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AlecBell — Launching The Titanic, 1911
Published: 2010-01-15 16:03:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 883; Favourites: 17; Downloads: 19
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Never did any of us see the like!And every one of us was part of it,
the biggest ship in the world, built in
Harland's Belfast Yard. This was the day when
all our sweat and effort would sweep down
the slipway and cannon into the sea.
We'd been greasing for days, and fitting
the hundreds of tons of chains that would brake
her progress as she hit the water. Twenty-six thousand tons
of steel girders and plate, best part of half a mile long,
as tall as a cathedral. And we built her,
the biggest ship in the world.
True enough, the masters and the bosses set us on,
and she'd been plotted and planned piece by piece
at a thousand and more drawing boards in Belfast,
Glasgow and London. Hundreds had laboured
near the Clyde to smelt the steel, and forge it into
the huge plates our cranes lifted into place, while
we used sledge hammers to bash the bright
vermillion rivets into the seams, watching as
they cooled to angry ruby and sulky black.
That's real engineering for you, The mind of the designers,
draughtsmen and engineers, combining with the mighty
sinews of the trades. After all that, lads, what else
were they going to call it? Titanic.
No other word big enough.
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Comments: 48
Once again I'm mesmerized with your talent and words. I'll start by citing the part I loved the most and why:
We'd been greasing for days, and fitting
the hundreds of tons of chains that would brake
her progress as she hit the water. Twenty-six thousand tons
of steel girders and plate, best part of half a mile long,
as tall as a cathedral. And we built her,
the biggest ship in the world.
It is felt and vibrate through every word, the imagery, the intention, the damn feel of this poem. In this poem I think that this is the main bridge, THE part which mend the entire poem. Unlike the first stanza, which is like an introduction, and the third stanza, which is the core of the poem, or the fourth, which is the climax or concept of the poem, the second stanza is the glue that makes the entire poem stick and feel humane.
On the other hand, without it the entire poem will break apart, which says something about the other stanzas.
All in all I would give this 4 on impact, because the poem does not leave a long lasting taste after reading it although it leaves a good one! I think that you can edit this a bit, especially the last two stanzas, but as is this poem is really good and unique in content, build up and atmosphere. Well done!
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As a disclaimer from the beginning, this critique may be somewhat biased; this is not my favorite style of poetry (though it is, objectively, valid).
To begin with, the subject matter has a certain atmosphere of its own that naturally settles into the poem. The looming, cinematic impact of James Cameron's Titanic still pervades the American mind. For this reason, I found it somewhat difficult to connect to the work; it is a ship that I, and I imagine others, are all-too-familiar-with (despite being separated from it by a distance of almost one hundred years).
My primary, critical notion of this poem is this: "This could just as easily have been a paragraph." The only indication that this work is a poem is the line breaking. As a paragraph, it would stand with a degree of dignity. There are some rather nice turns of phrases, most particularly the last line 'No other word big enough.' Nevertheless, the structure of the piece did not carry that music that I have come to expect from poems. Rather, it felt much like a narration, split up rather arbitrarily according to line length.
This is not to say the work is 'bad.' It isn't. There's a rather interesting perspective here. I do not think, however, that the work as it presently stands sufficiently captures that perspective in a viable way.
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I'm a very big fan of the titanic, and reading them was just taking my love to a whole other level.
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I love your realism, and your attention to details is captivating.
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This poem is astonishingly slick. I love the ending, it made me smirk and I'm sure you had a grin on your face when you wrote it too.
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But I also intended to record the great achievement that the building of that ship was, as it seemed at the time. The disaster was of seamanship, not engineering.
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I was referring to the line 'No other word big enough.' It made me smile because there really is no other word which would fit the Titanic - it was huge.
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Sorry. I must have been more dim than usual! Thank you again!!
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It's an easy semantic mistake, the Titanic is still - surprisingly - a sensitive issue, in context. I look forward to more poetry from you.
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You've been featured here (LITplease related): [link]
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Congratulations Alec on your Litplease contest win.
Great historical piece.
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At last, a "launch" poem that's not about rockets!
I like it.
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Once again --> lovely!
I especially liked the 'us' perspective. It endowed the poem with a very engaging feeling of action and excitement: the great-things-are-happening-out-there-and-we're-all-part-of-it feeling!
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Thank you, Leonard.
I hoped that was how it would read. I tried to turn the clock back on the Titanic legend
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Oohh, it's just brilliant! It feels so alive!
I never considered the workmen who laboured on the Titanic... Thank you for lifting another historical curtain.
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Thank you, Caitlin
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i really felt the skill of your imagery
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I like that you captured the spirit of the thing...prior to....you know.
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I realised that later events have coloured the collective memory of what was a great achievement.
If the seamanship had been equal to the egineering events might have turned out differently.
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I can imagine the colour and noise as they worked on the ship!
It must have looked so beautiful when it was finished!
I love this part!"we used sledge hammers to bash the bright vermillion rivets into the seams,watching as they cooled to angry ruby and sultry black"
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thank you, Tricia.
It was an epic project, I'm sure you're right about the finished project. As a child I lived on the approaches to what was then the Atlantic terminal in Southampton. The giant liners were a regular feature of the sea traffic, each one of them, The United States, La France, The Queen Mary and The Queen Elizabeth, called at the port on a weekly basis. The channel they used was narrow, so you could get awesome sense of how massive these vessels were. All of them were smaller than The Titanic.
It's a pity that there was so little colour photography when the Titanic was built.
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You were very lucky to be near the sea
I did go to see the film .It did give me chance to see how grand the Titanic was...but ,I just couldn't watch the harrowing parts ,so "watched" it with my eyes closed!
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It's not easy to get a long way from the sea in the UK!
I saw the much earlier black and white film, from the fifties, A Night To Remember.
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No !We do have lots of water
So did I...It was more atmospheric...which B&W films usually are!...No colour to distract your thoughts!
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- what a triumph she nearly was,
approaching man's greatest accomplishment to the date.
the Titanic was a colossal success...
[almost]
not so much hubris, as simply not being able to foresee.
- "the best laid plans..."
build bigger or faster
'til it falls or fails.
lose the puffing of chests
to the coffin nails.
- you 'craft' another thought impellor, Alec.
its wake splashing waves of new ideas.
- 
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Thank you, Pip.
One of the findings from the commission of enquiry was that the ship was steaming too fast. If it were travelling more slowly, there could have been time to take evasive action.
The speed was supposedly insisted on by White Star Line for publicity purposes.
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fantastic!!!
cannon into the sea
i felt the jolt and the sea-roll.
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SO much better than the movie! 
Neat that you picked this perspective.
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Thank you.
I realised what an ironic moment it was. Often understanding the past is about joining things together.
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