Desu is the present positive form of 'be': is. Ka is a question marker when the last sound in a sentence. Japanese grammar also puts desu at the end of sentences. So 'desu ka' is just a combination of the two. I could mean 'isn't it', but that's just a lose translation, I believe.
Notes of a Native Son (1955) is James Baldwin's first book, a collection of essays that are an autobiographical exploration of his experiences growing up in Harlem, his travels in Europe (and the... In the book Native Son, is Bigger's lawyer Max Jewish?
O Captain! My Captain! is an extended metaphor poem written in 1865 by Walt Whitman, about the death of American president Abraham Lincoln. The poem was first published in the pamphlet Sequel to Drum-Taps which assembled 18 poems regarding the American Civil War, including another Lincoln elegy, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.