The Convergence of the Twain

Long before the film, Thomas Hardy wrote this.

Seems the right day to post it.

Convergence of the Twain 

(Lines on the loss of the 'Titanic') 

                  I

      In a solitude of the sea

      Deep from human vanity,

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

                  II

      Steel chambers, late the pyres

      Of her salamandrine fires,

Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

                  III

      Over the mirrors meant

      To glass the opulent

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

                  IV

      Jewels in joy designed

      To ravish the sensuous mind

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

                  V

      Dim moon-eyed fishes near

      Gaze at the gilded gear

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

                  VI

      Well: while was fashioning

      This creature of cleaving wing,

The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

                  VII

      Prepared a sinister mate

      For her -- so gaily great --

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

                  VIII

      And as the smart ship grew

      In stature, grace, and hue,

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

                  IX

      Alien they seemed to be:

      No mortal eye could see

The intimate welding of their later history,

                  X

      Or sign that they were bent

      By paths coincident

On being anon twin halves of one august event,

                  XI

      Till the Spinner of the Years

      Said 'Now!' And each one hears,

And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.