Song of the Day - 5th December

We are returning to Grief Awareness Week for our next song.

This poem is very famous although many people "of a certain age" may, like me, have been first introduced to it in the film "Dead Poets Society" starring the incredible, inimitable, indescribably funny Robin Williams (can you tell I'm a fan?)

"O Captain! My Captain!", by Walt Whitman (1819-1892), was written in 1865, in the wake of President Lincoln's assassination in April of that year.  Although he never met Lincoln, Whitman felt a connection to him and was greatly moved by Lincoln's assassination.

The metaphor is that the USA is the ship of state, with Lincoln as its captain/father.

Uncharacteristic of Whitman's poetry, the poem was Whitman's most popular during his lifetime, and the only one to be anthologized before his death. In early 1866, a reviewer in the Boston Commonwealth wrote that the poem was the most moving dirge for Lincoln ever written.

Get the music for this song for free - find out how here.

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.

Autographed fair copy of Whitman's poem—signed and dated March 9, 1887—as published in 1881.