Aboard at a Ship’s Helm
Aboard at a Ship’s Helm - meaning Summary
Voyage as Inner Navigation
Whitman uses a maritime scene—a young steersman heeding a fog bell—to depict human guidance and survival. The ship’s narrow escape from wreckage becomes a metaphor for bodily and spiritual navigation. The poem links concrete action (steering, tacking) with larger voyages of life and soul, ending in an expansive invocation of the "ship" as both body and immortal self on continual voyaging toward unknown horizons.
Read Complete AnalysesAboard, at a ship’s helm, A young steersman, steering with care. A bell through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing, An ocean-bell—O a warning bell, rock’d by the waves. O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing, Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place. For, as on the alert, O steersman, you mind the bell’s admonition, The bows turn,—the freighted ship, tacking, speeds away under her gray sails, The beautiful and noble ship, with all her precious wealth, speeds away gaily and safe. But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship! O ship of the body—ship of the soul—voyaging, voyaging, voyaging.
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