O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

1

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.

2

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.

3

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.


Walt Whitman... The Dead Poets Society... Mr. Keating... Carpe Diem! Sieze The Day.

Nothing to do with the poem, but after watching The DPS again, it gave me that nostalgic moment when I was still in High School and being a student leader was never able to "sieze the day!" It was only in college at the University of the Philippines where we experienced what the real experience of being free - Academic Freedom.

But yet again... who is free?

Every human being especially us, Filipinos, are still chained to slavery in the form of so many things. Be it capitalism, religion, pride, money, sin... and even love.

It is so sad, like the Captain, that after weathering the storm at the end of the journey, you can not live to see the success of docking the ship in the port. That despite the efforts and the leadership you showed, your crew will still stage a mutiny against you.

Sieze the day!

The challenges we are experiencing in our lives almost daily are food we take to keep us going. Keep us living. Without these challenges, we are not humans. We are not living.

Sieze the day!