Titanic David R Slavitt Summary

I chose to write about David R. Slavitt’s Poem “Titanic” because I enjoyed his refreshing perspective on the Titanic, as well as the irony throughout the poem. The poem “Titanic”, is told by a speaker who did not experience the Titanic, but he seems to think he knows what it would have been like, or at least his opinion of the situation. The Speaker opens the poem by asking “who does not love the Titanic?”(1) By asking this he is implying that not only does everyone love the story of the titanic, but he even goes as far as to say “if they sold passage tomorrow for that same crossing, who would not buy?”(2-3) The speaker is implying that although the titanic was a tragic event in history, it’s something that has become glorified. He believes if you’re going to die, which we all must eventually, it might as well be on the Titanic. That way you’ll be a part of history, and never forgotten. I feel as though there are two different ways of interpreting Slavitt’s poem. On one hand it can be seen as a poem about the ironic and a somewhat bitter meditation of the inevitability of death, but on the other, I can see his poem as exposing the vanity of those who prize glamour and those who desire to be remembered.

The speaker has a very ironic tone, and he speaks with middle to informal diction. This helps identify with more people in today’s society, to whom the speaker is trying to communicate and identify with. He does not chose to write it with any kind of rhythm or rhyme, but told more as a story of ones feelings or perspective. He uses many types of meters, such as iambic Trimeter, iambic Pentameter, iambic Tetrameter, Iambic Dimeter, and iambic Pentameter, which makes the poem flow