Question

instructions
read the question carefully and select the best answer.
what is most closely a theme of the poem?
a. a victory is meaningless if the person most responsible for it isn’t there to receive credit
b. someone aboard the ship has murdered the captain as it moves into harbor.
c. the speaker pays tribute to the captain for saving the ship, and wishes he were alive to enjoy the victory.
d. that the speaker of the poem can’t figure out how to continue living without the captain.
teks: teks 8.7(a)

Explanation:

This question refers to Walt Whitman's O Captain! My Captain!, a poem mourning Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War (a hard-won "victory"). The speaker honors the Captain (Lincoln) who led to success but died before seeing it, grieving that he cannot celebrate the victory alongside the leader. Option A is incorrect because the poem centers on grief, not the "meaninglessness" of victory without credit. Option B is false, as the Captain died, not was murdered. Option D is inaccurate; the speaker's grief is about the Captain's death, not inability to live without him, but rather sorrow that the Captain cannot share the victory. Option C aligns with the poem's core: tribute to the Captain for the victory, and regret he cannot enjoy it.

Answer:

C. The speaker pays tribute to the Captain for saving the ship, and wishes he were alive to enjoy the victory.