I'm sorry to simply talk about negative things, but i just am having trouble seeing the good/the important lately. Mortality is a daunting figure. And it is difficult to cope with life. I should be over this hump, but it just seems to keep coming back. And as it does, i feel constantly as though i am slowly becoming more and more distanced from people. Maybe poetry is the answer.
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! | 5 | ||||
| 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; | 10 | ||||
| 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, | 15 | ||||
| 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; | 20 | ||||
| Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! | |||||
| But I, with mournful tread, | |||||
| Walk the deck my Captain lies, | |||||
| Fallen cold and dead. Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900. |