Heroes of the "Titanic"
Honour the brave who sleepWhere the lost "Titanic" lies,The men who knew what a man must doWhen he looks Death in the eyes.
"Women and children first,"--Ah, strong and tender cry!The sons whom women had borne and nursed,Remembered,--and dared to die.
The boats crept off in the dark:The great ship groaned: and then,--O stars of the night, who saw that sight,Bear witness, These were men!
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Heroes of the "Titanic" is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, Heroes of the "Titanic", in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/heroes-of-the-titanic.html, id L22795.
Form and metre
Heroes of the "Titanic" is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in short measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A sleep · liesA · do · eyesA
- 2 ABAB firstA · cryB · nursedA · dieB
- 3 -A-A dark · thenA · sight · menA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Honour the brave who sleep | 6 | /˘···· |
| Where the lost "Titanic" lies, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| The men who knew what a man must do | 9 | ········· |
| When he looks Death in the eyes. | 7 | ······· |
| "Women and children first,"-- | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Ah, strong and tender cry! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The sons whom women had borne and nursed, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Remembered,--and dared to die. | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| The boats crept off in the dark: | 7 | ······· |
| The great ship groaned: and then,-- | 6 | ······ |
| O stars of the night, who saw that sight, | 9 | ········· |
| Bear witness, These were men! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.