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.

Where this text comes from

First published in Saturday Press (4 November 1865). Reprinted in Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865–66). This text follows the 1891–92 “deathbed” edition of Leaves of Grass. [1] [2]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-12.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/walt-whitman_leaves-of-grass, memories-of-president-lincoln.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1#L24.

Cite this poem

Walt Whitman (1819–1892). “O Captain! My Captain!.” First published in Saturday Press (4 November 1865). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/walt-whitman/o-captain-my-captain/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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