Walt Whitman: Poems

o captain my captain

What do you think Walt Whitman’s perspective on death is? Elaborate.

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Last updated by Aslan
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The speaker struggles with balancing his personal feelings of loss with the celebratory mood resulting from the successful voyage. The poem is an elegy to the speaker's recently deceased Captain at once celebrating the safe and successful return of their ship and mourning the loss of its great leader. I think there is a tone of respect to the memory of a great leader. There is death of the body but not of the spirit.