Tonight, as I listen to the serendipitous recordings of 2Cellos, I was inspired to sit down and write down my third entry.
A few days ago, I was pondering upon what to write about for my third entry, and I came up short on ideas. I then took to the internet, as the vast population of people do nowadays, and began to search for a poem or short story to converse with you all about. I searched high and low, within authors including Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and a few other authors, both known and not. Then I happened upon, not directly a poem or a story, but a memory. I thought back to times when the country seemed to united under a single idea or shared opinion, and then it struck me: death. No, I didn't die, obviously, but I remembered after the beloved actor Robin Williams passed away that my Facebook newsfeed was filled with quotes of "Oh Captain! My Captain!" I, being the occasional nonsensical dimwit I am, never thought that it could be more than just a quote from a movie I hadn't seen, but then I remembered it was a quote from Dead Poets Society. POETS. I then proceeded accordingly to Google this quote and stumbled upon the Walt Whitman poem from which the movie had quoted. Upon reading the piece, I found myself on the very ship, staring horrified at my captain's dead body lying there on the deck of the seafaring vessel, smelling the salty sea air mingled with a sense of foreboding. Not literally, of course, but after sailing back home and into my own mind, I thought to myself, "Now THAT is a splendidly authored work!" The imagery was so very descriptive that I could actually place myself in the shoes of the one speaking in the piece. How marvelous it would be to be so trained and have a talent so honed that you could instantly transport a person into a whole new dimension of thought. It reminded me, too, of why I am majoring in English as a college undergraduate student. It also inspired me to watch Dead Poets Society, a deed I have yet to complete.
If you have not read the magnificent work of "Oh Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman, here is your chance:
"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."
Isn't that simply lovely? Of course, it bears quite an unfortunate end, but a necessary end indeed. I found the transition of the tone throughout the piece to be interesting. In the first and second stanzas, the speaker seems to be hopeful that he was wrong about the captain's death, but alas, finds he was very correct indeed. By the third stanza, the speaker has fully realized the severity of what has happened, and treads heavier because of his grief.
Do you have a poem or work of literature you would like me to write on? Leave a comment with a suggestion! Thank you for reading once again. -M
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