O Captain! My Captain!
The lament for a fallen leader, returned home in victory but cold on the deck.
Origin
Walt Whitman's 1865 elegy for Abraham Lincoln, written in the weeks after his assassination. The poem treats Lincoln as the captain who steered the ship of state through the Civil War, only to die just as it 'comes in with object won.' Whitman more or less disowned its conventional metrical style later in life. Dead Poets Society (1989) made it the rallying cry of Robin Williams's English teacher, recasting it for a younger audience.
Modern usage
'O Captain, my Captain' is the standard tribute line for a mentor, coach, or leader who has died — used at memorials, on social media, and on retirement cards. The Dead Poets Society scene is the reference point most people are actually quoting.
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