The ballad, The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot talks about the shipwreck in Lake Superior. On the denotative level the poem talks about the wreck of the ship with the loss of sailors. As well the poem demonstrates the weather conditions and the surrounding environment. On the other hand, the connotative level focuses on two apparent themes of loss and environment. Firstly, this ballad reveals the environment of where this ship travelled. The conditions of when the ship sailed, took the ship down as they were quite treacherous: “And a wave broke over a railing/When the gales of November came slashin’/When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain/In the face of a hurricane west wind” (Lightfoot 18, 22-24). The ship was not equipped for early winds, slashing waves, and the hurricane. Theses conditions inevitably led for the defeat of the ship and the crew. Secondly, the ballad reveals another central theme of loss. The reader is able to see how tragedy impacted the town with the loss of 29 sailors: “In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,/In the maritime sailors’ cathedral/The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times/For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald/The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down/Of the big lake they call ‘gitche gumee’/Superior, they said, never gives up her dead/When the gales of November come early” (Lightfoot 49-56). The town was devastated as it rung the bell in honour for the lost lives upon the boat. While ringing the bell the town demonstrates the importance to remember all who were lost. The ballad also allows the story to go on and be remembered which may be a way for the town to grieve. In conclusion, with the denotative and the connotative levels, this ballad allows the reader to learn about what happened, but also feel the emotion of the story to see all those affected.