Humans have a tendency to try and orchestrate their own fate and have the desire to obtain the unobtainable. However, their attempts are often met with failure because of external circumstances and the Titanic, as illustrated in Thomas Hardy’s 1915 poem, “Convergence of the Twain” is no exception. The poem tells the infamous story of the Titanic, focusing on the iceberg and the ship itself, rather than the unfortunate souls who lost their lives. Not only natural disasters, but even everyday occurrences, are driven by an outside, cosmic force that inevitably forces humans to be at the mercy of nature. The air of dignity created through the combination of precise syntax and descriptive diction elevate the poem allowing an emphasis on the presence
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The rhyme scheme of the poem is AAA. This rhyme scheme is represented in every stanza of the poem; the last word of the line rhymes with each of the other last words in the other lines “…sea/…vanity/…she” (1-3) and “…years/…hears/…hemispheres” (31-33). This mimics the sound of the tide as it forms the predictable sound of the waves flowing towards and then crashing at the shore. This repetitive, soothing sound throughout the poem adds to the underlying portrayal of nature as an omnipresent force. However, nature is not always consistent and the meter of the poem emphasizes this side of nature. The irregular meter places a randomness and variation to the lines, paralleling the erratic behavior that nature imposes on man. In addition the structure of each stanza is essential to the larger theme of the poem; every stanza consists of three sentences, with the third consistently being longer than the first two. The first two sentences of the stanza introduce the effects and then the larger idea of the topic in the last sentence. The structure of the stanzas mimics the structure of the overall poem. First, the poem discusses the two intertwining concepts of man’s plans and nature’s power, and then the poem goes on to portray the larger realization about their interaction with one another. Reaching the larger realization the seeming separate forces are intertwined brings the title “Convergence of the Twain” to light. The poem as a whole represents these two separate entities, man and nature, as being so intertwined that their fates are tied together as one, even though man is too proud to see
The rhyme scheme of the poem is AAA. This rhyme scheme is represented in every stanza of the poem; the last word of the line rhymes with each of the other last words in the other lines “…sea/…vanity/…she” (1-3) and “…years/…hears/…hemispheres” (31-33). This mimics the sound of the tide as it forms the predictable sound of the waves flowing towards and then crashing at the shore. This repetitive, soothing sound throughout the poem adds to the underlying portrayal of nature as an omnipresent force. However, nature is not always consistent and the meter of the poem emphasizes this side of nature. The irregular meter places a randomness and variation to the lines, paralleling the erratic behavior that nature imposes on man. In addition the structure of each stanza is essential to the larger theme of the poem; every stanza consists of three sentences, with the third consistently being longer than the first two. The first two sentences of the stanza introduce the effects and then the larger idea of the topic in the last sentence. The structure of the stanzas mimics the structure of the overall poem. First, the poem discusses the two intertwining concepts of man’s plans and nature’s power, and then the poem goes on to portray the larger realization about their interaction with one another. Reaching the larger realization the seeming separate forces are intertwined brings the title “Convergence of the Twain” to light. The poem as a whole represents these two separate entities, man and nature, as being so intertwined that their fates are tied together as one, even though man is too proud to see