Even though he was dead, people were grateful to Lincoln for helping them end the civil war, and that is why they held him highly. This makes one imagine how joyful people were. In the second paragraph, the second line of the first part, there is sound imagery ‘the bugle trills’ (Whitman 2). This makes us realize someone hurt the Captain, Lincoln, which leads to the irony in the poem. One gets to envision the Captain bleeding and wonder what could have caused the bleeding. Sight is in the second part of the first paragraph, the second line, ‘O bleeding drops of red’ (Whitman 1). We get to know more about the assassination and the era through imagery, which incorporates three senses, sound, touch, and sight. This implies that the poem is an illusion to Lincoln’s assassination during the American Civil War, a time when Americans were troubled and feared that they would die because of the war. The ‘fearful trip’ (Whitman 1) is an illusion to the troubles that the Americans including the president have to go through during the American Civil War while the phrase ‘some dream that on the deck, fallen cold and dead’ (Whitman 2) is an illusion to Lincoln’s assassination. Captain is an allusion to the president, Abraham Lincoln, while the ‘ship’ (Whitman 1) is an illusion to the United States. Whitman wrote the poem in the year 1865, the same year that Lincoln died. In essence, the allusion in “O Captain! My Captain!” refers to Abraham Lincoln.

Extensive use of poetry concepts has made people have an in-depth understanding of the poem in reference to Abraham Lincoln, the American president.

Moreover, he extensively incorporates imagery (vivid language that evokes mental images or generates ideas) and rhyme (words having different sounds but with endings that sound alike) to make the poem more allegorical.

O captin my capitin pics