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!
The 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.
1. Discuss the following questions.
1) Which President is “O Captain! My Captain” based on?
2) Which event in American history does “our fearful trip” refer to?
3) How did the journey of the ship end?
4) What is the ship in the poem compared to?
5) After the death of the captain, what had dropped on the deck?
6) What does it mean to “rise up and hear the bells”?
7) Was the narrator in the poem likely to support the Confederacy or the Union?
8) Is the poem a comic or tragic poem?
2. Pair Work: Read the following Chinese translation of the poem and discuss how it is good. Try to give your own translation and compare it with your partner’s.
哦，船长，我的船长！