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What Is The Tone In The Convergence Of The Twain

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In “The Convergence of the Twain”, the speaker, Thomas Hardy, describes the sinking of the Titanic by contrasting the materialism of mankind and powers of nature. With the utilization of poetic devices, the speaker suggests that the boarders of the ship and the Titanic itself, were victims of human vanity over the forces of the Earth. Throughout the poem, the speaker maintains a satirical tone because man’s overconfidence is what caused the shipwreck.

In the first stanza, Hardy begins the poem by describing the ship’s current state using personification. By using the word “she” and “her”, the speaker is able to characterize the ship as a casualty of human vanity and of inseperable fate with the iceberg. The Titanic has physically sunk “in a solitude of the sea”, but he also adds that “... the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.”, which implies that human arrogance had prompted the sinking of the ship. …show more content…

Pridefully, the makers of the Titanic had the audacity to deem the Titanic as unsinkable with high hopes. Because of such arrogance and anticipation built around the Titanic, the passengers focused on irrelevant lavish novelties such as their “jewels in joy designed”, and disregarded the eventual strength of nature. Now the opulents’ luxuries “lie lightless… sparkles bleared and black and blind” at the bottom of the sea. By illustrating the jewels’ transition from being ravishing to dull in appearance, the speaker provides a reflection of how the passengers’ misguided values had caused them to die and become worthless in the end. The speaker also portrays nature’s apathetic viewpoint towards the sunken jewels such as “the sea-worm crawls - grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent” to further emphasize how pointless human superficiality

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