Journey Theme in Whitman’s O Captain! My Captain! and Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar :: Captain! My Captain! Essays

Journey Theme in Whitmans O maitre d My Captain and Tennysons crisscross the Bar The theme of a excursion is a common metaphor used in poetry. This is no expulsion in two poems by famous poets of the 19th century Walt Whitman and Alfred, sea maitre dhotel Tennyson. In Whitmans poem O Captain My Captain from his collection Leaves of Grass, he writes of the sorrow over a fallen embark captain coming into the home harbor. Lord Tennysons Crossing the Bar expresses the hopes on the departure of a journey. two poems use the metaphor of a gravy boats trip over the sea as a phantasmal journey to death. The poems have many akin(predicate)ities, but also differences that give example to each poem. Each poem is shaped by its imagery, speaker, and emotional invocation. Without much(prenominal) literary devices, the poems would non have such an emotional impact of the reader. Both O Captain My Captain and Crossing the Bar argon similar in their themes of a journey. In Whitmans poem, the crew of a ship is returning to their home port from a long journey. All is finished, with the goal of the expedition completed, except their captain has fallen dead on the ditch of the ship. The speaker describes the festivities on the shore as the boat arrives, the joyous township celebrating the return of their captain. This contrasts the sullen mood on the ship, where the crew deeply mourns the departure of their captain. In Crossing the Bar, the speaker is about to depart on a journey, one from which he expects not to return. He hopes that his journey will not be difficult, especially when he first sets out. He pleads to the reader not to mourn or protest against his departure. Although these are both journeys, thither are key differences. Whitman addresses the mournful return from a voyage, while Lord Tennyson writes of a closing exit from a life. While the speaker in O Captain appeals that his captain be not dead, the speaker in Crossing the Bar implores almost the complete opposite. He says in lines 11-12 And may there be no sadness of farewell,When I embark He is electrical capacity in leaving the life he has known, to go on this final journey to see his Pilot.