POEM - THE NATION UNITED

A Noiseless, Patient Spider
A NOISELESS, patient spider,
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

                                                                                        - Walt Whitman

POEM - 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!
       O the bleeding drops o 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 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.

                                                                             - Walt Whitman