O Captain! MY Captain! - Walt Whitman [Line-by-line explanation]

Line by Line explanation.

Lines 1-2

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;

• The speaker is shouting out to his captain (“O Captain!”) that they’ve finally made it home after a frightening trip.
• They were on a ship that survived, or “weathered,” strong winds (a.k.a. “racks”).
• They’re probably tired after such a grueling voyage, but apparently they’ve succeeded in their mission, or what the speaker calls their “prize.” Whatever this mission or prize was, we know that it wasn’t easy to get.

Lines 3-4

          The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

• So the speaker is a sailor on the ship, and the ship isn’t just yet safe in the harbor (which would be a good place to safely “park” a boat).
• But the boat is in sight of the land, and there are people on the shore cheering and ringing church bells as they approach (hip-hip-hooray!).
• The people on the shore watch the boat come in.
• Although keel usually refers to a ridge that goes along the underside of the boat, the word can also refer to the boat as a whole, as it does in line 4. When a part of something is used to stand for a whole (for example, “all hands on deck” means all the people should be on deck, not just their hands), this is called a synecdoche. 
• In contrast to the happy people on land, the boat is described like a ghost ship: “grim and daring.”
• The speaker is foreshadowing, subtly telling the reader in advance that something is going to happen and it isn’t going to be pretty.

Lines 5-8

But O heart! heart! heart!
   O the bleeding drops of red,
      Where on the deck my Captain lies,
         Fallen cold and dead.

• The sailor calls out again, but this time it isn’t for the captain.
• He belts out the word “heart,” and this could mean that he is shouting out a) to his captain to keep heart, as in not to give up, or b) to his own heart, as if in pain. 
• We think you can read this either way. If you read it the first way, with the heart representing the captain’s will, then you’re dealing with a symbol, as some part of the captain is used to represent an abstract quality (his will or courage).
• If you read it the second way, though, and think the speaker is calling out to his own heart, then you’ve got an apostrophe on your hands, friend-o. This is a call to an abstract thing that can’t possibly answer back. It’s a cliché to speak from the heart, but, really, hearts have no mouths, so they don’t speak very well.
• When you think heart, though, you do think blood. It turns out that there is a lot of it here.
• All of a sudden, drops of blood are on the deck of the ship, and the speaker notices that his captain is dead. Bummer
  
  
  

  Lines 9-12

  O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
  Rise up–for you the flag is flung–for you the bugle trills;
  For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths–for you the shores a-crowding;
  For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
  • The sailor comes to the dead captain’s side and begs him to rise again. Because the speaker is addressing someone (or something) who can no longer respond to him, this is known as an apostrophe.
  • And why should the captain re-animate his dead self? Well, the speaker says that all the people on shore are cheering for the captain. 
  • The sailor lists the ways in which the people are celebrating: raising the flag, playing horns, holding flowers, and calling out to the captain. It’s a real hullaballoo.
  • To say that the crowd has “eager faces” is another use of a synecdoche. It’s not just their faces that are eager, really. Their faces are used to represent the whole of their excited attitude toward this captain. They think he’s a righteous dude.

  Lines 13-16

  Here Captain! dear father!
    This arm beneath your head;
      It is some dream that on the deck,
        You’ve fallen cold and dead.
• The sailor takes the dead captain in his arms and calls the captain “father,” although the man probably isn’t really his father.
• Still, the speaker has intense feelings for this man, whose head is on his arm. That’s probably not a relaxing position to lie in, but sadly the captain doesn’t feel the discomfort.
• The speaker says he must be dreaming. He can’t accept the reality that the captain died just as they reached home.

Lines 17-18

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

• The dead captain, unsurprisingly, doesn’t respond to the sailor’s cries. With another synecdoche, the speaker focuses on the captain’s lips to represent his general state of death.
• Again, the captain is referred to as the speaker’s father, underscoring their bond. 
• Sadly, the color has left the captain’s face and he has no pulse. Here, “will” means the ability to do something, like move.

Lines 19-20

The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

• The ship finally arrives safely in the harbor and drops its anchor. Its trip is done.
• The speaker reminds us that the trip was difficult and dangerous, but the mission was a success.
• “Victor ship” here means the victorious ship, not a ship named Victor. 
• Why is it victorious? Well, it’s won its object, met its goal. Hurray!

Lines 21-24

                   Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
  But I, with mournful tread,
    Walk the deck my Captain lies,
      Fallen cold and dead.

• And now that the speaker is in the harbor, he calls out to the shores and the bells to party down. Since neither shores nor bells are actually alive, this appeal to inanimate objects represents more apostrophes by our speaker.
• Why would just the speaker just be interested in the shores, though? Even though, on a boat, the shore would be the closest part of land, here the speaker means for the whole country to celebrate.
• Using a part of the land to represent the whole is again (you guessed it) synecdoche.
• Really, though, the speaker uses the shores as a symbol to represent the crowds of people standing there. He wants them to keep cheering and celebrating the homecoming of the ship and the success of the mission.
• While the crowd celebrates, the sailor remains on the ship, pacing sadly next to his dead captain.