 Hello and welcome to this summary of everything you need to know about the poem Captain Cook to My Brother by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Before we go into the details and analysis of this poem, the most important thing you need to bear in mind and to understand and which will frame your understanding of this poem is contextual factors related both to the poet herself, Letitia Elizabeth Landon but equally who Captain Cook was. This is really really important because in context really really heavily influences this poem. As you can see behind me I have highlighted and created a mind map of all the main contextual factors that you should be aware of when you are learning about this poem which appears within Edexcel's Belonging Anthology and after we go over context we'll then look at the poem in detail, we'll read through it and then analyze it and talk about literary and structural techniques okay. So now the first thing to bear in mind contextually relating to Letitia Elizabeth Landon is she is a Victorian writer and of course a Victorian poet. She was born in Chelsea of course this is a still a very fancy part of London so she comes from a very bourgeois upper middle-class family okay and she was born in Chelsea in 1802 and she was homeschooled okay so she never went to formal school but she was homeschooled by her parents okay so one thing to bear in mind is that she never even if she never achieved formal education in school she still was highly educated. The second most important thing to bear in mind and of course this influences the parenthesis within the title of the poem okay parenthesis is just a fancy way for brackets so when she's talking about to my brother she wrote this poem in the 1800s as a dedication to her younger brother okay so she was very close to him and her young brother was called Whittington Henry who because they were really close so he was only about two years younger than him or rather younger than her and they used to play together as siblings when they were small and then later on when he grew older she ended up paying for his education remember of course Victorian society was quite sexist against women in fact Letitia Elizabeth Letitia Landon actually herself never when she wrote and published her writing she never published it under her full name she used the gender neutral initials L-E-L okay so this is the first initials of her name in order to cover her gender because at the time during Victorian England it was seen as improper for a woman to be writing to be expressing herself very outwardly when women were expected to be very passive submissive and so on okay so going back to this of course and also even the fact that she never went to a formal school again it wasn't really seen as a thing to educate and to spend all of this money educating your daughters who were going to get married off anyway okay however her brother he did attend school and she ended up paying for him okay and especially after their father's death it was her writing that supported them financially okay so of course this very close relationship influences what is within the brackets of the poem okay so on the one hand we learned that contextually she was very close to her brother also when it comes to Elizabeth Leticia Landon herself in 1836 she ended up marrying a man called George McLean who was governor of what we know today as modern-day Ghana okay so she ended up marrying a man and of course she lived in what is today modern-day Ghana this was during the time when the British Empire had control over Ghana okay so she lived there for a while however she only died two years later okay and this is after taking prusik acid as a way to treat a syndrome that she had which was called Strokes Adam okay so unfortunately she never really had a very long life and she used to take this medicine unbeknownst to her it was a quite a poisonous concoction that of course probably contributed to her life being fairly brief okay now in terms of the other title of this poem Captain Cook it's really important to be aware of who he is okay so Captain Cook is a British or was a British explorer he was also navigator cartographer cartographer people who you know go to places map out the places and draw maps up and he was also a captain in the British Royal Navy remember that the 17 and 1800s were a great time of British imperial expansion so of course Captain Cook contributed to this British royal expansion to other parts of the world indeed he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern part of Australia as well as Hawaii and he circumnavigated which means basically got onto a boat and then surrounded and went over and you know completed a complete cruise in New Zealand okay so he really made some achievements which were seen as a huge historic achievement from the British perspective especially during the time when the British Empire was at its height it was known as the empire where the sun never sets and the British Empire of course at its height occupied one fifth of the world okay so this is really important to bear in mind and it's really important to know who Captain Cook was okay the other thing is in terms of the poem's message this poem records Landon's childhood with both her brother and they learn of course and they end up idolizing Captain Cook and his achievements so now that you have this contextual information relating to the poet herself let's read and analyze this poem in depth so let's read through this poem Captain Cook to my brother do recall the fancies of many years ago when the pulse danced those light measure that again it cannot know are we both of us are altered and now we talk no more of all the old creations that haunted us of your then any favorite volume was a mine of long delight from whence we took our future to fashion as we might we lived again its pages we were its chief and kings as actual but more pleasant than what the day now brings it was an august evening with sunset in the trees when home you brought his voyages who found the fair south seas we read it till the sunset amid the bowels grew dim all other favorite heroes were nothing beside him for weeks he was our idol we sailed with him at sea and the pond amid the willows the ocean seemed to be the water lilies growing beneath the morning smile we called the south sea islands each flower a different isle no golden lot that fortune could draw for human life to us seemed like a sailor's mid the storm and strife our talk was a fair vessels that swept before the breeze and new discovered countries amid the southern seas within that lonely garden what happy hours went by while we fancied that around us spread foreign sea and sky are dreaming and the distant no longer haunt the mind would leave in leaving childhood life's fairy land behind there is not of that garden a single tree or flower they have plowed its long green grasses and cut down the lime tree bower where are the gilder roses whose silver used to bring with the gold of the lebanums their tribute to the spring they vanished with the childhood that with their treasures played the life that cometh after dwells in a darker shade yet the name of that sea captain cannot but recall how much we loved his dangers and we mourned his fall so of course this poem is interesting because it illustrates this reflection on childhood so the speaker is speaking directly to the brother they're saying oh can you remember this time during our childhood when we used to play around but also it shows a key turning point where they discovered the adventures of captain cook through a book that the brother brought back and they really idolized him so let's analyze the verses in detail of this poem when it comes to the title of the poem itself bear in mind that there's two elements to this title that you need to bear in mind firstly there's a reference to captain cook who's the famous british explorer but within the parenthesis which means brackets to my brother here we can see that the speaker is also showing the close relationship that they have with this sibling and of course contextually as i've mentioned in my explanation of context leticia elizabeth landon used to be really close to her younger sibling her brother so let's look at the poem now as i've mentioned the reference to captain cook is the british explorer and captain who used to work in the british royal navy who achieved the first recorded european contact with australia hawaii and new zealand so this poem is a celebration of his memory in the first verse the speaker talks directly to their brother and they state do you recall the fancies of many years ago here the second person pronoun you establishes this familiar tone okay so they're speaking directly to their brother then they mention this happened many years ago so this is a nostalgic reference to the childhood game of consents that the speaker really misses being a child really misses the games that she used to play with the brother and the closeness that they had as siblings furthermore the reference to the pulse dance so here personifications used to show the excitement when they used to play together okay so the pulses the hearts used to beat really rapidly moreover the slammer she's entered this second line shows how she is really rueful when she's thinking about this memory she can't believe that you know they're no longer kids they're no longer having all this fun and she just misses this furthermore in the third line of the first stanza the speaker states that both of us are altered now here the caesura after altered switches from the past where they're talking about many years ago now to the present where the speaker is saying now we're adults in the following stanza the speaker states then any favorite volume of a mind was long delight and again here this is an adverbial phrase of time okay so the speaker shifts now back to the past when she was a kid and she's saying that is saying that any favorite volume and volume here is books okay so books you know a voluminous book is like any large book and they're saying you know any kind of book that was put before them as a kid they used to just really enjoy it was long delight and the speaker is stating that any favorite volume so the book was a mine now here the metaphor indicates that any books they read were like an adventure okay it was almost like they were going and digging this mine and finding all of these valuable treasures within a book moreover the reference to our future and fashion in the second line of the second stanza the use of illiteration here shows their excitement when they used to read adventures okay they used to like really dig into this also the repetition of the plural pronoun we so we lived again on this page as we were its chiefs what this is showing is this really close bond that the speaker shared with her brother again and here what this is illustrating is almost at the morning the sloths of childhood and maybe because of grown up become adults and with you know the busyness of adulthood they just don't have enough time to spend together anymore also they used to imagine that there were chiefs and kings and here these two words belong to the semantic field of royalty again here what this is illustrating is a speaker just used to love how her and her brother used to sit around imagine that there were royalty and this is also showing this unbound childlike imagination students so kids and childhood it's always fun because you can literally be anything and as you grow older you start becoming more cynical and then you start putting limitations on yourself so she really misses this about a time when there were kids and they used to just imagine there could be anything that could be royals it could be chiefs it could be kings also the reference to delight and pleasant in this stanza belongs to semantic field of happiness which shows that the speaker is nostalgically reflecting on how she used to love playing with her younger brother then there's another adverbial phrase of time here okay so as opposed to the beginning of this stanza where they're speaking of then they now shift back to the present now brings okay so this adverbial phrase shifts to now they're mundane present the present tense were now their adults it's no longer fun they they're not having all of this imagination maybe they're not even spending that much time together as siblings because they're just leading their own lives in the third verse the speaker states it was an august even so now they go back to time and again there's a shift back to the past and it focuses on our attention on an anecdote so we learn that something happened on this august evening and there was sunset okay so here sunset is repeated twice and this use of pathetic fallacy sets us sets a soft somber atmosphere and also creates a nostalgic feeling the speaker then reveals okay on this august evening you brought his voyages who found the fair south seas so she's saying oh and this one particular evening this is when the brother brought a book back which is talking about captain cook's journeys okay voyage is just a french word for journey now here this is alluding to the main part of the title of the poem which is captain cook and who he you know he discovered according to them the fair south seas and of course this is the area where there's australia new Zealand and so on then once they found out about captain cook all our favorite heroes were nothing beside him so here the hyperbole nothing shows how much admired captain cook and his adventures so she states once they learned about captain cook as kids all the other heroes that they used to worship and admire now all the adventures and anything they achieved paled in comparison to what captain cook achieved on his adventures in the following verse the speaker uses anaphora he and him reveals their obsession so now the kids have discovered captain cook is now obsessed they read his stuff they sell with him in their imaginations as a reading through his books and the reference to sail to sea ocean and south sea this is nautical language remember nautical language is just language related to the ocean the travel the travel on the ocean on the navy and so on okay so here the speaker is referring to how they almost greedily read through everything about captain cook all of his adventures and they imagined that they were there with him sailing with him and discovering all of these new places with him in the following verse the speaker states no golden lot that fortune could draw now here this is a metaphor which states that anyone who faked picked to be a sailor or a traveler was really lucky okay so there's no other lot that fortune or fate could pick for you that's luckier than a sailors then the sibilants in seemed sailors storm and strife emphasizes how much all they have for sailors who seem really free to travel and see the world and don't forget that captain cook himself was a sailor he was a captain and he managed to see the world also the simile like a sailors show that they have this amazing wonder and admiration at the job of captain cook the reference also to before the breeze so iteration here of b which is a plosive sound so before and breeze echoes the movements of a ship on sea so they're now imagining oh my gosh it would be amazing to be on this ship with captain cook and and discover all of these new places okay so there's lots of wonder that's illustrated in this verse furthermore there's this repeated reference to south seas and southern seas okay so south seas is repeated in stanzas three four and five and this alludes to cook's own contact so this is captain cook with australia hawaii and new zealands which are all along the southern sea in the next stanza the speaker talks about that lonely garden and this is a reference to the homes garden when there were kids which was a place of discovery almost like the garden of eden okay so this is kind of a very soft biblical reference and remember that garden of eden was a place of exploration for adam and eve but also a place where they ended up losing the innocence when they obviously ate from the apple and the tree of knowledge in life however the speaker states what happy hours went by now the alliteration of age and happy happy and hours shows the innocent joy that they had okay so unlike eve and adam who ate from the tree of knowledge and you know this caused the unhappiness to set in actually she just reflects on only just all the great things that they discovered in this garden the speaker then states what we fancied around us spread foreign sea and sky now here we can see the reference to foreign sea and sky the childhood imaginations are shown through this semantic field of nature they're just imagining oh my gosh what would have captain cook seen when they when he was on sea looking up at the sky you know the endless possibilities of discovery that he embarked on furthermore the minor sentence r shows that the speaker is just so happy as you members how they used to feel as kids they were reading through this and just feeling all of this excitement this is really aptly captured in this minor sentence also the reference to dreaming in distance so the alliteration of d here reflects how much the speaker misses their childhood and the childlike fascination that they had with adventure and exploration furthermore they mention we leave in leaving childhood life's fairyland so here this verse is ending with her talking about them becoming adults adults and they're leaving life's fairyland behind now here this is a metaphor for how blissful childhood was it was like a fairy tale and a fairy land and sadly they have to leave and now go into the harsh boring reality of being adults in the following verse the speaker talks about now as adults it's not of that of a garden a single tree or flower so now here semantic field of nature where they're talking about how as adults they don't have this garden where there's even a single tree or a flower tree and flower is used part of semantic field of nature to show that adulthood is really melancholic it's exciting they've now been kicked out of their own garden of Eden okay so they had this garden of Eden when they were kids they were having all of these explorations imagined captain cook and now as the adults they've been kicked out of this garden they have no access to it and now they're suffering just like adam and eve were kicked out of the garden of Eden in the following line they mention they have plowed its long roots and grasses and cut down now the verbs plowed and cut down which a little bit violent emphasize the pain of adulthood moreover the reference to silver gold okay so the semantic field of colors are used here to describe the different bits of nature okay and mainly plants and flowers so roses and the burnums and this shows the beauty of nature which they used to see as kids it's now faded as adults in the following stanza the speaker talks about they have vanished the childhood that their treasures now here the elicitation of tea emphasizes her mourning at the end of their childhood so they've lost so much and the speaker is so sad when she thinks about how much fun she used to have with her brother as kids also they talk about the life that cometh after so this is an allusion to the afterlife which usually means death okay so afterlife is death however in this case afterlife the life that has come after them being kids is you know the life is adulthood which lacks fun and adventure furthermore this life this adult life that's cometh after it dwells in a darker shade now here the eliteration of D shows creates a more ominous feeling okay it shows that adulthood is brought on darkness sadness as the imagination and even the freedom has become more restricted however they talk about the name of that sea captain so again this is another reference to captain cook who symbolizes adventure who symbolizes being unbound being free then she states how much we loved his dangers and we mourned his fall so the repetition of his hair again this is anaphora shows how much she really still admires him also the caesura hair after dangers shows that part of life being a sailor of course was quite dangerous and of course this also you know he also ended up dying his fall and hence really that's really it when it comes to understanding captain cook so thank you so much for listening to this summary of this poem i hope you found it useful and enlightening and thank you so much for listening