Lilacs Blooming

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.

For many of us, exposure to poetry is limited to what we watch on television or in movie theatres. The release of Dead Poets Society in 1989, exposed audiences to some of the richest poetry ever written. Walt Whitman's poem, "O Captain! My Captain!" is introduced in this movie as part of a lecture. In a later scene, the students pay tribute to their professor, John Keating - played by Robin Williams, by standing on their desks and exclaiming "O Captain! My Captain!" This poem, along with "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" was written by Whitman in response to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. These poems, initially published in Drum-Taps, were later included in Whitman's 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass under a new section entitled Memories of President Lincoln.

The imagery evoked by Whitman is drawn from nature and it's seasons; utilizing words such as spring, perennial, blossom, with the lilac bush as the focal point. The first line "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd" (1), marks when Abraham Lincoln died, associating spring with his passing. The speaker mourns the passing of "the great star" (2) and indicates that [he] "shall mourn with ever-returning spring" (3). The lilac bush, central to this poem, is specifically reflected in Section 3: (12-17):

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle -- and from this bush in the dooryard,

With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break.

The perennial blossom of the lilac bush represents the continuous cycle of life and its continuous beats of many lives reflected in the "heart-shaped leaves of green" (13). The speaker added that "every leaf [is] a miracle" (15). The fragrance of "the perfume strong I love" is the breath of life of the single life of one that is beloved (14). The speaker, longing to remember and be near, takes a sprig from the Lilac bush (17).

Along with other imagery, Whitman returns to the images of the lilac bush and the lilac blossoms, reminding the reader of the return of spring and the memories of loss associated with the lilac blossoms. This mournful piece, a beautiful tribute to the beloved American President, Abraham Lincoln.