If You Could See Me Now

If you could see me now, Brunel,

I wonder what you would say?

Would you look on proudly as

People visit me each day?

As they stop to admire

The technology of our time,

Would you fondly pat the great steel hull

That you so skilfully made mine?

I see you waving from the dockside

As I set off around the world,

The anchor hauled up

The sails so swiftly unfurled.

For nearly one hundred years, I sailed,

But I desperately needed a mend.

I was scuppered near the Falkland Isles,

I thought it would be my end.

But in the 1970s, they brought me back

From my watery grave.

They patched up the gaping wound in my side,

For Great Britain they wanted to save.

So now I have a quiet retirement,

Lazing in dry dock.

If you could see me now, I'm sure,

You would be in for a shock.

They fitted me out with a shiny new rudder,

Tourists trudge along my new shiny deck.

All this because they thought I was

A rotting old shipwreck.

They say I'm a piece of history,

Yet they took all the old things away.

Some remain on the seabed,

Where I would much rather stay.

I died nearly eighty years ago,

And yet they robbed me of my rest.

I still carry passengers from all walks of life,

But I no longer take them West

If you could see me now, Brunel,

I wonder what you would say?

Would you look on sadly as

I slowly fade away?

A/N: So I thought of this poem while visiting the ss. Great Britain my family. Poetry isn't really my area of expertise, so if you see any rhythm errors or anything please point them out. Thank you for reading. :)