O Captain, my Captain!

The poem, dedicated to president Lincoln, was written after Lincolns assassination, on April
14, 1865 by an actor who had long been plotting against the president.
In Whitmans lines Lincoln becomes the symbol of American democracy and the symbol of
American dream.

The poem is full of metaphors:

Lincoln is the captain who
has "fallen cold and dead,"
having been assassinated
shortly after the Civil War
had ended;
the "fearful trip" is the Civil
War;
"the prize we sought" is the
preservation of the Union,
the main reason for fighting
the war in Lincoln and
Whitman's view;
 "the ship" is the United States.

In the first stanza, the speaker expresses his relief that the ship has reached its home
port and describes people who exult and celebrate the end of the journey (which
symbolizes the end of the war).
Despite the celebrations and the successful of the voyage, the speaker reveals that his
Captain's dead body is lying on the deck. Here Whitman says that the president was
assassinated.

In the second stanza Whitman commends the president. The poet would like that
Lincoln hear the celebrations made in his honor. In fact he implores the Captain to "rise
up and hear the bells." The speaker admits that his death feels like a horrible dream
and everyone is sad because everyone adored the captain.

In the last stanza we can see the sadness that pervades Whitmans spirit for Lincolns
death. He says that the journey had ended but he walks with step funeral on the deck
where the Captain lies cold and dead.

"O Captain! My Captain!" is the only poem where Whitman adopted a regular meter
and a rhymes scheme. Often called "the father of free verse," Whitman usually write
his poems without following any kind of poetic form. However, "O Captain! My
Captain!" is organized into three eight-line stanzas, each with a rhyme scheme. Each
stanza closes with the words "fallen cold and dead," and the first four lines of each
stanza are longer than the last four lines. This poem is an elegy to the dead and the
more traditional format adds it solemnity. Additionally, the regular meter reminds a
soldier marching in a battle, which is fitting for a poem that commemorates the end of
the Civil War.