In Walt Whitman's poem "O Captain! My Captain!," the emotional contrast between the sailors and the people is expressed by irony, which is the language that means the opposite of what is said. In that matter, the sailors are miserable because they have just come from war and the captain has died. However, the people on the deck do not know what actually happened during the war or that the captain has died, so they are simply contented that the war is over.
