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.
Words in this poem
- exulting a.
- Rejoicing triumphantly or exceedingly; exultant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O Captain! My Captain! is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain!, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/o-captain-my-captain.html, id L25588.
Form and metre
O Captain! My Captain! is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA---B-B doneA · wonA · exulting · daring · heart · redB · lies · deadB
- 2 -----A-A bells · trills · crowding · turning · father · headA · deck · deadA
- 3 AABB-C-C stillA · willA · doneB · wonB · bells · treadC · lies · deadC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, | 13 | ·/˘·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, | 15 | ···/˘/˘˘······· |
| The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, | 15 | ·········/˘·˘/˘ |
| While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; | 15 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| But O heart! heart! heart! | 5 | ····· |
| O the bleeding drops of red, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Where on the deck my Captain lies, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Fallen cold and dead. | 5 | /˘··· |
| O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; | 12 | ·/˘·/˘······ |
| Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills, | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding, | 15 | ··˘/·········/˘ |
| For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; | 15 | ·····/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Here Captain! dear father! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| This arm beneath your head! | 6 | ······ |
| It is some dream that on the deck, | 8 | ········ |
| You’ve fallen cold and dead. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, | 13 | ·/˘··/˘······ |
| My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, | 14 | ···/˘····/˘··· |
| From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; | 14 | ·/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| Exult O shores, and ring O bells! | 8 | ˘/······ |
| But I with mournful tread, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Walk the deck my Captain lies, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Fallen cold and dead. | 5 | /˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.