Symbol Analysis
If you're looking for a central image in the poem, the white whale appears multiple times in just about every section. And it's not just the sought-after sea monster that visits the poem; the crew of Moby Dick stops by several times as well. Ultimately, their deaths were caused by both conditions at sea and by their captain's obsession with finding the white whale at any cost, so for a poem about the disaster that befalls man when he challenges God, it's a pretty appropriate allusion. Let's take a look at how exactly Lowell uses our whaling crew and the object of their voyage:
- Line 15: Ahab, captain of the ship in Moby Dick, is seen for the first time, and he's at the bottom of the sea, where a fish bumps into his nose. Since the novel was set long before the sailor (who represents Lowell's cousin) drowned, we are meant to recognize that his cousin has found his way to the very bottom of the sea, where Ahab rests.
- Line 31: Lowell asks the drowned sailor if he can hear the "Pequod's sea wings, beating landward" as it crashes. By again comparing the drowned sailor's fortune to that of the Pequod, Ahab's ship, we're asked to consider how long the sea has been claiming human lives, and how ships are sometimes no match for its power.
- Lines 43-44: The bones of the Quaker sailors are crying out for the "hurt beast" who is "bobbing by Ahab's whaleboats in the East." The beast is the whale; they're blaming the beast for their deaths, not realizing that it was Ahab's pride that led them to the grave.
- Line 62: Lowell calls the white whale "IS," which is a reference to its power (and at the same time an allusion to Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire"). In fact, he's comparing the whale to a deity. In this section, the whale is a metaphor for God, because he's infallible. We guess that's why the Quaker sailors couldn't stop him.
- Line 72: Here, Lowell sends the Pequod "packing off to hell." This section sees the end of the whaling industry, and the Pequod has gone to a place from where it can't return. Instead of sending the Pequod to heaven, he chooses a more damning locale. Could Lowell be saying that this is the fate of those who challenge God?
- Line 75: Now the whale is "turntail" after being speared. We don't blame him.
- Line 89: Still speared, the whale is spilling his guts into the sea. Lowell uses these guts as a metaphor for corruption; as they spread through the sea, man's corruption spreads over the earth.