From the Journal of a Disappointed Man by Andrew Motion - with abject apologies

I discovered these men driving a new pile
into the pier.  There was all the paraphanalia
of chains, pulleys, cranes, ropes and, as I said,
a wooden pile, a massive affair swinging - I wish!

............ silent men ignoring me.

Speech was not something to interest them,
and if they talked at all it was like this - 
March, Valentine's Day, March!

to the obscure movements of one working
on a ladder by the water's edge, -if only! - I could tell
that for all their strength and experience
these men were up against a great difficulty.

I cannot say what.  Every one of the monsters
was silent on the subject - baffled I thought
at first, but then I realised indifferent
and tired, so tired of the whole business.

The man nearest to me, still saying nothing,.......
showed me that for all he cared the pile
could go on swinging until the crack of Doom.

and, to do the men justice, - I wish I could - their slow efforts
to overcome the secret problem did continue - or so they said -
then gradually slackened and finally ceased.

...........
Afterwards, and with a heavy kind of majesty, - no, no majesty at all! - 
he turned on his heel and walked away.

With this eclipse of interest, the incident
was suddenly closed.  First in ones and twos,
then altogether, the men followed.  That left
the pier still in mid-air, and me of course.