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 destruction of the ship as a once unbreakable vessel is now a rusting pathetic time capsule that the most disgusting creature can call home. 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 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. These strengths serve to contrast the dark diction of the "blear," "black," and "pyre". 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. ...