The Convergence of the Twain

Thomas Hardy wrote “The Convergence of the Twain” for the program of a charity concert given to raise money for the victims of the Titanic after it sank in 1912. Despite its publication at the beginning of the Modernist period, the poem’s themes are strongly reminiscent of the Victorian era.

Hardy portrays the tragedy as a symbolic marriage between the Titanic and her “sinister mate,” the iceberg. After vividly describing the once “gaily-great” ship at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, Hardy ultimately reveals the inevitability of such a disaster as punishment for humanity’s attempting to defy God and nature.