this poem is an elegy on the death of president Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated on April Fools4,1865,five days after the declaration of the truimphant close of the civil war
The poem consists of three stanzaswith each stanza containing 8 lines and follows a rhyme scheme of "aabbcded" .The first thing lines of each stanza are almost in heptameter , while each of the latter 4 lines is alternatively in trimeter or tetrameter .The metrical foot within every stanza also varies freely from iambus and trochee .The shifts of the methods parallels the ups and downs of the poet's passion and the freedom the expression which avails the poet to make the work coherent whole.
In the first stanza , the poet metaphorically compares the country as a ship and the president a captain.The country，with the piloting of the president has just survived the war and won the liberty for all the people. In the second stanza，the“captain” has seen the breaking of the dawn when all the honors are accessible he falls in front of the people . This enhances the strength of tragic scenery. In the third stanza with all teh calling and rings of the bells the captain is unable to come。The helplessness drives the poet to great despair。
Repeated metaphorical reference is made to this issue throughout the verse。 The "ship" spoken of is intended to represent the united states of American ，while “fearful ship ”recalls the trouble of the American Civil War。 The "captain" is Lincoln himself。The overall metaphor of this poem is that life is a journey 。 Synecdoche is also used in the line －‘while follow eyes the steady keel". Here， the eyes refers to the waiting people 。While the keel，the ship。Besides apostaphe，a figure of speech in which an author speaks to a person or thing absent or present is used。 For example in the poem， the poet calls "captain ，my capatin" to express his sorrow。
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