Lines On The Loss Of The "Titanic"

Portrait of Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy 1840–1928

In a solitude of the sea Deep from human vanity, And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

Steel chambers, late the pyres Of her salamandrine fires, Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

Over the mirrors meant To glass the opulent The sea-worm crawls -- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

Jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.

Dim moon-eyed fishes near Gaze at the gilded gear And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ...

Well: while was fashioning This creature of cleaving wing, The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

Prepared a sinister mate For her -- so gaily great -- A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.

And as the smart ship grew In stature, grace, and hue, In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

Alien they seemed to be; No mortal eye could see The intimate welding of their later history,

Or sign that they were bent By paths coincident On being anon twin halves of one august event,

Till the Spinner of the Years Said "Now!" And each one hears, And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

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Peter O'Malley27 words
  1. Kathy United States

    I believe the poem's title is 'The Convergence of the Twain'.
    Lines On The Loss of the Titanic is a collection of poems.

  2. Peter O'Malley

    You are right about "The Convergence of the Twain" as the title. I can't confirm whether "Lines, etc." is a subtitle or a title of a collection.

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