David R. Slavitt was an author of poetry and wrote a lot of books. He was born March 23, 1935 and he wrote his first book The Exhibitionist in 1967; but his first poetry book was Day Sailing and Other Poems, published 1969. He is still alive today at age eighty-three
(David R. Slavitt Wikipedia). I became interested in Slavitt when I was flipping through the poetry section of our textbook for this class and I came across his poem Titanic I like this poem for the tone and images that it brought to my mind.
Slavitt poem Titanic was written in 1983, which is many years after the Titanic ship sank in 1912. The poems first three lines are, "Who does not love the Titanic?" "If They sold passage tomorrow for the same crossing," "who would not buy?" These lines caught my attention by how true I believe they are. The tone these lines brought to me is excitement that many people must have felt when tickets were first being sold for this famous ship. But then the poem takes a darker tone in the next three lines describing how, "All go down, mostly alone."(4-5) Titanic goes on with a sad tone, "And the world, shocked, mourns, as it ought to do and almost never does"(Slavitt pg 590). The next two lines after that sentence turn the dark tone to bittersweet. As they tell of the many books and movies that are made to remember those who went down with the Titanic and give their grandchildren memories. When Slavitt is ending the poem he uses sarcasm with the word, "Ah!"(6). He sarcastically suggests going down with crowds of people in a cold ocean would be glamorous. The poem ends on a dark note reminding readers that during the sinking mostly upper class had their lives saved; but third class were left to drown.
Titanic brings detailed images to my mind from beginning to end. In the first lines I imagine an announcement in which crowds of people heard about the Titanic and their excited chatter as they waited in long lines for tickets. From what I have seen in the 1997 movie, I can clearly see when reading the middle sentences. Passengers from different money classes standing at the railing looking down into dark blue water as it got closer and feeling it surround them with its icy grip. I hear screams as the Titanic tilts upward taking passengers plus workers down. I imagine newspaper headlines that were seen when announcements came of what happened to the glorious Titanic and its people. When I read the line about books and movies I picture faces of inspired authors and screenwriters that wrote some great pieces that we know today.
I like Slavitt's poem on the Titanic for its take on a ship I learned much about in elementary school. From looking at Titanic's tone and images, I know the overall theme is that dying is unavoidable but it is ideal to be remembered afterwards.
Works Cited
David R. Slavitt, Titanic , The COMPACT Bedford Introduction to Literature ELEVENTH EDITION by Michael Myer, 2017Â Â
David R. Slavitt. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_R._Slavitt.
