“O Captain!” cannot be fully appreciated without understanding its context as a poem in celebration of the end of the American Civil War and in mourning over the death of Lincoln. The poem uses generalized imagery of celebration to express the feeling of glee as the war ends; however, on a personal level, the speaker feels he cannot participate in the celebration because he mourns the loss of his captain.

Many people across the north would have shared this feeling of competing emotions, but it was particularly powerful for Whitman who both detested war and loved Lincoln. His four poems written after Lincoln’s death (linked in the Further Reading and Resources section of this guide) show the depth of his mourning.

Though Whitman authored the poem in response to the end of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, the competing feelings of joy and sadness can apply to the end of any conflict. At the end of any war, a populace must simultaneously celebrate the end of conflict while commemorating and mourning the dead. These contrasting feelings can create great strife and imbalance in people’s hearts and minds, and Whitman centers on that imbalance in his poem.