The Convergence Of The Twain By Thomas Hardy

In Thomas Hardy's poem, “The Convergence of the Twain, or the come together of the two, demonstrated his attitude toward the sunken ship,Titanic. Today, everyone at least know that Titanic was a real life love-tragedy that once happened. Although the movie Titanic was filmed in the perspective of the love couple. On the opposite, Hardy’s poem is not, but rather in a perspective of an observer with a tone of mocking when describing the sunken ship and sinking of the ship through the use of poetic devices, including alliteration, imagery, and enjambment.
The title of the poem, “The Convergence of the Twain” is often misunderstood as a come together of love. Speaking of the sinking of Titanic, love and death are the two things that come right

in mind. But, in Hardy’s poem, he convey “Twain” as “ the ship and the iceberg”to explain the cause of the sinking. His attitude came in two parts. In the first half of the poem, Hardy alliterated the sunken ship as the “solitude of the sea” in the first stanza where it has no power towards nature, the ocean. Later, Hardy used the words like “vanity” in the first stanza and “Vainglorious” in the fifth stanza to make a contrast of the presence of the ship;also, he changed from the tone of a narrator to observing creatures to provide an irony view between humans and fishes. The once most awarded man-made ship sunk and the fishes observed as a piece of precipitate.
Hardy used imagery to create strong images that enable people to picture the sunken ship, loneliness, and environment at that moment. “Cold currents thrid” in second stanza and “lie lightless” in fourth stanza emphasized the sunken ship is now lifeless lying under the cold ocean where the sea-worm crawls-grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent” over the ship without respect. The proud human invention is now a home for ocean creatures; once thrive but now languished. At that moment, Hardy used a mocking tone against the arrogance of humans to the powerful nature.
Later, Hardy transitioned his topic from the sunken ship to the sinking of the ship through enjambment;without stating it, he implied the fate god has set up. In the fifth stanza,“for the time fat and dissociate” between “a shape of ice” and “her” “Spinner of the Years” decided their fate. As the author emphasized that the ship was the most the great ship of the Era, it was moving toward the iceberg. Humans thought the ship will overcome any natural disasters and underestimated the power of nature. If god meant to make things happen, humans are not cable to stop it. The sinking occurred so fast where no rescue could have been done and lives were lost quietly in the dark.
All in all, Thomas Hardy wrote the poem in a mocking tone to show the arrogance of humans caused this tragedy. The use of poetic devices described the sunken ship to the sinking of the ship. He ended the poem with the collision of the ship and iceberg to demonstrate the power of nature are undefeatable;humans are too weak. Instead to describe the love side the Titanic story, Hardy chose to tell about the “Twain,” -two,ship and iceberg.