O Captain My Captain Comparison

In the movie, McFarland, one of the main characters, Damacio, wrote a poem about his passion: running. His poem brought people to tears and was a powerful way to express his feelings toward his hobby. Similarly, Walt Whitman wrote the poems “O Me! O Life!” and “O Captain! My Captain!” to express how he was feeling when he wrote each poem. “O Captain! My Captain!” is an elegy written in remembrance of Abraham Lincoln. However, according to Shenandoah Literary, “O Me! O Life!” represents how “As he trudges through his self-doubts and a changing culture, Whitman remembers the continental nature of life and his role in it.” This quote shows that although they are portraying different messages, they are still very similar. The differences and similarities are seen through the narrator, the poetic devices used, and the structure.
First, the narrator has similar and different factors. The similarity is the tone in both poems. In the two poems, “O Me! O Life!” and “O Captain! My Captain!” one stanza represents denial and confusion from the …show more content…
O Life!” and “O Captain My Captain!” The similar poetic device used is repetition. According to Shenandoah Literary, “[In the poem, “O Me! O Life!” Whitman employs the anaphora ‘Of’ to begin five of the eight lines in the first stanza.” Bright Hub Education states that “[In “O Captain! My Captain!”] the repetition of ‘heart’ in line 5 emphasizes the poet’s grief of the death of his captain. ‘Fallen cold and dead’ is repeated at the end of each stanza to emphasize the poet’s deep loss.” These two sources explain the repetition in the poems and explain one similarity between the two. On the other hand, there is an extended metaphor in “O Captain! My Captain!” that is not used in “O Me! O Life!” Study.com affirms that, “The entire poem is an extended metaphor.” Although they both use repetition, only “O Captain! My Captain!” uses an extended