Mahon- After the Titanic Flashcards
‘they said i got away in a boat and humbled me at the inquiry’
Dramatic opening as if talking to us directly which is engaing
Ismay is accused of cowardice at the inquiry. It villifies him, making him a person non grata or an outcast.
They- creates opposing relationship
Humbled- reputation ruined
Vilified at the hearing
‘i tell you i sank as far that night as any hero’
Sincerity tone
Very direct like a plea
Wants us to feel his pain and believe him ‘I tell you’ hits us hard
‘i sank’ metaphor for his mental decline
He didn’t go down with the heroes but he mentally fell to rock bottom
Heroism contradicted- he is alive he cannot be compared to those who lost their lives but he used a striking comparison that hits deep so that we can almost imagine the extent of his pain.
Metaphorically speaking he died that night too
Self pity and a lack of perspective of the scenario- insight into his charecter
‘I turned to ice’
he froze in realisation
Life was never the same
That night is frozen in time. He never moved on he lives as though preserved in ice. Even as time changes he doesn’t his mind is the same, his thoughts are the same. Nothing in his life can move on
‘to hear my costly life’
Immediately contradicts our thoughts of sorrow for this man that he could never move on as though he was frozen in time
However ‘my costly life’ reveals a different a
Enjambment mimics the constant movement of waves, reinforcing the speaker’s lack of control over his emotions. His emotions are strong and pitiful
‘go thundering down in a pandemonium of prams, pianos, sideboards, winches, boilers bursting and shredded ragtime’
Alliteration and onomatopoeia recreate the terrifying cacophony of the sinking ship.
incredibly evoctive and Mahon succeeds in shoing the terror of the night
All these things symbolise what was lost-
Enjambment shows the extent of what was lost
The beautiful onomatopoeia of ‘thundering’ and ‘bursting’ appeals to the senses
Immersive, descriptive writing that appeals to the senses- we can hear it
Pandemonium alliteration
Cinematic piece of writing
Mahon never places blame Ismay or never argues that his actions were cowardly and unjustified. Instead he takes a diffeent approach which make shis work so beautiful. He uses this descriptive language to highlight the scene and make us see the flip side that his actions were understandable. He wnats us to question the same question he has been asking himself=f. What would I do in this situation. It is so hard to say that it is fair to critisise someone over their choices in a momne tof complete terror and life or death? Mahon wnats us to look at things from a differnt view and explore the complexities of the human nature.
‘now i hide in a lonely house behind the sea’
Adjectives- lonely house
‘the tides leaves broken toys and hat boxes silently at my door’
Never forget the sight he saw that night
Haunted by the events of the past
Metaphor long lasting trauma
The sea
‘The showers of April, the flowers of may mean nothing to me’
Internal rhyme’ flowers and shower- suggesting there is peace in the place but even this offers no consolation for Ismay
‘Then it is i drown again with all those dim lost faces i never understood’
Constant cycle- different social class
‘my poor soul screams out in starlight, heart breaks loose and rolls down like a stone’
My poor soul- self pity
Screams - emotionl pain and suffering
Into the starlight- lost hope screaming out for any hope left for him to relieve his suffering
Simile like a stone it breaks (assonance) and is heavy like a stone
‘include me in your lamentations’
Pathetic
Challenging us to think about how the world is not only as we see it
Maybe h
Moving and thought provoking line
Very clear message. Ismay was as much of a victim that night as anyone else
Does Mahon appeal to our senses and how\/
Mahon captures that fateful night by appealing to our senses; we can see the objects descending into the “dark water”, feel the “shivering” cold and hear the “shredded ragtime”. The aural alliteration of ‘boilers bursting’ really allows us to imagine the scene and understand the scenario.
What does Mahon want us to look at ?
He wants us to explore the view of life through more than one lens. Mahon challenges our perception of Ismay as a complete villain. It is a testament to the poet’s writing that by the end of the poem we are willing to “include” him in our “lamentations”.
Mahon wnats us to look much deeper at the real world by challenging the reader to reject what they are told and see things in a different light. He wants us to find compassion and understanding for our fellow human beings and opens our mind in an intriguing way to other aspects of life from another perspective which is central to his poetry.
What is Mahon interested in with ismay?
He is not interested in what Ismays actions were on the night of the ship sinking but much more into the consequences of his actions of that night and how they followed him from that moment onwards.
He wonders if Ismay is indeed just as much as a victim of this tragedy as those who lost their lives.
