The Convergence of the Twain Essay Questions

How does Hardy employ imagery to suggest the poem’s broader themes?

Despite the emotional distance between the speaker and the tragedy of the Titanic, “The Convergence of the Twain” nevertheless employs precise visual imagery to paint a vivid picture of the shipwreck. In the second stanza, the speaker uses this imagery to describe the shipwreck as a transformation. The “steel chambers,” once “the pyres,” are now “rhythmic tidal lyres.” Here, both images are presented as beautiful, which suggests that, rather than a tragedy, the shipwreck is merely a different form of the same creation. But in the next stanza, the speaker shifts to emphasize the disgusting aspects of the ocean floor, its sea-worms “grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.” Here, the poet employs a long string of adjectives, rather than metaphor as in the second stanza, in order to vividly describe the horror of the wrecked ship. The language is so explicit that it rejects a sentimental view of the tragedy, which would maintain some respect for the hopes which gave birth to the ship, in favor of emphasizing the wreck as a grotesque humiliation. The fourth stanza employs a parallel structure to the third, once again illustrating that all the beauty of the ship has been utterly overcome by the horrors of the ocean floor. Finally, the eighth stanza returns to imagery as it depicts both the ship and the iceberg before the collision. Here, the visual imagery serves to occlude the glamor of the ship with the size and foreboding danger of the iceberg.