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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;
Hear Captain! dear father!
The arm beneath your head!
It is some dream 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 shore, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O me! O life!

O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring.
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the foolish.
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew'd.
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring -- What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer That you are here--that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

~ Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

(no subject)

Date: 2006-02-07 10:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kalquessa.livejournal.com
Memorized this (or, well, the first three stanzas...I think the last is a separate piece, correct?) for an eight-grade speech meet. Darned if I can recall more than a few lines, now. Stupid mental entropy.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-02-07 10:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ayoub.livejournal.com
I think the poem is the full four...

The fourth rounds it off... for me...

(no subject)

Date: 2006-02-07 11:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kalquessa.livejournal.com
Weird, I've never seen the fourth stanza before, though it does sound a lot more like Whitman than the other three (to me). That's incredibly odd.

(no subject)

Date: 2006-02-08 09:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ayoub.livejournal.com
The whitman archive has only the first three stanzas on their scan of the manuscript, yet I found this as a whole, on another site...

Truly odd...

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