Repetition

"O, Captain! My Captain!"
By: Walt Whitman
(poem from examplesinpoetry.com)

O 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,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Biographical Information

      Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman was the second son of Walter Whitman, a housebuilder, and Louisa Van Velsor. The family, which consisted of nine children, lived in Brooklyn and Long Island in the 1820s and 1830s. At the age of twelve, Whitman began to learn the printer's trade, and fell in love with the written word. Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the Bible.

       He founded a weekly newspaper, Long-Islander, and later edited a number of Brooklyn and New York papers. In 1848, Whitman left the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to become editor of the New Orleans Crescent. It was in New Orleans that he experienced at first hand the viciousness of slavery in the slave markets of that city. On his return to Brooklyn in the fall of 1848, he founded a "free soil" newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman, and continued to develop the unique style of poetry that later so astonished Ralph Waldo Emerson.

        In 1855, Whitman took out a copyright on the first edition of Leaves of Grass (self-published), which consisted of twelve untitled poems and a preface. He published the volume himself, and sent a copy to Emerson in July of 1855. Whitman released a second edition of the book in 1856, containing thirty-three poems, a letter from Emerson praising the first edition, and a long open letter by Whitman in response. During his subsequent career, Whitman continued to refine the volume, publishing several more editions of the book. After his death on March 26, 1892, Whitman was buried in a tomb he designed and had built on a lot in Harleigh Cemetery. Along with Emily Dickinson, he is considered one of America's most important poets.

(biographical information from poetryfoundation.org)

Explanation of Technique

       In poems, repetition is used to make ideas clearer. This is when the same words or phrases are repeated within a few times. Repetition is considered a rhetorical device. In, "O, Captain, My Captain!", the repetition in this poem is captain and heart.

Interpretation of Poem

      This poem, "O, Captain! My Captain!", is about a sailor seeing his captain dead after a long and hard trip sailing on the boat. These words tell the reader how much the sailor respects his captain. This poem by Walt Whitman, could be telling the reader to be making sure you try to live a pure life, because you never know she your time on Earth is done.

(picture from penobscotmarinemuseum.org)

Visual Explanation

        The picture above, shows probably what the ship in the poem was going through in its trip. The poem describes the ship having weather'd every rack. That points to the trip being brutal for the sailors. The captain in the poem probably died from being overwhelmed by the storm and trip.