The Ocean Floor

Hardy portrays the ocean floor, where the Titanic remains are "stilly couched," as a cold, uncaring, and unchanging locale. It is variously described as "solitary," current-tossed, and "lightless" (1, 12). Though populated by fish and algal life, this underwater still is more or less lacking in animation. Thus a contrast is established between the swiftly moving and developing world 'above' (human society) and this watery flat below. Like the Iceberg and the Titanic, they are two wholly different sides of a cosmic equation bound one day to be combined.

Onboard the Titanic

While "The Convergence of the Twain" deals primarily with Titanic's wrecked remains, we get passing glimpses into its pre-catastrophe life: opulent decorations, richly-dressed patrons, "gilded gear," and chambers burning "salamandrine fires" (14, 5). According to the poem, this sumptuous, intricately constructed existence is mocked and reversed in a matter of moments. There is a curious irony in the...