"o captain! my captain! " walt whitman explain how whitman develops an extended metaphor in his poem.

whitman begins by comparing lincoln to the captain of a ship and his army to a boat. the metaphor honors lincoln and the army for defend and win the idea of freedom. whitman ends the poem by saying that lincoln, the captain, has died. the army and the united states have lost an important leader.

The harlem renaissance dawned in an era of pervasive racism and segregation. although legally "free," many african americans were still bound by ideas that had their roots in the slavery of earlier centuries. identity and freedom are important ideas presented in many of the poems from the harlem renaissance. furthermore, the values of identity and freedom are not unique to particular times and places. as hughes expresses in "dream variations," all humans want to be able to develop their identities in freedom. what role does freedom play in the poems you read in this unit? what is required of a society to enable each individual to be true to his or her identity and be free to live by that identity? write about at least three of the poems, describing how the poet uses imagery to depict freedom and identity, the lack of it, or the desire for it.