Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy's poem, The Convergence of the Twain, was an interesting alternative perspective the happenings associated with the loss of the Titanic. Hardy depicts the the growth and fate of both the ship and the iceberg, which collided as if it were their destiny. 

The first half of the poem conveys the state of the Titanic, now under the sea. Each description of the submerged ship juxtaposes the ways in which the ship was a waste of time, money, and labor. Where there were once "salamandrine fires" in the furnaces of the ship, there are now "cold currents thrid"(1076). The heat and life that once filled the ship have since been replaced with cold and death. Hardy also writes of the former magnificence of the ship when he references the "opulent mirrors" that are now as useless as sea worms: "grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent"(1076). Even the jewels once on board the ship are now on the ocean's floor, "ly[ing] lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind"(1076). It was interesting to me how Hardy uses many vivid adjectives and descriptive alliteration to reference the loss of all the material possessions associated with the ship; but never once does he write of the human lives that were lost. I believe Hardy does this to reveal what the ship truly represented - vanity. The ship was once filled with many luxurious treasures highlighting the vain for which it was created. Now these vanities mean nothing as they are submerged far under the sea, a concept that Hardy mocks in the poem. The vanity of the Titanic cause it to fall far from humanity and become nothing more than a memory and a lesson for those who survived it.

The Titanic was a representation of the wealth and power associated with industrialization. It was created as a symbol for the power of Britain's technology in that time. Hardy writing only of the material items associated with the ship highlights his disdain for the British nation concentrating on so-called progress for pride, wealth, and vanity rather than the suffering and demise of the people. If the Titanic had been built only to navigate the ocean instead of proving Britain's power in the Age of Industrialization, then perhaps it would have not been so fatal to those who bought into its magnificence.

The poem then turns to speak of the the actual cause of the tragedy. Hardy uses the technique of enjambment, to show both the combination of the ship and the iceberg but also their literal collision. As Hardy speaks of the ship's "sinister mate" destined to collide with the Titanic due the the planning of "Immanent Will" or the "Spinner of the Years"(1076-1077). These phrases imply that the tragedy was by no means a coincidence, but rather the Titanic's demise had been planned since its initiation. The eighth stanza is by far the most ominous description of the ships deadly fate, while the ninth begins to describe the collision:

"And as the smart ship grew

In stature, grace, and hue,

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

Alien they seemed to be:

No mortal eye could see

The intimate welding of their later history"(1076-1077).

The first stanza implies that these two enormous forces were built simultaneously. One was built by the power of man, while one was built by the greater power of nature. The next stanza emphasizes an apparent inevitability of the two to meet. Their connection seemed to be like a wedding or even a sexual union of some sort, it was made to be "intimate" because they were truly created for the purpose of combining with one another. Hardy seems to truly convey that no matter the height of human progress that has been obtained, man is always subject to the whim of nature, which has no feeling or care for our fate. Our technology will never be able to surmount the great pillars of nature, like the ocean. For these reasons, man should always remain humble and grounded to prevent disaster. We can be assured that although the Titanic was once full of pride and vanity transversing the mighty ocean, she has most definitely been humbled since the humiliation of crashing and falling to the depths of the ocean, she had tried to conquer.