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Apr
15

Walt Whitman – O Captain My Captain

By John  //  Background, Historical  //  No Comments

President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on 14 APR 1865 at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC.  Some call him the last casualty of the US Civil War.  In response to the death of the President,  Walt Whitman, America’s Poet, wrote a poem that was a tribute to Lincoln and his efforts to see the country through the war.

Walt-Whitman

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.

by Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass

(Leather-bound Classics)

 

NOTE TO READER: (1865) A poem by Walt Whitman about a captain who dies just as his ship has reached the end of a stormy and dangerous voyage. The captain represents Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated just as the Civil War was ending. The poem is classified as an elegy or mourning poem and was written to honor Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States.