Poetry, the glue that attaches people to intangible ideas, feelings and beliefs of others is also functioned to picture historical events in epics. Walt Whitman’s masterpiece, O Captain! My Captain! is likely to be listed as the most famous poem regarding the American Civil War. With two hundred words in depth, Walt Whitman pays tribute to United State’s 16th president Abraham Lincoln. Although Lincoln is never directly mentioned, he is alluded through the poem’s metaphor. It is clear that this poetry refer to a certain historical event, but what exactly he is referring to? Does he refer to Lincon’s powerful leader in the civil war? Or was he trying to portray the damage happened in the civil war? Throughout the essay, writer will examined particular phrases regarding the historical background of this poem. In the first stanza, the speaker says: “O Captain! my Captain! Our fearful trip is done, The ship …show more content…
My Captain! at the time of its publication is able to moves its reader with complete undertones of both glory and sadness over the dreadful Civil War. Throughout the poem, Whitman portrayed Abraham Lincoln as the Captain and the fallen ship’s captain refers to the fall of United State over Lincoln’s leadership. The whole poem is also an allusion to United States of America during its early years of independence and shows how much the poet was sad when Lincoln’s body was founded dead. In conclusion, the poem has brought national mourning and a period of reflection. Learning from the analysis, readers are able to fully understand regarding the situation during and after the Civil War. Moreover, readers can also learn about how the Civil War ends and appreciate more on what the people at that time do to win the victory. From the poem itself, readers will realize that the power of perception can give 1 thing 2 entirely different labels and emotion blinds truth. We must hold on to what is true, even when our emotions burn within us to take reactive
Innately people can be selfish, so in times when not only their own livelihood is in danger, but the lives of thousands is when a spotlight illuminates from the writer’s pen of Shelby Foote. The Civil War was not fought by superheroes, but by soldiers and he makes this clear. Foote shows us that being heroic can only be in instances and gives cases where soldiers were unheroic to paint the entire picture for readers to make their own conclusions. Dramatic irony is drawn from his toolbox to further drive home this point. Shakespearean moments that Foote could not even dream of are included for both the pleasure in telling the story and telling more about the war itself, even more specifically the Seven Days Battles.
Short Summary of Book: The book offers various poems talking about the Civil War. It tells how the war has changed people and the things they had to endure. A very informational text about the war from different perspectives. Brief Evaluation of quality: I think this book presents original ideas in a poetry format. It is relevant to students because it gives them information about the civil war.
For my topic on Frederick Douglass’ narrative and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”, I will discuss several details and points. These points will include Douglass’ adversity as a slave and Emerson’s journey in making sense of his life and self-identity. Also, in the discussion, I will add the similarities and differences between the thoughts of Douglass and Emerson on how each felt about their masters or Whites in general. These thoughts include Douglass’ reasoning of writing his autobiography, so that the reader it was intended for could understand why abolishing slavery was so important and Emerson’s hope that people would use their inner voice and learn to confront the issues on hand and not what others wanted to instill onto slaves.
The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History.
The Civil War is seen as disastrous, upsetting, and a new start for America. In Across Five Aprils, written by Irene Hunt, she shows all of those feelings. The Civil War was a hard time for many families. Their son’s are going to war, they still have to work, and they need someone to protect the family. You worry for your safety, and your children’s.
Soldier, Theodore Winthrop, in his essay, “Our March to Washington”, manifest how he feels moments before going off to fight in the civil war. Winthrop’s purpose is to convey his feeling towards his audience allowing them to better understand how he feels. To accomplish his purpose, Winthrop adopts a reflective, sincere, optimistic tone, in order to drown his audience completely under his feeling enabling them to sympathize with him. Winthrop begins his essay by utilizing descriptive features to introduce the scene that he is witnessing.
In 1952, Thomas P. Benjamin, an expert in the history of Abraham Lincoln’s life, published his book, Abraham Lincoln: A Biography, which argues that Lincoln’s election was the cause of the war but Lincoln’s efforts would also lead to the North’s decisive victory. This argument renders similar to the arguments of Charnwood and Ludwig, but differs in the way that Lincoln’s actions are glorified tremendously in this second time period. Lincoln, along with his actions, are depicted as highly thoughtful, incisive and effective. His clearly recognized position of the moral issue of slavery gave rise to Lincoln’s fame and aided his presidential election.5 Benjamin further states the point that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was an important milestone
You can see that the soldier remembers this very vividly. In Walt Whitman’s letter to his mother he talks about the soldier laying in the battlefield, the kind hearted one and the soldiers that mock the injured. He does not go thoroughly in depth about the soldiers personalities. When writing to his mother he wanted to get the main points across about the war and not go into detail about every single
In 1865, just after five days the confederate surrender America went in shocking sorrow what had happened to the United States president Abraham Lincoln assassination. Many writers articulated their feeling about the assassination in their perspective ways. One of the American famous poet, essayist and journalist Walt Whiteman, express his depth wound by writing the poem “O Capitan! My Capitan!” In this work, Walt flooded with full of magnificent figurative languages to show how deeply he has saddens losing the Lincolns.
This poem conveys the importance of literacy to the oppressed (slaves)and its power. “Learning to Read” gives us an up close and personal look into the lengths slaves would go to learn how to read. In the poem, Chloe, a former slave, is expressing her account of how slaves were educated before and after slavery. She speaks in detail about the cleaver ways slaves would hide pages of books and ease drop, in the name of what we call “Education”. Back then, something as simple as reading, was a level of freedom and self-empowerment for slaves.
In chapter one of What They Fought For, I learned about the letters and diaries of the Confederate soldiers. The themes of the letters were home-sickness, lack of peace, and the defense of home against their invading enemy. The thought of soldiers fighting for their homes and being threatened by invaders, made them stronger when facing adversity. Many men expressed that they would rather die fighting for a cause, than dying without trying and this commitment showed patriotism. Throughout the letters, soldiers claimed their reason for fighting, was for the principles of Constitutional liberty and self-government.
The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.
, for example "O Captain! My Captain", and "fallen cold and dead"’(O Captain 9). Similarly, “Elegy for J.F.K.” repeats a whole
One way that Whitman conveys his poetry is through the eyes of the everyday man. In this period of American history, the civil war was ongoing, and his poetry did not shy away from the everyday
In this grand poem, Whitman glorifies the unity of all people and life. He embraces the geographical diversity as well as the diversity of culture, work, as well as sexuality or beliefs. Whitman’s influence sets American dreams of freedom, independence, and self-fulfillment, and changes them for larger spiritual meaning. Whitman appreciates hard work as well as being simple and non-egotistical. His major ideas are things such as soul, good health, as well as the love of nature.