O Captain! My Captain!

It was exactly a year ago... Just after midnight on August 13 that my father passed away...just minutes after I had said my goodbyes. It is hard to believe that it has already been a year.  It is also a sad coincidence that Robin Williams passed away this week as he had made even more popular the wonderful poem by Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain!...which Dad loved... In the movie Dead Poet's Society. I even remember hearing Dad read the poem in a dramatic reading contest in Toastmasters. Dad was also a big fan of that movie and Robin Williams. 

I miss Dad terribly, but am sure he is still reciting poetry.

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.