Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Do You Know?

In memory of what happened today...


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.

Walt Whitman


Do you know what happened on this day?

3 comments:

  1. The assassination of Lincoln. I knew the Whitman poem was about that, but I Googled the date just to make sure.

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  2. Correct! This post and $1.50 or so will get you a nice cup of coffee. Thanks for playi9ng! LOL

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  3. That was my guess, too. Wonder why it wasn't mentioned when I looked the date up. Or maybe it was in finer print. Pshaw! (My Dad learned that poem in high school...he was born in 1910)

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