summary of poem o captain,my captain!
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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.
n/a
Source: Leaves of Grass (David McKay, 1891)
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Answer:
In the first stanza, the speaker, a sailor, salutes his captain. He reports that their voyage is successful and nearly complete and that “the prize we sought is won.” As the ship approaches port, the speaker describes the bells tolling and the celebratory crowds gathering. But in a sudden shift, the speaker exclaims that his captain has fallen on the deck “cold and dead.”
In the second stanza, the speaker implores his captain to “rise up” and see the crowd eagerly rejoicing in his victorious return. As the speaker tells his captain, “for you the flag is flung,” “for you the bugle trills,” and “for you the shores a-crowding.” Again, the tone shifts as the speaker acknowledges that his captain has “fallen cold and dead” but expresses hope that “it is some dream.”
In the third and final stanza, the speaker examines his deceased captain, whose “lips are pale and still” and who “has no pulse or will.” Though the voyage is complete and the ship safely harbored, the speaker is wracked with grief. He calls for the bells to be rung and for the crowds to exult, but he walks “with mournful tread[…] the deck my Captain lies, / Fallen cold and dead.”