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!
The 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.
1. Discuss the following questions.
1) Which President is “O Captain! My Captain” based on?
2) Which event in American history does “our fearful trip” refer to?
3) How did the journey of the ship end?
4) What is the ship in the poem compared to?
5) After the death of the captain, what had dropped on the deck?
6) What does it mean to “rise up and hear the bells”?
7) Was the narrator in the poem likely to support the Confederacy or the Union?
8) Is the poem a comic or tragic poem?
2. Pair Work: Read the following Chinese translation of the poem and discuss how it is good. Try to give your own translation and compare it with your partner’s.
哦，船长，我的船长！
（美） 瓦尔特·惠特曼 江枫译
哦，船长，我的船长！我们险恶的航程已经告终，
我们的船安渡过惊涛骇浪，我们寻求的奖赏已赢得手中。
港口已经不远，钟声我已听见，万千人众在欢呼呐喊，
目迎着我们的船从容返航，我们的船威严而且勇敢。
可是，心啊！心啊！心啊！
哦，殷红的血滴流泻，
在甲板上，那里躺着我的船长，
他已倒下，已死去，已冷却。
哦，船长，我的船长！起来吧，请听听这钟声，
起来，——旌旗，为你招展——号角，为你长鸣。
为你，岸上挤满了人群——为你，无数花束、彩带、花环。
为你，熙攘的群众在呼唤，转动着多少殷切的脸。
这里，船长！亲爱的父亲！
你头颅下边是我的手臂！
这是甲板上的一场梦啊，
你已倒下，已死去，已冷却。
我们的船长不作回答，他的双唇惨白、寂静，
我的父亲不能感觉我的手臂，他已没有脉搏、没有生命，
我们的船已安全抛锚碇泊，航行已完成，已告终，
胜利的船从险恶的旅途归来，我们寻求的已赢得手中。
欢呼，哦，海岸！轰鸣，哦，洪钟！
可是，我却轻移悲伤的步履，
在甲板上，那里躺着我的船长，
他已倒下，已死去，已冷却。
Notes
1. American Realism (1865-1915): The American Civil War brought the Romantic Period to an end. The Age of Realism came into existence. It came as a reaction against the lie of romanticism and sentimentalism, as Everett Carte put it. Realism turned from an emphasis on the strange toward a faithful rendering of the ordinary, a slice of life as it is really lived. It expresses the concerns for common place and the low, and it offers an objective rather than an idealistic view of human nature and human experience. Realistic literature finds the drama and the tension beneath the surface of life. A realistic writer is more objective than subjective, more descriptive than symbolic. Realists look for truth in everyday truths.
2.Naturalism: It was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. It was depicted as a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalism is the outgrowth of literary realism, a prominent literary movement in mid-19th-century France and elsewhere. Naturalistic writers were influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
3.Toni Morrison (1931- ): She is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She also was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. She won the Nobel Prize in 1993 and in 1987 the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved. In April 2012, it was announced she would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and on 29 May 2012, she received the award.
4.Walt Whitman (1819-1892): He was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
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