Who is the speaker in "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman?

Question

In "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman, the speaker acts as if he has a close connection to Abraham Lincoln, saying: > My father does not feel my arm This suggests that they are in such a relationship that Abraham Lincoln would have felt his arm and was a fatherly figure to the speaker. > But I with mournful tread, > Walk the deck my Captain lies, Here he describes how while others are on the shore celebrating the metaphorical ship's victory while mourning, he has stayed on the metaphorical ship with Abraham Lincoln to mourn. Who is the speaker? Is their relationship truly close or is it just the relationship between a citizen and the president?

Answer 1

So, to answer this, you need a general understanding of the history behind Whitman and Lincoln's relationship. Whitman was, at one point during the Civil War, a government worker and volunteer nurse. It was during this time that he would meet with Lincoln numerous times and become an acquaintance of the president. In some of Whitman's personal writings, he mentions how he sees Lincoln almost every day, actually.

With this in mind, it would suggest that the speaker in "O Captain! My Captain!" is Whitman himself, mourning the loss of someone he knew well.