Thread: Walt Whitman, 'O Captain! My Captain!'

I absolutaly adore this poem, for some unidentifiable reason
I find it really... interesting the way it rhymes (sp?) and ... well, I just can't descibe it. I love it, and I don't know why, so there.
I'm actually a bit suprised it hasn't been mentioned... and if it has, then sorry, lol.

1
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.

2
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.

3
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.

lylyum yes it haunts doesn't it

My teacher made us memorize that when I was in high school. I liked it so much then that I can still recite it today (about 8 years later). I usually whisper it to myself whenever I'm walking down dark streets in the middle of the night. That, and Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy.

Great poems are normally written by great poets loved for unidentifiable reasons, and Walt Whitman is by far the greatest American poet. And he kicks ass on those English poets too.

Originally Posted by Jon1jt

... he kicks ass on those English poets too.

you think

Haha, when I first read it, it reminded me of the story 'The Princess and the Captain', even though in the story the Captain is not the father, but the lover of the person I imagine the perspective of the poem to be. If that at all made any sense.
Lol, I've set to see someone recite this poem to themselves while walking, except me - but I only recite what I remember, lol.

Originally Posted by ash somers

you think

Well, if you are the kind of person that likes to read poetry that sounds poetical, then read the English poets who try too hard. If you want to sound your barbaric yawp from the rooftops of the world, read Whitman.

The only poem I have enjoyed enough to keep reading over and over again.

Originally Posted by Katastrof

The only poem I have enjoyed enough to kept reading over and over again.

If you enjoyed this poem, try Whitman's Ode to the Learned Astronomer and O' Me, O' Life!