Titanic David R Slavitt Analysis

In David R. Slavitt’s poem “Titanic,” many poetry elements contribute to the theme: everyone dies and no one can escape death. The theme is portrayed in several ways. Imagery is shown throughout the fourteen lines of the poem and put pictures into the reader’s mind that help to understand the theme. The diction of the poem helps to reinforce this theme of death. The poem’s diction is comical in some ways, but also light hearted when the author describes the many amenities and people that were on the ship the time of the crash. Irony is presented in numerous ways that help to contribute to the theme. The theme of death in the poem “Titanic” can be backed up and further explained by many poetry elements that are hinted to throughout the poem. David R Slavitt’s “Titanic” is about a tragedy that affected the lives of many people during the time it occurred. Slavitt uses the first stanza of his poem to ask a question to the readers: ”Who does not love the Titanic?” Most readers would answer, saying they love the story of the Titanic, but would not have liked to be on the ship for its first and, inevitably, final voyage.

Imagery is also used to back up the theme that everyone dies and no one can escape it. Imagery is shown in lines six and seven where Slavitt writes,”We all go down, mostly alone. But with crowds of people, friends, servants, well fed, with music, with lights! Ah!” (Meyer 822). These lines from the poem reinforces the theme by stating the fact that we all die at some point. The lines also create imagery by illustrating the death that occurred on the Titanic and that it was one of a luxury. Lines six and seven also portray the scene of the ship and describes the many people that would all die together. Imagery reinforces the theme by adding a mental picture for the reader to think about as he or she continues to read the poem and tries to imagine the crash of the