"O, Captain, My Captain" found in Walt Whitmans 'Leaves of grass' is a poem about the death of American president Abraham Lincoln. The Captain is Lincoln.
The Captain symbolizes the leader of the country. And when he is found dead on the deck of the ship the reader feels what the narrator is describing/feeling upon finding his captain dead. Like many...
It is a metaphor comparing the captain of a boat to President Lincoln, the captain was killed on his boat just like Lincoln was killed during his presidency on the Union soil by John W. Booth