"The Convergence of the Twain" by Thomas Hardy is a poem about the disaster that occurred aboard the luxury passenger liner Titanic. The Titanic set sail for it's maiden voyage on April 12,1912. This beautiful ship was made of the strongest iron available to man during this time. The Titanic was believed to be the ship that even God could not sink. However, on April 14 tragedy stuck when the liner struck an iceberg causing the boat to sink rapidly. This tragedy resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the boats passengers totaling over one thousand innocent victims to die. Hardy believed that it was the vengeful God that caused the collision between the Titanic and the iceberg to punish human vanity. .
Most poets keep their poems in chronological order to maintain suspense throughout the poem. However, after reading this poem I noticed that there was a disruption in the order of events. I later found out that Hardy intentionally did this because he felt as though the Titanic was so well known that there was not any reason to keep the readers in suspense of what impending doom awaited the Titanic. .
Hardy starts the poem with his description of the Titanic at the present time: "grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent". Then he proceeds to the "fashioning" of the famous ship and continues to that famous April evening where the "consummation" of the two "titanic" masses occurred--the grand ship made from human hands and the silent iceberg made by the "Immanent Will", who Hardy believes is God. . In the first part of his poem the rhythm is very alluring. Hardy seems to capture the solitude of the sea that he is describing with his steady, gentle sway of words, a "rhythmic tidal lyre". While reading this poem, the words seem to move persistently slowly up and down like the tide:.
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In a solitude of the sea .
Deep from human vanity, .
And the Pride of life that planned her, stilly couches she.