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The original poem, O Captain My Captain, was more so a mourning poem and after some research, it was a poem meant to honor Abraham Lincoln. Even though the original poem comes as very passionate and made with admiration and honor for the figure in mind, the actual meanings of the poem comprise emotions of the speaker at the demise of his captain. I think your erasure poem did a great job of capturing those sentiments in the original poem. For example, the line “My captain is the prize we won”, this expresses the admiration the speaker had for the victory of the captain. Though in the original poem, the lines play out more so that the victory was the prize and in the erasure poem the captain was the prize. The erasure poem was more concise. The emotions were more laid out and straight to the point. Whereas, the original poem was built with many structural devices such as repetition, “O Captain! My Captain!” and “fallen cold and dead”. As well as some personification and imagery. Overall, as aforementioned, you captured the essence of the original poem and managed to established a similar emotionalism within your erasure poem. I like the line “The dream does not ring dead” which draws a contrast from the repeating “fallen cold and dead”. It made the poem’s message stronger and change the attitude from mourning about the demise of the captain to honoring the captain and carrying on the spirit he had.