PRE-READING 1. Share what you know about the luxury passenger ship RMS Titanic.


2. How would you describe the feeling of embarrassment? Is it similar to, or different from, the feeling of guilt? Is the feeling of shame similar to either of them?


3. How important is a person’s reputation? Is it as important today as it was a century ago? Once lost, can someone ever regain their reputation?


COMPREHENDING AND RESPONDING


1.  2. In what way was the speaker of the poem ‘humbled’?


3. In what way did heroes of the Titanic ‘sink’? What does the speaker mean when he says he ‘sank as far’ as any hero?


4. Discuss the poet’s use of sound effects in lines seven and eight. What makes this imagery so effective?


5.  going down. What are they? Choose two and comment on his choice.


6. Discuss the way the sea is portrayed in lines 10 and 11.


7.  he ‘never understood’ them?


8. Explain the effectiveness of the simile in lines 19 and 20.


9. To whom does the speaker make his request in line 20? Explain what it is he is asking for.


10. The poem is presented as a kind of dramatic monologue (speech) delivered by a  words? Use the poem to support your answer.


11. ‘In this poem, the sea itself becomes a character in the drama of the Titanic and its aftermath.’ Do you agree with this assessment? Explain your answer.


12. How is the theme of isolation explored in this poem?


CREATING


1. What qualities make someone a hero? Who do you consider to be heroic? Write an article for your school website in which you explore the idea of heroism.


2. Imagine you are one of the survivors of the Titanic. Now, as an older person, you have decided to write your memoir about your experience of that night of 15 April 1912. Write out the section of your memoir that deals with your memory of the disaster.


3. Imagine that some years after the disaster, J. Bruce Ismay has decided to write an open letter to a national newspaper in which he attempts to explain and apologise for his actions on that night. Write the text of his open letter.


LEAVING CERTIFICATE HIGHER LEVEL 325


Derek Mahon


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