Answer and Explanation:
The poem "O Captain! My Captain!", by Walt Whitman, is an elegy - a sad, mournful poem expressing sorrow and admiration for someone who has passed away. It was written to honor Abraham Lincoln, representing him as the captain that dies before the ship safely gets back home.
Whitman describes, in the second stanza of the poem, how the captain is celebrated as a hero:
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
As we know, be it an ancient, epic hero or a modern-day one, heroes are celebrated by their nations with festivities. They are welcomed home by a crowd calling their names, with flags waving, with music etc. The dead captain is thus celebrated by his people. Even though he cannot see it, he is the hero who has led the ship to safety. He died before he could see victory with his own eyes, but victory was only possible because of him.