The Convergence of the Twain

"The Convergence of the Twain" is about the event made famous for us in the movie Titanic. Focus on the way the events unfold in the poem, and try to articulate the point the poem makes about it.

This poem is beautifully worded. The style is different, simpler than the other poems we’ve read from Hardy. The image presented is that of the Titanic being almost not savaged as much as artistically and naturally overtaken by the sea, like it was being accepted into this different world. The idea Hardy wants us to see is that even this was supposed to happen. That the moment this ship came into creation, it's companion iceberg was already out there somewhere, waiting.

“Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent will that stir and urges everything

Prepared a sinister mate
For her- So gaily great-
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.”