The Convergence of the Twain: Lines on the loss of the "Titanic"

“Hap” by Thomas Hardy (1866)

In this early Hardy poem, we can see themes that would recur throughout his poetry. The speaker bemoans the “pain” (Line 14) of their life, wondering, “How arrives it joy lies slain, / And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?” (Lines 9-10). This contemplation of suffering echoes the subject matter of “The Convergence of the Twain,” in which a symbol of progress is destroyed by an iceberg shaped by an otherworldly force implied to be Fate’s vengeance.

“The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy (1900)

In one of Hardy’s most famous poems, the speaker surveys a bleak wintery landscape and feels its “growing gloom” (Line 24)—“The Century’s corpse outleant” (Line 10). Only the bird’s singing contains “some blessed Hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware” (Lines 31-32). This negativity is echoed in “Convergence of the Twain,” which notes the same human blindness as “[n]o mortal eye could see / The intimate welding” (Lines 26-27) of the shipwreck.

“Where They Lived” by Thomas Hardy (1917)

This poem, published five years after “The Convergence of the Twain,” deals with another desolate landscape where living beings once were joined.