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Bethany Lee Thompson

Literature

A2 Coursework

How do Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain” and Wyatt’s “My Galley, Charged with Forgetfulness”
use metaphor to shape meaning?
Metaphors are ‘figures of speech’ that are used to broaden the meaning of an idea, giving subtle
inferences and hidden messages
...

We can infer this, despite him not clarifying it, because of the context of the poem, which is a tribute
to Lincoln after his death in 1865
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Sir Thomas Wyatt was England’s pioneering sonneteer; as an early 16th
century English sonnet, “My Galley, Charged with Forgiveness”, is an extended metaphor of a ship
used to portray his ideas about his “lord”, King Henry VIII
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Both use seafaring metaphors to represent their views about the leaders of their
time periods
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For example, Whitman’s context and use of the line “the ship has
weather’d every rack” suggests the ‘Ship’ is the people of America in the aftermath of the Civil war
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He uses
the ship to suggest that they have seen hardship and have been tainted by it, despite that they stand
together and survive as a union
...
He
is implying that the “galley, charged with forgetfulness, through sharp seas in winter nights” is like
the rocky, dangerous threat of being part of the court and knowing the King
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P)
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Vessels are traditionally personified as women by
sailors, ‘her’ and ‘she’, as they grow attachments to them because they spend so much time on
them
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Wyatt’s poem suggests that the narrator, most
likely Wyatt, feels he has been deserted by god
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One could assume that this is a formal title
to address his King
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However, it does imply that he
could be describing God and that the poem is about moving away from religion as the poem is
criticising the leader
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Wyatt writes “Drowned is Reason”
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It means that he has
lost his reasoning so he will not find a solution to his problem, yet he finds “comfort” in this
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His hyperbolic
language throughout the poem is used to portray that he is mourning
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In the late 19th century, Catholicism was the most widely practised religion and therefore
most would associate ‘father’ with ‘God’
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This could suggest that he is talking about God
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This suggests that the poem is not about God as God is immutable
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Perhaps this is to reflect a
prayer that is unanswered
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By disguising
their ideas as something else, they are able to accept or deny any claim that anyone may make
about their poems
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That way they could not be punished for offending someone, particularly in the case of King
Henry VIII for Wyatt
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King Henry VIII believed that his ruling was God given
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If the
poets of these two poems believed this theory, perhaps they weren’t necessarily addressing God in
the poems but simply suggesting that their leaders, although not as mighty as God, may have been
of a higher greatness than the rest of humanity
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Neither are capitalised, which if
referring to God they would have been, suggesting that the poets admire and worship them as Godlike but not God himself
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“As though that death were light in such a case”
which questions whether or not his death would matter if he was to die at sea
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Wyatt is making this ‘fear’ of death a hope as he is asking if “death were light”
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He is suggesting
that maybe his death would be good because he won’t be remembered perhaps because he is trying
to escape something like a brutal king or a shamed affair with Boleyn
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Clearly, Whitman’s poem is also about death, specifically the death of his “captain” who has
“no pulse nor will”
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The harsh ocean is a metaphor for the civil war that eventually
results in the death of the captain, meaning Captain and President Lincoln, of the ship, meaning
America
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This is true from
Whitman’s perspective as the Civil War did result in Lincoln’s death from stabbing assassination in
1864, after he promoted votes for African-Americans
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The

Bethany Lee Thompson

Literature

A2 Coursework

“deck” suggests the earth of America and America itself is the ship as a complete whole that is
“weather’d” from the harsh front lines of the Civil War
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He presents it as the idea that America can move forward out of the pain of war
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Both poems are saturated in metaphor that could have a vast range of meanings
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Both focuses of writing were in positions of authority that left the poets
idolising them or in fear of them
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Word Count: 1498

Bethany Lee Thompson

Literature

A2 Coursework

Bibliography
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AQA LIT B Critical Anthology (2014) - http://store
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org
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PDF
W
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poetryfoundation
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Wyatt’s ‘My Galley, Charged with Forgetfulness’ Poem http://www
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org/poem/174853



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