Facsimile of the Author's Proof.

"O Captain! My Captain!" is a poem by Walt Whitman. It was written in homage to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in 1865, and was first published the same year in an appendix attached to the latest version of Whitman's continually expanding anthology, Leaves of Grass. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (400x608, 53 KB) Summary A photograph of the original poem, showing Whitmans editing markups. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (400x608, 53 KB) Summary A photograph of the original poem, showing Whitmans editing markups. ... Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ... For the pop band, see Presidents of the United States of America. ... For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... ANThology is the first major label album by Alien Ant Farm. ... Walt Whitman, age 37, frontispiece to Leaves of Grass, Fulton St. ...

The poem consists of three stanzas, its layout appearing like a ship approaching its destination, and begins with the famous apostrophe of its title: Apostrophe (Greek ἀποστροφή, apostrophé, turning away; the final e being sounded) is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. ...

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;

Full poem

                                      I.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered 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.

                                      II.

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 ribboned 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.

                                      III.

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.

References in popular culture

After the assassination of Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, the famous Israeli song writer Naomi Shemer translated the poem into Hebrew and composed her own melody, making it a popular song in memorial services. The Prime Minister of Israel (Hebrew: ראש הממשלה, Rosh HaMemshala, lit. ... For other people named Rabin, see Rabin (disambiguation). ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A songwriter is someone who writes either the lyrics or the music for songs. ... Naomi Shemer (July 13, 1930 – June 26, 2004) was one of Israels most important and prolific song writers, considered by some the First Lady of Israeli Song. Shemer wrote both words and lyrics to her own songs, composed music to words by others (such as the poet Rachel), and... “Hebrew” redirects here. ...

One of the best-known instances in which popular culture has appropriated the apostrophe and exploited its historical connotations is the film Dead Poets Society. On the first day of his return to his alma mater as a prep school English teacher, John Keating (played by Robin Williams) invites his students to call him "O Captain! My Captain!". Keating is apparently bent on transforming the lives of his students, in the emancipatory style of a Lincoln, so that they might learn to think individually and recognize the urgency of carpe diem, instead of being enslaved to custom or fashion and leading "lives of quiet desperation" (Thoreau, Walden). Although the invitation is initially treated as a gimmick by most of his charges, it later becomes a poignant, heroic and almost immortalizing slogan for the students when the school administration blames and fires Keating for exhorting the pupils to hedonism and insolence in their attempts to seize the day. The film was parodied in an episode of Family Guy in a scene which also made reference to the poem. Dead Poets Society is an Academy Award winning 1989 film, directed by Peter Weir. ... Robin McLaurim Williams (born July 21, 1951 or 1952)[1] is an Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian. ... Leland-Boker Authorized Edition, printed in June 1864 with a presidential signature The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order given on January 1, 1863 by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War, which declared the freedom of all slaves in those areas of the rebellious Confederate States... Carpe diem is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace (Odes 1. ... Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau[1]) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, and philosopher who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Gadabout redirects here. ... Fast Times at Buddy Cianci Jr. ... Family Guy is an American animated television series about a nuclear family in the suburb of Quahog (IPA or ), Rhode Island. ...

In the 1993 TV-series Wild Palms the poem O Captain! My Captain! is repeatedly used as a prayer by the "Friends" faction. Wild Palms is a six hour mini-series, which first aired in 1993 on the ABC Network in the United States. ...

In the Batman storyarch "Hush", Bruce Wayne recites "O Captain! My Captain!" at the funeral of Thomas Elliot. When Selina Kyle objects to the reading, Leslie Thompkins reveals that this poem is one of Bruce's favorites. Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ... Catwoman is a fictional character associated with DC Comics Batman franchise and created by Bill Finger and Bob Keanan. ... Dr. Leslie Thompkins (often spelled Tompkins) is a fictional character from the Batman comic books. ...

The Leonard Cohen song "The Captain" is a homage to this poem, it appears on his album Various Positions. Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Quebec) is a Canadian poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter. ...

In the TV series Full House, Uncle Jesse memorizes "O Captain! My Captain!" for his English class during his efforts to earn his high school diploma. He confidently recites the opening lines, but is speechless when the teacher asks him what the poem is about. Full House is a popular American television sitcom that ran from 1987 to 1995 on the ABC network. ...

In the James Tiptree, Jr. short story "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?", Lorimer remembers the line "... on the deck my captain lies" after subduing Major Davis, who floats near him in the zero-gravity of the clones' ship, Gloria. James Tiptree, Jr (August 24, 1915 – May 19, 1987) was the pen name of science fiction author Alice Sheldon. ...

In the episode "They Keep Killing Suzie" of the BBC TV series Torchwood, Suzie uses the first words in her last speech addressed to Captain Jack, who is shooting her at the time. They Keep Killing Suzie is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood. ... For the eponymous fictional institute, see Torchwood Institute. ...

In Enter The Matrix, the first video game spinoff of The Matrix series, the Operator of the Logos, Sparks speaks the line:
"Your wish, Captain, my Captain, is my keystroke, colon, double backslash, execute, command." Enter the Matrix is the first video game based on the Matrix series. ... The Matrix series consists primarily of three films, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. ... The Logos is a hovercraft in the Matrix trilogy. ...

The Chicago based punk rock band, The Lawrence Arms, reference this poem in their song 'Necrotism: Decanting The Insalubrious (Cyborg Midnight) Part 7'. It is likely that the song itself was inspired by this poem. The Lawrence Arms are an American punk rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1999 and currently recording for Fat Wreck Chords. ...

In Baldur's Gate II, a Beholder in the Underdark addresses a Drow officer with the phrase "O Captain! my Captain!"; the Drow officer then asks the Beholder why it speaks so oddly. Baldurs Gate is a popular series of computer role-playing games that take place along the Sword Coast, a location from Dungeons & Dragonss Forgotten Realms campaign setting. ...

It can also be heard in the song by the hardcore band Every Time I Die in the song Godspeed Us to the Sea. Every Time I Die is a five-piece metalcore band from Buffalo, New York, founded in the winter of 1998. ...

Pittsburgh experimental death metal band O' Captain! My Captain! names itself after the poem.

External links

• Editorial history of Leaves of Grass