O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

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.

Of the many tributes to Lincoln this best interprets the sense of personal loss and deep sorrow in the hearts of the North, mingled with their pride and exultation over his work so well done. No note of bitterness, no

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

161

battle-hymn, no triumph-song-just a deep sense of personal loss a mist of tears - that sweetens forever our appreciation of the immortal Lincoln. This poem should be read in every schoolroom in the land until every head should bow in sacred appreciation of our country's sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES

1. What opportunity did Whitman have to know personally the character and work of Lincoln?

2. How does the poet conceive of the Civil War? Explain the figure fully.

3. What is the significance of "O heart, heart, heart"?

4. What does each part of the title tell us at the outset? 5. Why "some dream"?

6. Why "My father"?

7. What touches reveal the keen sense of personal loss?

8. What sounds the note of exultation over the "object won"? 9. Explain fully the sense in which this poem is an interpretation and appreciation of the life and tragic death of Lincoln.

LONGFELLOW: Excelsior.

REFERENCES

BRYANT: Abraham Lincoln.

HALPIN: Death of Lincoln.

MITCHELL: Lincoln (a sonnet).

MARKHAM: Abraham Lincoln.

H. H. BROWNELL: Abraham Lincoln.

TENNYSON: To the Duke of Wellington.

BYRON: Ode to Napoleon.

WORDSWORTH: The Character of the Happy Warrior.

PHILLIPS BROOKS: Abraham Lincoln.

LOWELL: Centennial Hymn. Lincoln.

STODDARD: Abraham Lincoln.

STEDMAN: The Hand of Lincoln.

TOM TAYLOR: Abraham Lincoln.

THE

OLD IRONSIDES

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

HE United States frigate, the Constitution, called "Old Ironsides" because her crew insisted that the shot of the enemy rebounded from her sides, was first commissioned in the United States navy in 1798. In 1804 she first became distinguished as leader of the brilliant naval attack on Tripoli. But her deathless glory rests on her signal victories in the War of 1812, chief of which was the complete destruction of the Guerrière in a fierce thirty-minute engagement, August 19, 1812. For this victory Captain Hull was given rousing ovations in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Congress awarded him a gold medal and appropriated fifty thousand dollars as a reward to him and his brave crew. Other victories followed in rapid succession and the Constitution became a veritable "eagle of the sea."

In 1828, after a glorious career, the old frigate was pronounced unseaworthy and the naval authorities ordered that she be dismantled. This order met a general murmur of disapproval which burst into a storm of indignant protest after the fiery heart of the youthful Holmes had dictated the following remarkable lyric. His poet's eye sees the heroic old vessel sweeping proudly into port, her tattered flag at top mast, seemingly conscious of having lent herself to the protection of the bodies of heroes and to the preservation