The Convergence of the Twain
Authors often write of the tragedy and glory of war, the plague of mankind. The conflict that is the subject of Hardy's poem "The Convergence of the Twain" is the only battle with no beginning or end, that of Nature and Man. Hardy's testimony of the infamous sinking of the Titanic is proof that although man may claim to have undefeatable machines as their allies, they are no match for the weapon of nature, fate. The melancholy yet accepting tones of the piece illustrate this idea by expressing the themes of loss and destiny. The theme of loss s heavily accentuated in the first half of the poem as the author illustrates the brutal death of the one magnificent ship. The author describes the Titanic, lying in the ground and defeated by nature, as filled with "mirrors meant to glass the opulent," that are now overrun by "grotesque, slimed,...sea worms." The light and dark imagery serve to magnify the destr
These strengths serve to contrast the dark diction of the "blear," "black," and "pyre". Hardy continues this imagery and laments that the jewels once flaunted on the skin of wealthy women are now "lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind," and that the "steel chambers, late the pyres of her salamandrine fires" are now filled with the cold currents of the ocean floor. " The personification of the iceberg as a creature the prowls the night, waiting to attack, directly connects the "sinister mate" to nature and her battle against mankind. Words such as "welding," "consummate," and "mate," illustrate the marriage of the iceberg and the ship as one whole, destined to unite. As the iceberg grows in "shadowy silence", the speaker refers to it as "a creature of cleaving wing. The description of the jewels and the "salamandrine fires" allude to the luxuriousness and everlasting strength of the vessel, which the vain humans that created the ship believe to be at par with the salamandrine's ability to live in the midst of fire. This alternative view of the poem creates a wonderful thought-provoking experience for the reader. Not only is the sorrow of the event focused on the loss of the ship as opposed to the loss of the passengers, the speaker also feels that the event was destiny as opposed to a tragic accident. As words of death and loss, this diction illuminates the dark travesty that occurred when nature destroyed something as glorious and beautiful as the Titanic. Hardy ironically refers to the loss of the ship as a catastrophe and does not mention or romanticize the loss of the passengers, further strengthening his theme of nature vs. This idea is summarized by the title of the poem itself "The Convergence of the Twain," highlighting that the two were on a fixed path of destiny towards one another as two parts of the same whole. uction of the ship as a once unbreakable vessel is now a rusting pathetic time capsule that the most disgusting creature can call home. As the two colossal objects finally coincide, the result is an "intimate welding" as the "Spinner of the Years" says "Now!" Here, the speaker refers to a force, an unforgiving "Immanent Will", that commands the two to "consummate", punishing "human vanity" by sinking mankind's most prized creation. The second half of the poem focuses on the speaker's belief that the meeting of the iceberg and the ship was fated.
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