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Essay / Mankind's contribution to its downfall in Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain"
In his poem "The Convergence of the Twain", Thomas Hardy describes the unfortunate, but truly inevitable, sinking of the Titanic, supposedly invincible. At the same time, the poem depicts the futile struggle of humanity against the unshakable forces of nature. The structural organization of the poem as well as the diction and figurative language convey the speaker's disapproving attitude toward man's arrogant creation of the Titanic. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The arrangement of the poem in rhyming tercets as well as the division into three distinct sections based on reverse chronology reflect the absolute influence of nature on the inevitability of The Titanic's crash. Each tercet is composed of two trimeters such as “In the solitude of the sea / in the depths of human vanity” (1-2) and a hexameter such as “and the Pride of Life which projected it , lay quietly” (3). The addition of the three syllables of the first line and the three syllables of the next line totals the six syllables found in the third line, imitating the convergence of the ship and the iceberg. Additionally, consistent end rhymes such as "pyres" (4), "fires" (5), and "lyres" (6) contribute to the gentle, flowing rhythm of the stanzas, creating a wave-like pattern that reflects the setting of the poem. . Additionally, stanzas one through five depict in the media the aftermath of the Titanic crash using images of the ship at the bottom of the sea and "deep within human vanity" (2), reinforcing the idea that the ship was destined to fail from the start. time of its creation. In this way, stanzas six through eight, which describe the "making / of this cloven-winged creature" (16-17), as well as stanzas nine through eleven, which describe the actual accident when the ship and the The iceberg “were bent”. / by coincident paths” (28-29), are only retrospective flashbacks of an ultimately failed enterprise. Together, the poem's structure and particular timeline reflect the "Convergence of the Twains," man and nature, reminding readers of the great character and omnipotence of God. Through diction and dark imagery, the poem emphasizes the speaker's critical tone towards humanity's naive and arrogant belief that it could defeat nature by building the Titanic, seemingly indestructible. The Titanic was once the largest luxury ship ever built, featuring “mirrors meant to glaze the opulent” (7-8). Now, “the sea worm” (9), a “grotesque, slimy, mute, and indifferent” (9) creature crawls over the once sumptuous mirrors, the negative connotations of these words emphasizing the power of luxury to render humans ignorant. Furthermore, "jewels...designed / to delight the sensual mind" (10-11) "lie presently without light, all their flashes clear, black and blind" (13), reflecting how arrogant humans let their vanity control them, then eventually regretted their pride when the Titanic crashed and their "golden gear" (14) and "vanity" (15) were abandoned to be enjoyed only by "fish with dark moon-eyes” (13) which have no use for such equipment. . Blinded by pride in this seemingly unsinkable creation, humanity failed to respect the forces of nature, resulting in tragic loss. The ironic oppositions established between the ship and the iceberg by manipulating connotation and denotation further justify the complete futility of man's arrogant challenge against God. As the Titanic, a luxury cruise liner, "grew in stature, grace ».