Thomas Hardy's The Convergence Of The Twain

How Thomas Hardy Presents the Tragedy of the Sinking of the Titanic in the Poem The Convergence of the Twain

In Thomas Hardy’s poem, “The Convergence of the Twain”, the speaker displays a peaceful and nonviolent interpretation towards the tragedy of the sinking of the grand ship known as the Titanic. By using immense amounts of irony, personification, and irony, Hardy is able to strengthen his claim that sinking of the Titanic was destined to occur due to both vanity of humans and mother nature.

In “The Convergence of the Twain,” by Thomas Hardy, the speaker opens up his attitude towards the sinking of the ship. What the title, “The Convergence of the Twain,” means is when two things come together to merge into one, in this case, the iceberg and the ship. The speaker uses multiple poetic devices to convey his opinion that the sinking of the ship was not a surprise, but rather something that nature has control over man. As tragic as it may sounds, the speaker elucidates the idea that everything has a plan, the sinking of the ship was inevitable. By depicting mankind’s pride and vanity, the speaker uses imagery, connotative diction, and metaphors to demonstrate that the sinking of the ship was not a tragedy.

“Great captain a fair wind and the honey lights of home are all you seek. But anguish lies ahead; the god who thunders on the land prepares it, not to be shaken from your track, implacable, in rancor for the son whose eye you blinded. … Though you survive alone bereft of all companions, lost for years, under strange sail shall you come home, to find your own house filled with trouble: insolent men eating your livestock as they court your lady. Aye, you shall make those men atone in blood! … Then a seaborne death soft as this hand of mist will come

The book Fahrenheit 451 creates a character named Clariesse. In the book the author creates her as an odd person and shows that she has love for her life. The author makes this clear and says "She enjoys rain, dandelions, autumn leaves, and even sessions with her analyst, who misdiagnosis her exuberance for living." Somebody who has love for their life soaks in all the good things that are going on and blocks out all the bad. When the author says that she loves all those things, it shows that she spends a lot of time just enjoying what she has. The book also creates her as an odd person. The author makes this clear as well and says, "She has so many questions to ask me that make me look deeper that I want to look into myself." During the time

Taking Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” at face value, one may literally summarize the poem by stating that an individual, hearing stories about a wrecked ship, decided to dive down to the fabled ship alone to see it for themselves and found it. However, reading between the lines, one may also feel that the poem is more than just an adventure for the narrator, but rather a personal journey as well. At the beginning of the poem, the narrator describes hearing about the wreck and preparing to visit it alone, descending the ladder and entering the water below. However, the narrator seems to feel apprehensive and a bit fearful, referring to their scuba-suit as “body-armor” (Rich 5) and describing the growing foreboding feeling as the water gets darker. But these feelings soon vanish, for the narrator comes upon the wreck, captivated by the ship’s figurehead who is forever trapped at the bottom of the ocean. However, at this point in time, the narrator seems to have a sort of epiphany while engrossed by the image of the ship that is a bit difficult to describe. The narrator states, “I am she: I am he” (Rich 77) in reference to the figureheads after traveling into the ship’s hold, eventually emerging from their adventure as a different person who now identifies with the forgotten, damaged, and lost articles of the ship (which may also relate

The final line of the poem, “We all go: only a few, first class.”(14), is a metaphor for death in itself. The speaker states that while death is certain and something everyone must endure; only a select few have the privilege of doing so while maintaining a spot in history as well as in the hearts of people worldwide. It is a common dread to be forgotten. For this reason, the passengers of the Titanic shouldn’t be actually be mourned for the way they have, but they should rather be envied.

The Titanic was one of the largest ships that has ever been made. On its first voyage, the Titanic quickly ceased after encountering an iceberg. In the poem, “Titanic”, David R. Slavitt gives a brief description of the Titanic and how the world has remembered the legend. In a different poem, “The Convergence of the Twain”, Thomas Hardy illustrates the impact an Immanent Will had on the crashing of the Titanic. Both, Slavitt and Hardy challenge the views that people have on the legend of the Titanic by applying tone as well as creating a duality of expectations and reality.

In his poem, “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow uses symbolism, foreshadowing, and personification, to demonstrate the Romantic ideal of the fatalism of life, and therefore the importance of placing individualism, and thus solitary survival within nature, over superficial safety. As the traveler begins his journey, the “twilight darkens”(Longfellow 2) foreshadowing the ultimate loss of the traveler's life. For in this case darkness is used to symbolize the end of life, as is the time of day for twilight is just before midnight, which symbolizes death. This symbolism of life is further reinforced by the cyclic nature of the tide which ceaselessly “rises…{and}falls”(3). As the traveler’s journey ultimately comes to

“Titanic” uses irony and symbolism in the poem to make the readers imagine they have the chance to be part of the story by describing the enthusiasm and

As “The third wave moved forward, huge, furious, implacable,” (Crane) the men went overboard and they were under the complete mercies of the sea. Here, Crane portrays the oiler, “swimming strongly and rapidly” (Crane) towards the shore, while the other men lingered behind, holding on to whatever helped them float. Crane also shows how “The coldness of the water was sad; it was tragic” (Crane), indicating that staying in the water too long would be tragic. Thus, by setting up this kind of imagery, Crane makes his reader think that the oiler was the one sure to survive due to his vigor and rapidity, while the others would meet their fate in the cold waters. It is ironic to the reader therefore, when the exact opposite happens: “In the shallows, face downward, lay the oiler.” (Crane) The oiler had died, while the others lived. This clearly shows the inscrutable influence of the nature’s power as it interferes with life and death. Through this last bit of irony in the story, Crane gives delivers his final message to the reader that nature will have the final say. That is why as “the white waves paced to and fro in the moonlight, and the wind brought the sound of the great sea's voice to the men on shore,” Crane enables his readers to feel along with the crew “that they could then be interpreters” (Crane). It is just “indifferent, flatly indifferent”

"The Race" by Sharon Olds is an uneasy poem about the situations a daughter has to pass in order to reach her father. The poem is broken into what seems fear and retribution. In the beginning of the poem the author addresses the characters situation, " . . . When I got to the airport I rushed up to the desk, bought a ticket . .

The final line of the first stanza emphasizes the power of the ocean and that it does not discriminate when choosing its victims since it willingly takes "the young, the bright, the fair" (8). The poem then transitions like the crest of a wave colliding with a sandy beach as it begins to talk specifically of those who find solace beneath the wrathful waves. The poem's structure also echoes the ebb and flow of the ocean as one wave flawlessly makes way for another. The second stanza begins by describing the slumber of the "wearied seamen" and by stating that they are resting "calmly" the speaker conjures an atmosphere of finality and peace (9). The poem also refers to the sea as belonging to the seamen through the use of the word "own" and in doing so he emphasizes that because the men spent their lives on the sea it became their home

The lines that follow deal with death and punishment.  Part 3, describes how the sailors' "throats unslaked, with black lips baked, We could nor laugh nor wail; Through utter drought all dumb we stood!  I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, And cried, A sail! A sail! "  Then all the shipmates die "Four times fifty living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one."  And so the ancient mariner was "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!  A never a saint took pity on My soul in agony."  He sat

A man chosen as a seafarer endures alone in a blue abyss and survives through the harsh winds and hostile territory alone, with none to confide his suffering to other than himself, and virtually no reasons to continue the sufferation known as life, yet, despite the odds, he lives on, and tells his suffering in a poem known as “The Seafarer”. In “The Seafarer”, the author of the poem releases his long held suffering about his prolonged journey in the sea. While the poem explains his sufferings, the poem also reveals why he endured anguish, and lived on, even though the afterlife tempted him. Besides expressing his reasons to live, more importantly, the poem narrates the huge impacts of Christianity on him.