Some experts have noted that the sailor in Whitman’s poem travels quickly through several psychological stages of grief that people experience when some-
one they love dies suddenly. Look closely at the last four lines of each of the three
stanzas and explain the different reactions that we see the sailor experience.

Whitman writes "oh captain! My Captain!" In the point of you of a sailor. In the first stanza, Whitman ends the line in shock. He writes, "but o heart! Heart! Heart! Oh the bleeding drops of red,". In the second stanza, the sailor is in denial that his captain has died. In his disbelief, he says, "it is some dream that on the deck, you've fallen cold and dead." The sailor thinks that the captain's death is a dream. In the last stanza, the sailor has finally excepted the death of his captain. He exclaims, "exult, o Shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, walk the deck my captain lies, falling cold and dead."

Explanation: