INVICTUS TREES O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

William Ernest Henley Joyce Kilmer Walt Whitman

 
Out of the night that covers me, I think that I shall never see O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole, A poem lovely as a tree. The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we
I thank whatever gods may be sought is won,
      For my unconquerable soul. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; exulting,
In the fell clutch of circumstance While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim
      I have not winced nor cried aloud. A tree that looks at God all day, and daring;
Under the bludgeonings of chance And lifts her leafy arms to pray; But O heart! heart! heart!
      My head is bloody, but unbowed. O the bleeding drops of red,
A tree that may in Summer wear Where on the deck my Captain
Beyond this place of wrath and tears A nest of robins in her hair; lies,
      Looms but the Horror of the shade, Fallen cold and dead.
And yet the menace of the years Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
      Finds and shall find me unafraid. Who intimately lives with rain. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the
It matters not how strait the gate, Poems are made by fools like me, bugle trills,
      How charged with punishments the scroll, But only God can make a tree. For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you
I am the master of my fate, the shores a-crowding,
      I am the captain of my soul. For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager
SONNET 18 faces turning;
William Shakespear Here Captain! dear father!
IF— This arm beneath your head!
Rudyard Kipling Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? It is some dream that on the deck,
  Thou art more lovely and more temperate: You’ve fallen cold and dead.
(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies) Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
If you can keep your head when all about you    And summer's lease hath all too short a date: My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,    Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, still,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse
    But make allowance for their doubting too;    And every fair from fair sometime declines, nor will,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, But thy eternal summer shall not fade closed and done,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, object won;
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
If you can dream—and not make dreams your So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, But I with mournful tread,
master;    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. Walk the deck my Captain lies,
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your Fallen cold and dead.
aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
    And treat those two impostors just the same;    Robert Frost
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And sorry I could not travel both
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
And having perhaps the better claim,
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
Though as for that the passing there
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Had worn them really about the same,
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
And both that morning equally lay
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
In leaves no step had trodden black.
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
I doubted if I should ever come back.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.