To celebrate National Poetry Month, we’re featuring the favourite poems or poets of Thunder Bay Public Library Staff.
Raegan Rocco, a member of our Children and Youth Services staff at Waverley, is a fan of Canadian poet E.J. Pratt:
I have always loved the Canadian poet E.J. Pratt, and my favorite work of his is The Titanic. Although it is sad and his work usually evolves around man’s ignorance towards the superior upperhand of mother nature, the poem also celebrates some of the best characteristics possible in human kind.
An excerpt from The Titanic:
Out on the water was the same display
Of fear and self-control as on the deck —
Challenge and hesitation and delay,
The quick return, the will to save, the race
Of snapping oars to put the realm of space
Between the half-filled lifeboats and the wreck.
Of fear and self-control as on the deck —
Challenge and hesitation and delay,
The quick return, the will to save, the race
Of snapping oars to put the realm of space
Between the half-filled lifeboats and the wreck.
Click here for an annotated version of the entire poem, with links to period references and historical information, or here to learn more about E.J. Pratt using resources at TBPL. Finally, go here to read the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s page commemorating the 100th birthday of the RMS Titanic.
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