O Captain! My Captain!

The extended metaphor or allegory allows a poet to express a feeling or tell a story without directly alluding to the particulars of the story. This poetic device allows the poet to create a poem based on the emotion of the situation instead of the specifics. The reasons a poet would do this are myriad.

The first reason is that metaphor allows for a more universal message. By changing the story from one about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination just after leading the United States through the Civil War to a story about the captain of a ship dying after leading his ship home, Whitman constructs a more universal narrative. It is no longer confined by time or situation; instead, it exemplifies the loss all might feel when losing a great leader. The best way to allow this poem to transcend its context is to write it in a metaphorical way.

The second reason for using the extended metaphor is that it allows the poet to write about a situation in a grand, romantic way. The image of