5. Titanic

"The Convergence of the twain"

By Thomas Hardy

I

In a solitude of the sea

Deep from human vanity,

And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

II

Steel chambers, late the pyres

Of her salamandrine fires,

Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

III

Over the mirrors meant

To glass the opulent

The sea-worm crawls -- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

IV

Jewels in joy designed

To ravish the sensuous mind

Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.

V

Dim moon-eyed fishes near

Gaze at the gilded gear

And query: 'What does this vaingloriousness down here?'...

VI

Well: while was fashioning

This creature of cleaving wing,

The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

VII

Prepared a sinister mate

For her -- so gaily great --

A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.

VIII

And as the smart ship grew

In stature, grace, and hue,

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

IX

Alien they seemed to be:

No mortal eye could see

The intimate welding of their later history,

X

Or sign that they were bent

By paths coincident

On being anon twin halves of one august event,

XI

Till the Spinner of the Years

Said 'Now!' And each one hears,

And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

Analysis

Thomas Hardy's poem "The Convergence of the Twain" deals with the force of fate and man's destiny which man can't control. Hardy's poem concerns human aspects of pride, vanity, man and nature, coincidence and the force of fate.

The poem's event is well known but Hardy gives it a profound significance. The poem is written in simple narration without a speaker, unless Hardy is the speaker himself. The Titanic sank on her first voyage on April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. Hardy gives the poem a profound significance because of the impact left on man. In stanza eleven, line three, Hardy tells how the sinking of the Titanic "jars two hemispheres" - England and America. After the Titanic's sinking, the world was faced with the fact that they had been playing against fate and they could no longer ignore it.

The poem begins by creating the scene of the Titanic at the bottom of the sea far from the "Pride of Life" and vanity that built her. He personifies the Titanic as "her" and "she". Hardy used "Pride of Life" to mean technology. The latest and most modern marine equipment available went into the designing of the "unsinkable" Titanic. Hardy emphasized "Pride of Life" because of the overconfidence man had in his advancement in technology at the time. This overconfidence led to the believe that the Titanic was unsinkable.

Despite the status of the Titanic with all of her wealth and modern technology, she lies at the bottom of the sea. In stanza two, he talks about how its great steel chambers, which once burned with bright red fires, now, have the cold currents of the sea running through them. In stanza three Hardy continues to describe the fate of the Titanic. Here the mirrors are used to also describe the wealthy rich and affluent passengers aboard the Titanic as well. Now all that is reflected from her mirrors are sea-worms, which are indifferent to her finery. Moreover, the jewels that were meant to attract passengers are now gone. Stanza five is ironic in the sense that all of the "vaingloriousness" now lies at the bottom of the Atlantic, where only "sea-worms" can admire it.

Hardy shows this in stanza six that while man was "fashioning" the Titanic, fate was also making the Titanic's destiny (iceberg). "Immanent Will" is used in stanza six, line 3 as a personification of the force of fate. Hardy used this personification to emphasize that man is unable to control his destiny. Then in stanza 10, line 3 fate brings the Titanic and the iceberg together as "one august event." In the last stanza, fate is personified as "The Spinner of the Years": and once fate says "Now!" it is your time, nothing can change it.

Hardy makes clear the power of nature over man, fate and coincidence, and man's pride and vanity in his achievements. The first five stanzas relate man's vanity, pride, and overconfidence in the building of the Titanic. Because of this overconfidence in his achievements, man didn't care about fate and destiny, or nature. Hardy also showed how destiny is the same for all, regardless of status (the Titanic was a symbol of modern technology). When the Titanic sank, it took with her all of the modern technology used to make her unsinkable, together with all of the wealthy passengers. Third class passengers, as well as the millionaires, all shared in the same fate. Once fate deals her cards, the wealthy and the poor, all experience the same fate, which is our human destiny. Death is a common factor in that it does not distinguish between rich and poor.

Hardy's poem shows the tragedy of man's overconfidence. The builders of the Titanic were so confident in their ability that they completely ignored safety. Hardy's poem learns us that it's important to prepare ourselves for the forces of nature that we cannot control and also to learn from our mistakes, not taking fate and coincidence for granted.