The three paragraphs in the poem deeply express the poet's love and deep mourning for President Lincoln.
1. At the end of the voyage, the ship won, but the captain fell. The bad news came with great joy of victory, and people mourned and regretted the death of the captain.
The poet compares the United States to a "big ship", Lincoln to a "captain", and compares the process of Lincoln leading the federal government forces to defeat the rebels in the south to a "difficult voyage" that "crosses all risks". Here, the poet compares the United States to a big ship, Lincoln to the captain of this big American ship, and the civil war to a difficult voyage. Through the successful return of the ship, he showed Lincoln's achievements, vividly praised Lincoln and expressed his love.
This paragraph depicts the image of a big ship: steady, dignified and heroic; It highlights the hardships of sailing and the hard-won victory. Affirm the great achievements of Captain Lincoln.
In this section, the poet called Lincoln "my captain" and "our captain" in a lyrical way, expressing the cordial love of a soldier and a sailor for his commander-in-chief.
The people warmly cheered the triumph of the ship, bells and horns sounded, flags fluttered and flowers danced, but the captain fell, and how sad the people were!
This section describes a spectacular scene to celebrate the victory, describing the people's love and admiration for Lincoln from the side, thus praising Lincoln.
In a lyrical way, in this section, the poet calls Lincoln "dear father" and regards him as the closest person, which is closer to the feeling that Lincoln is only called the captain in the previous section. Lincoln directly called "you", and the second person said that he met the title of "father" and talked directly with Lincoln. His feelings are earnest and sincere.
The ship broke down, and it was over. The captain fell down forever.
In this section, the poet affirmed Lincoln's achievements from a historical perspective and expressed his great sadness. The poet finally returned to reality from imagination (dream) and clearly knew that the "captain" was really dead. In this section, the poet changed Lincoln to "he", which shows the poet's sober despair and extreme grief.
The author of this poem mainly uses symbolic techniques to describe Lincoln's image, praise Lincoln's achievements and express his admiration and love for Lincoln.
Artistic feature
(1) Expression mode
1. Repeat. In the poem, the main sentence is "He has fallen, died, and cooled down", which some people call parting. In this way, the poem not only keeps the consistency and heaviness of expressing sadness, but also reflects the development process of this emotion.
2. Symbols. In this poem, the poet compares the United States to a big ship and President Lincoln to the captain of this ship by means of overall symbolism. The captain died when the big ship won. The poet used a ship to overcome the stormy waves and reach the port, protecting the victory of the civil war led by Lincoln. The pilot captain symbolized the great role of President Lincoln. This idea is conducive to vividly expressing the greatness and sublimity of the task. When the ship arrived at the port, the captain fell down, which added and expressed the tragic feelings in the poem. It vividly shows the admiration and love for Lincoln, as well as the infinite sorrow for Lincoln's death.
(B) the structure of thought
The feelings expressed by the poet are from the simple to the deep, step by step, manifested in the following points:
1. Praise for Lincoln's outstanding achievements.
The poet compared Lincoln to a captain and America to a big ship. 1 section, under the guidance of the captain, this big ship "ended the arduous voyage", "survived all risks" and "appeared majestic and heroic", highlighting the triumph of the big ship, so as to show Lincoln's achievements; The second paragraph "flags fly for you, horns ring for you", "I send you these bouquets and garlands" and "They cheer for you, and their warm faces turn to you", which shows the love, support and admiration of the broad masses of the people for Lincoln. In the third paragraph, "the ship broke down safely" and "made great achievements", from the perspective of historical significance, Lincoln's merits were highly praised. The poet deeply expressed Lincoln's achievements step by step in his poems, which made people feel the poet's admiration for Lincoln.
2. The poet's personal feelings for Lincoln.
In paragraph 1, the poet called Lincoln "my captain" and "our captain", and at this time he showed the admiration of soldiers for the commander-in-chief and sailors for the captain. In the second and third paragraphs, the poet's feelings deepened. He called Lincoln "dear father" and "my father" affectionately and sincerely, which showed the poet's deep affection between father and son. This in-depth change made the poet's feelings stronger. In paragraph 1, he is only sad for the loss of the pilot, and in paragraphs 2 and 3, he is miserable for the loss of his fatherly relatives. The change of the title reflects the poet's emotional depth.
3. The poet's mourning for Lincoln.
In paragraph 1, the poet only objectively described Lincoln's death: "Our captain lay on the deck, fell down, was cold and died." Lincoln's sudden death made the poet feel numb in shock, instead of feeling excessive sadness, but only accepted and stated as an objective event. In the second paragraph, the poet wakes up from the shock, and sadness comes to mind, but he can't accept the reality emotionally. He refused to believe that the captain was dead. He shouted "Dear Father" and raised his head with his arm. He would rather believe that it was "in a dream", and he also called the captain "you", indicating that the captain was still there like him. In the third paragraph, the poet has to accept this painful reality. He had to admit that the captain could no longer feel his arm. The captain "has lost consciousness and no pulse", and it is useless to hold up the captain's head and scream, so he has to put down the captain and "walk up and down the deck with sad steps". The poet endured everything that "he fell down and died of cold" brought him. The poet called the captain "he" in the third person, which means that the poet has admitted that the captain and himself are separated forever.
In the second paragraph, the poet still feels like a "dream", and there is still a glimmer of hope, but now there is only despair. The change of the poet's title to the captain from nobody to the second person and then to the third person shows the development process of the poet's grief and indignation.
The poet's emotional expression melody is ups and downs, and the emotional theme of each paragraph is changed from joy and excitement to mourning for grief. 1 and the first part of paragraph 2 are all cheerful, the ship has returned, "victory has been won" and the "bustling crowd" in the harbor is "cheering", but in the second half of these two paragraphs, they are all immersed in a deep and sad atmosphere; The third paragraph, except for the first few lines describing the captain, is basically the same as paragraphs 1 and 2, from the joy of "great success" to "sadness" The emotional contrast of the whole poem makes the human body feel the sadness in the poet's heart.