Robin Williams

O Captain! My Captain!

When I first watched The Dead Poet's Society, I never realized what this was from. appearntly, it was a poem. And in the movie, they say "O Captain! My Captain" to Robin. And this makes my want to cry because I recently read this poem, and I want to share it with you.

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.

You see, in this poem, a ship has made it back to land. To me, the ship is Robin Willaims' movies. We celebrated him for them and loved them. But the thing is, the ship's captain is dead. So Robin's movies are celebrated, but he is dead.

We were reading this poem in class and we watched a super bowl commercial from last year that Robin Williams voiced. And the teacher asked if anyone recognized the actor's voice who voiced the commercial. I raised my hand (but she called on someone else) and the answer was in fact Robin Willaims. And we listed all his movies because in The Dead Poet's Society he quotes this poem.

Any way, the girl sitting next ot me said,"oh, he's the guy that died." This made me incrediably sad. Robin wasn't just "the guy that died" he was so much more. I didn't realize until today that a lot of people don't miss Robin. I guess I miss him a lot because, like him, I've been friendless before. Last year, I had no friends in my class. I was alone and I dreaded going to school. My least favorate time of the day was lunch becasue at lunch you could see that I had no friends becasue I sat alone. The only time I had friends was in Spanish, PE, and on the bus. All in all, I understand what Robin was going through, and I understand how he felt.