Thomas Hardy

The Convergence of the Twain
(Lines on the loss of the Titanic)
In 1912 Hardy wrote this poem, which was the same time the Titanic sunk. I have always been interested in the Titanic so that is why I chose to write on this poem. I could only imagine the emotions felt by people who were actually alive during the sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic received so much press coverage, and was the “unsinkable” ship. The excitement of the ship and then the devastation of the sinking of the ship would have spurred lots of emotions.
This poem took on a different perspective than what one would expect. Instead of focusing on the tragedy itself, the poem focused on the ship’s current state being submerged under the water. In fact, Hardy seemed to almost mock the ship for what it originally stood for and what it stands for in its current state months after sinking. He focuses a lot on the ship itself and how nice it was in the beginning of the poem. He says, “Of her salamandrine fires, / Cold currents third, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres” 5-6. Meaning where the hot fires once burned and propelled the ship, now a cold current runs here, meaning that death and coldness run through the same place where the hot fires once were. To write a statement like this right after the ship had sunk would have been bold. Most people would be feeling bad for the families and all of the people on the ship who died, but Hardy continues to focus on the actual body of the ship and not the tragedy. He points out things such as the “glass opulent” 8 and then turns right around and compares it sea worms crawling around in the ship. All of these things that represented wealth, and upper class were just on the bottom of the sea rotting away. I think Hardy felt the ship was a waste of money and that all the fuss that had been made about the ship was ridiculous in the first place, and now he finds it ironic that the ship lies on the bottom of the ocean. If you remember, the Titanic was for the rich and wealthy upper class to ride on. They had the best of what could be offered at this time. Average people would not have been allowed on the ship. Another example he uses to show this is “Jewels in joy designed/ To ravish the sensuous mind/ Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind” 10-12. I think Hardy is being almost funny and mean here by being like all of these wonderful jewels that are so special simply lie on the bottom of the ocean and mean nothing now. They represent death now. I do not think he is mocking the fact that people died, but just the fact that such a big deal was made about the ship and the wealthy just wasted money on frivolous things just to have them on the bottom of the ocean.
Then Hardy goes on to talk about the “destiny” as he calls it of the ship and iceberg colliding. I like his line “And as the smart ship grew/ In stature, grace, and hue,/In shadowy distance grew Iceberg too” 22-24. I think what Hardy is trying to say is that the more fuss that was made about the ship and the more money they spent and the more the upper class people were being snobby about the ship the more the iceberg was growing. Kind of like the Pinocchio story, how every time he lied, his nose would grow. Except in this case the more money and more elegant the ship became the more the iceberg grew. He ends the poem with the ship and the iceberg hitting. There again he does not focus on the tragedy itself, but he focuses on the actual ship and the event solely. He obviously did not have anyone on the ship he knew, or his poem probably would have been very different. Since most of his poems focus on some aspect of nature though, this follows the same pattern. This poem focuses on the iceberg and the ship as it lies undersea. The ship still in today’s society plays an important role as it lies under water. People still are talking about the ship and how great it was for 1912. In today’s standards the ship was nothing beyond normal, however at this point in time I suppose riding on the ship would have given someone such a sense of class and really defined “gentlemen” as we read about earlier. If you were not allowed to be apart of this part of society and witnessed it from the stance that Hardy must have, then sure I suppose you may find the whole incident a bit funny and ironic. The “unsinkable” ship, the elegant wonderful Titanic that hit an iceberg and sunk and took down all of the wonderful things on board. I believe he is a little un sensitive about the event, but I enjoy his perspective on it.