10/03/2023
O Captain! My Captain!
BY WALT WHITMAN
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
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;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
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This poem is an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated in 1865, shortly after the end of the American Civil War. The poem uses an extended metaphor of a ship returning to port after a perilous voyage, while the captain lies dead on the deck. The speaker, a sailor, mourns the loss of his captain and father figure, while the rest of the nation celebrates the victory and peace.
The poem was first published in 1865 in a collection called Sequel to Drum-Taps, which contained Whitman’s poems inspired by the events of the Civil War. Later, it was included in the 1867 and subsequent editions of Leaves of Grass, Whitman’s most famous work. The poem is one of Whitman’s most conventional poems, as it follows a regular rhyme scheme and meter, unlike much of his other free verse poetry. The poem is also one of Whitman’s most popular and quoted poems, as it captures the mood of a nation in mourning and pays tribute to one of its greatest leaders.
(Book: 150 Most Famous Poems https://amzn.to/46awSMd)