<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Walt Whitman composed the poem "O Captain! My Captain!" after Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865 . The poem is classified as an elegy or mourning poem, and was written to honor Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States . Walt Whitman was born in 1819 and died in 1892, and the American Civil War was the central event of his life . Whitman was a staunch Unionist during the Civil War . He was initially indifferent to Lincoln, but as the war pressed on Whitman came to love the president, though the two men never met . </P> <P> The fallen captain in the poem refers to Abraham Lincoln, captain of the ship that is the United States of America . The first line establishes the poem's mood, one of relief that the Civil War has ended, "our fearful trip is done ." The next line references the ship, America, and how it has "weathered every rack", meaning America has braved the tough storm of the Civil War, and "the prize we sought", the preservation of the Union, "is won". The following line expresses a mood of jubilation of the Union winning the war as it says "the people all exulting;" however, the next line swiftly shifts the mood when it talks of the grimness of the ship, and the darker side of the war . Many lost their lives in the American Civil War, and although the prize that was sought was won, the hearts still ache amidst the exultation of the people . The repetition of heart in line five calls attention to the poet's vast grief and heartache because the Captain has bled and lies still, cold, and dead (lines six through eight). This is no doubt referencing the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and Whitman's sorrow for the death of his idol . </P> <P> In the second stanza the speaker again calls out to the captain to "rise up and hear the bells," to join in the celebration of the end of the war . The next three lines tell the captain to "rise up" and join in on the revelries because it is for him . He is the reason for their merriment: "for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; for you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding; for you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning". Everyone is celebrating what Lincoln accomplished; the abolition of slavery and the unification of the people after a fearful war . Again the poet calls to the Captain as if he had never fallen . The poet does not wish to acknowledge the death of his beloved Captain, and he even asks if it is some dream (line 15) that the Captain has fallen "cold and dead". </P>

O captain my captain our fearful trip is done meaning
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