Convergence of the Twain Essay Example

Save the Queen “The Titanic Has Sunk!” read the shocking headline of the newspaper. The majestic Queen of the Ocean has sunk to the bottom of the big blue sea along with a thousand lives. During the time of disbelief and shock, the author, Thomas Hardy, took the time to express his emotions in his poem. Many poetic devices including imagery, irony, personification, and metaphors were used to convey Hardy’s mockery and remorse on the event. In his poem, “The Convergence of the Twain,” the narrator reflects on the unimaginable event that brought down one of the era’s mightiest and prestigious ships.
In the first stanza, the writer describes the titanic as a symbol of socialization and freedom and is now “in a solitude of the sea.” The ship is “deep from human vanity, and the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she,” (1-3). The very vanity that created the ship was the same vanity that eventually sank it. The captain of the ship, Edward John Smith, had a reputation amongst his passengers and crew for his leadership. Smith often boasted about his reputation of safe and smooth sailing at sea. But his pride as a reputable captain got in his head when he did not order the Titanic to slow down even though the ship had received six warnings of ice ahead the route. It was clear that the Titanic was running into its own demise. Due to his irresponsibility, the Titanic now lays at the bottom of the sea, away from the human vanity that brought the ship down.
As the ship lay on its new bed, Hardy describes the lifeless vessel that was once so vibrant and full of life. The second stanza makes cold and hot collide, and perhaps it is a metaphor for life and death. It also contrasts the way the ship was described as unsinkable, and how it is in its decomposing present condition. The steel chambers that were once full of warm fired that kept the ship running, is now filled with arctic currents. Hardy also uses the word "pyres" to infer to funeral pyres to add the tone