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Relevant background | Summary | Themes | Tones
Imagery | Sound Effects
Derek Mahon (Born: 1941)
Relevant background
- Derek Mahon grew up on the outskirts of Belfast. He was educated in Belfast, Dublin and Paris.
- He had a family association with the subject matter of this poem as his father worked in the local shipyard where the Titanic was built. His grandfather worked on the Titanic in Belfast shipyard as a boilermaker. Derek would have trained in the shipyards except that he failed his eye test. He went on to university as a second choice.
- This poem recalls the ordeal of Bruce Ismay who was questioned after he survived the sinking of the Titanic. Bruce Ismay was president of the company that owned the Titanic. About one third of the passengers, mainly women and children, survived the sinking after being put on lifeboats.
- Mahon originally called the poem ‘Bruce Ismay’s Soliloquy’. The poem is presented as a single speech by the central character. In drama such a speech is known as a soliloquy. The poem may also be called a monologue.
Summary
This poem by Derek Mahon is about Bruce Ismay’s troubled life after he survived the sinking of the Titanic. The poem shows that Bruce Ismay may have survived in a physical sense. But he became mentally and emotionally unwell and died a broken man as a result.
The inquiry that followed the sinking of the Titanic led to gossip that he had acted in a cowardly manner. From the poem it seems Ismay was criticised for not drowning with the crew. They and many male passengers were called heroes for going down with the wreck. Ismay seems to reject the criticism that he ‘got away’. He didn’t in an emotional sense. Later in the poem he shows guilt for what happened to the third class passengers. He went on to live a tormented life, with his good name destroyed and his conscience bothering him severely. Derek Mahon shows sympathy for Ismay. In this poem Mahon imagines what Ismay would have said about his painful and isolated existence after his disgrace.
Ismay hated the rumours that he made a cowardly escape:
‘They said I got away in a boat and humbled me at the inquiry’.
Ismay’s use of the word ‘humbled’ suggests that he feels he was treated unfairly. The words ‘got away’ show that there was a bias against Ismay. In the eyes of the investigators or press he should have drowned so as to ensure his reputation.
Because he owned the ship he claims he suffered as much pain that night as any drowned crewmember:
‘I tell you I sank as far that night as any hero’.
The use of the word ‘hero’ is very sarcastic. He is mocking the way the enquiry and the press use language. The officials praise the drowned for drowning and condemn the survivors for surviving. Perhaps he misses the point that he may not have been as selfless as some of those heroes who put others first.
He is trying to portray himself as a victim also. He portrays his ‘shivering on the dark water’. In addition to that physical trauma, he endured further misery. He felt the horror of hearing his life investment sink in a chaotic mixture of its contents: ‘pandemonium’. The reference by Ismay to his ‘costly life’ is an ironical protest and somewhat foolish. It shows his insensitivity to public feeling. It would hardly win him any sympathy, considering the great human death toll involved.
Without a change of stanza, and in the same line as the images of wreckage, Ismay begins to speak of how the ordeal has affected him. The phrase ‘I hide’ shows that he is hunted and pursued by the public and maybe the press.
Now Ismay lives a broken man, in hiding on a remote coastline:
‘In a lonely house behind the sea’.
Even nature taunts [mocks] him. The random debris left by the tide torments him. He is convinced the Titanic is haunting him with the assistance of the sea. The tide brings reminders of children and women:
‘the tide leaves broken toys and hat boxes silently at my door’.
Bruce Ismay stood accused of taking a place on the lifeboats from women and children. It probably seemed to the inquiry that he used his clout as the owner of the ship, to secure a precious place on a lifeboat. Maybe after the inquiry Ismay realised the extent of the tragedy he had been responsible for and began to feel private guilt. The imagery shows Bruce Ismay has been damaged by the inquiry. He has been made to suffer so much embarrassment that he has lost his mind. He is paranoid [fearful] and sees a symbol of his guilt in every detail of his life.
He has no joy in the summer season:
‘flowers of May mean nothing to me’.
He experiences great pain when the wind blows from the sea. He can’t handle his past, because of the way he was treated at the enquiry.
He is so helpless he cannot face people. Ismay has overheard his gardener telling strangers that he remains in bed, using cocaine to numb or ease his pain. He suffers nightmares in which those who died on the Titanic haunt him. He experiences the feeling of drowning with them as he pictures their lost faces. He admits that he never understood them or felt for their plight when they drowned. He was a rich man and didn’t care for their welfare, perhaps because many of them were third class passengers:
‘Lost faces I never understood’.
His soul and heart suffer immensely:
‘my poor soul screams out in the starlight’.
Ismay is a tragic figure. At first he felt he was the victim of an injustice at the inquiry. But later he suffered great personal guilt for what happened. Perhaps Mahon takes Ismay’s side due to his immense suffering and his private confession of his guilt.
Ismay is so hurt that he asks the mourners to grieve for him along with the drowned victims:
‘Include me in your lamentations’.
Themes
The poet shows how a man was broken in spirit by being treated as a maverick [odd] character:
‘the old man stays in bed on seaward mornings after nights of
wind, takes his cocaine and will see no one’.
The poet shows how unfair public criticism leads to much suffering for a man:
‘They said I got away in a boat and humbled me at the inquiry’.
The poet shows a retired person haunted by the past, tormented by memories:
‘my poor soul screams out in the starlight’.
The poet portrays the various personality traits of a broken man:
‘I turned to ice’, ‘Now I hide In a lonely house’, ‘flowers of May mean nothing to me’, ‘stays in bed’, ‘takes … cocaine and will see no one’, ‘I never understood ‘, ‘my poor soul screams out’ etc.
The poet believes that unfair public criticism [vilification] can destroy a person:
‘They said I got away in a boat and humbled me at the inquiry’.
‘takes … cocaine and will see no one’.
The poet shows that old age can be a lonely and troubled [angst-ridden] experience:
‘my poor soul screams out in the starlight’.
The poet shows how the combination of injustice and guilt can haunt a person:
‘I drown again with all those dim
Lost faces I never understood’.
Tones
Sometimes the tone is factual:
‘ Prams, pianos, sideboards, winches’.
Sometimes the tone is humorous or sarcastic, as in the use of the word ‘hero’:
‘I sank as far that night as any hero’.
There is also a note or edge of despair in the word ‘sank’ here.
Sometimes the tone is sorrowful or hurt:
‘humbled me at the inquiry’, ‘Now I hide in a lonely house’.
These phrases also have a tone of self-pity, like the phrase: ‘my poor soul’.
Sometimes there is a tone of horror:
‘I turned to ice ’, ‘pandemonium’, ‘soul screams out in the starlight’.
Sometimes the tone is empty and full of despair:
‘flowers of May mean nothing to me’.
Sometimes the tone is full of guilt:
‘I drown again with all those dim
Lost faces I never understood’.
Sometimes the tone is pleading:
‘Include me in your lamentations’.
Imagery
The images are both dramatic images of pain and factual images of the Titanic and the sea.
There are eleven dramatic images of pain:
‘They … humbled me …
I sank …
I sat shivering …
I turned to ice to hear my costly life go thundering…
Now I hide in a lonely house …
flowers of May mean nothing to me…
takes his cocaine and will see no one…
I drown again with all those dim
lost faces I never understood,
my poor soul screams out in the starlight,
heart breaks loose …
your lamentations.’
There are twelve factual images of the Titanic and the sea:
‘boat…
inquiry…
the dark water…
Prams, pianos, sideboards, winches,
Boilers bursting and …ragtime…
the tide leaves broken toys and hatboxes
nights of wind’
There are four images of the weather:
‘The showers of April, flowers of May …
The late light of June
nights of wind’
There are seven poetic images:
‘I sank as far that night as any hero…’
The word ‘sank’ is a metaphor for despair. Ismay was in a lifeboat.
‘I turned to ice to hear my costly
Life go thundering down in a pandemonium…’
‘Ice’ is a metaphor for a cold feeling, caused by financial loss. ‘Ice’ is also a pun [play on words] because the sinking was caused by an iceberg.
‘Thundering’ is a metaphor for noisy sinking.
‘Pandemonium’ is a metaphor that means chaos and hell.
‘shredded ragtime.‘
‘Shredded’ is not a musical word. ‘Shredded’ is a metaphor for the way the music of the ragtime jazz band was breaking up as the Titanic sank.
‘I drown again …’
This expression is not based on death by drowning but it is a metaphor because the poet compares his emotions of panic and guilt to water entering his lungs. It is exaggerated expression to emphasise a point.
‘my poor soul screams out in the starlight’.
This expression has been analysed under ‘alliteration’ above.
It is a metaphor as the soul is voiceless in a physical sense. It is exaggerated expression to emphasise a point.
‘heart breaks loose and rolls down like a stone.’
‘Heart’ is a traditional symbol for emotions.
‘Like a stone’ is a simile for emotional loss, for feelings of coldness and heaviness. It is exaggerated expression to emphasise a point.
Sound effects
Alliteration [the repetition of first letters]:
‘soul screams out in the starlight’.
The ‘s’ sound here shows alliteration. This alliteration links Ismay’s desolate soul to the emptiness of space. Assonance, the shrill ‘ou’ in ‘soul’ and ‘out’, and internal rhyming, two words ending in ‘t’, reinforce this link.
Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sounds]
This feature is prominent when Ismay is describing the action of the sea. Because the repeating ‘s’ sound imitates the sound of the sea, it is also onomatopoeic. There are 5 ‘s’ sounds in the following brief extract:
‘the tide leaves broken toys and hatboxes silently ‘.
Assonance [repetition of vowels]:
Note the six ‘a' and two ‘i’ sounds in
‘I sank as far that night as any…’
These sounds are revealing. The ‘a’ sound shows despair, the depth of emotion of the speaker, Ismay; the ‘i’ sound links the speaker, Ismay, to the terrible night that destroyed his life.
Rhyming:
T his poem is in free verse. There is no regular rhyming pattern apart from the conclusion where there is a suggestion of a rhyming couplet. Note how the long sound ‘…one’ half rhymes with ‘…ions’ to provide a mournful conclusion.
Cross Rhyme [rhyming within two or more lines]:
Note the way ‘showers’ echoes ‘flowers’ of the previous line.
Rhythm:
The rhythm has a natural feeling with the run on lines and simple everyday words. The poem feels like a cry from the heart naturally addressed to the reader. This is reinforced by the lack of formal rhyming. There is a dignity to the rhythm provided by the regular line lengths. Each pair of lines is a unit. The uneven lines have four beats while the even lines have five beats.
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