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Transcript

The Convergence of the Twain

Historical Context

The Convergence of the Twain

In a solitude of the sea

Deep from human vanity,

And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

Steel chambers, late the pyres

Of her salamandrine fires,

Cold currents thrid, and turn to rythmic tidal lyres.

In a solitude of the sea

Deep from human vanity,

And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

Steel chambers, late the pyres

Of her salamandrine fires,

Cold currents thrid, and turn to rythmic tidal lyres.

Over the mirrors meant

To glass opulent

The sea-worm crawls- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

  • First published “The Convergence of the Twain” in the program printed for a “Dramatic and Operatic Matineé in Aid of the ‘Titanic’ Disaster Fund”.
  • Titanic had sunk one month earlier, on April 15th 1912.
  • Unique look at the disaster, interesting that he chose to debut his work at this event.
  • Retribution
  • Away from human vanity, worthlessness. Away from the "Pride of Life" that planned, made her, she lies quietly.
  • The first line of imagery is of the ruin that has befallen Titanic, her steel chambers and wealth now covered in the slime and darkness of the sea.
  • Imagery: designed to convery the magnitude and utter finality of the ship. Before and after.
  • Contrasts materialism and vanity of mankind with beauty of nature.
  • Juxtaposition of the ship's current position in the Atlantic and it's glory days.
  • No compassion towards lives lost, no reference to the loss that came with ship sinking (instead focuses on iceberg and the conversion.)
  • Metaphor: Titanic/Man/Nature.
  • Cold sarcastic tone.

Jewels in joy designed

To ravish the sensuous mind

Lie lightess, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.

Dim moon-eyed fishes near

Gaze at the gilded gear

And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ...

Well: while it was fashioning

This creature of cleaving wing,

The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

Prepared a sinister mate

For her - so gaily great -

A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.

Over the mirrors meant

To glass opulent

The sea-worm crawls- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

Jewels in joy designed

To ravish the sensuous mind

Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.

Dim moon-eyed fishes near

Gaze at the gilded gear

And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ...

About the Author

  • Contrast
  • luxuries against their present dimmed, lightless place at the bottom of the sea.
  • The sea-worm crawls carelessly over jewels, unimportant, and mirrors that were intended to reflect the wealthy (‘opulent’).
  • Royalty did not save the ship, ravish things mean nothing once they are at the bottom of the ocean.
  • Perished in liquid of vain
  • Fishes: Question why the ship lies at the bottom of the ocean.
  • Continues with "well..."

And as the smart ship grew

In stature, grace, and hue,

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

Alien they seemed to be;

No mortal eye could see

The intimate welding of their later history,

Or sign that they were bent

By path coincident

On being anon twin halves or one august event,

Till the Spinner of the Years

Said "Now!" And each one hears,

And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

Well: while it was fashioning

This creature of cleaving wing,

The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

Prepared a sinister mate

For her - so gaily great -

A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.

And as the smart ship grew

In stature, grace, and hue,

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

Alien they seemed to be;

No mortal eye could see

The intimate welding of their later history,

  • 1840-1928
  • Born in Upper Bockhampton, showed academic potential. Trained as architect. Eventually dedicated himself to writing.
  • English novelist and poet.
  • Victorian realist, but was influenced in his work by Romanticism.
  • First wife, Emma Lavinia Gifford, died and left traumatic effect on him.
  • Ashes at Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey.
  • Religious view: Family was Anglican.

Basically...

  • While the ship was "fashioning", the Immanent Will prepared the iceberg.
  • "Mate", "Intimate Welding" presented as a sinister sexual meeting between two lovers.
  • "In shadowy silent distance grew the iceberg too."
  • Title: this was something other than a mere accident.
  • He sees in the meeting of ship and iceberg not simply a “convergence,” but, as Hardy later says, a “mating”.
  • Chose to see it as not thoroughly accidental.
  • Human Pride and Vanity brought it on: Characteristic of man
  • "Immanent Will" or "Spinner of the Years": Fate.
  • Did not confine to one single context, but believes it must have been somehow ordained.
  • "Not even God can sink this ship"
  • Humbles us; "Cold Comfort"
  • Nature's Beauty, Power and Superiority.

Or sign that they were bent

By path coincident

On being anon twin halves or one august event,

Till the Spinner of the Years

Said "Now!" And each one hears,

And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

“The human loss and suffering involved [in the wreck] earn scarcely a mention, and here Hardy’s treatment of the theme must have been curiously out of line with the response of the majority. For him the sinking becomes a grim and ironic lesson in the vanity of human wishes.” - Norman Page

  • Anon twin halves: shared fate
  • Spinner of the Years
  • Consummation
  • "Jars two hemispheres": shocked the world, brought to worlds together. Or the ship and the wreck.
  • Nature's superiority.

Bibliography

  • http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/hardy/index.html
  • http://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-hardy/biography/
  • http://eraofcasualfridays.net/2012/04/23/the-convergence-of-the-twain-thomas-hardys-titanic/
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