After the great disaster, people across America, from all walks of life, were devastated with grief and shock. America was a very different place with a much higher degree of literacy. That included an everyday appreciation of poetry. Thus it was natural for people to sit down at their kitchen table and pen a poem about the Titanic.
What did they do with their verses? They mailed them to their local newspapers for publication. As a result, newspapers across America used these poems as letters, or poems, to the Editor. Some were featured, some were simply fillers.
One especially haughty rag, The New York Times, was inundated with so many poems that the snooty editor proclaimed to his readers that simply because one owns a piece of paper and a pencil does not make one a poet! Stop sending those poems to us, we get hundreds a day!
Imagine any newspaper in the 21st century receiving hundreds of anything from its dwindling readership.
But that was life in the early part of the Twentieth Century. As a part of my research on the Titanic for my book, Titanic 1912, I kept bumping into these poems and finally figured out the above, as to how there came to be so many poems about the Titanic. I decided to compile a new book with many of these poems from one hundred years ago, along with my own humble verses.
I hope you get a chance to enjoy the new audio edition of my book, Titanic, Poetry, Music & Stories. The book is also in eBook and paperback. There are links in the book which will take you directly to the Library of Congress where you can listen to these whacky tunes, perfectly preserved, on the old Victrola records – about the Titanic. Some are blue grass, others are piano memorials, some are vocalists. All of them express in song and music, the amazement at the scope of the tragedy and the depth of feelings of people about the loss of the RMS Titanic as well as honoring the people who went down and those who survived.
Please contact me about our great speakers who can give your convention, dinner or themed event a memorable addition. – Ken Rossignol 301 535 8624 / ken.thechesapeake@gmail.com
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