The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done įrom fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won Įpigrams are short, witty, and often satirical poems that usually take the form of a couplet or quatrain (2-4 lines in length). My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills įor you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths-for you the shores a-crowding įor you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells One famous example of an elegy is Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,” which Whitman wrote following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln: They can be written for a particular person, or treat the subject of loss more generally. The elegy is another type of poem that lacks particular rules, but it usually is written in mourning following a death. These stones to praise thee may not cease.Īnd sanctify this ALTAR to be thine. “The Altar” by George Herbert was intended to resemble a church altar: Poets can manipulate spacing or layout to emphasize a theme or important element in the text, or sometimes they can take the literal shape of their subjects.
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun Ĭoral is far more red than her lips’ red