Memento Mori

Memento Mori, roughly translated as 'remember death,' is a classical trope that appears in any number of plays, poems, and novels across time. It seeks to remind the reader that the span of life is predetermined, finite and – perhaps most importantly – invulnerable to human desires or machinations. No matter how nobly or elegantly one strives to live, death will always mark the end of his days. Hardy makes ample use of this theme in "The Convergence of the Twain." The author presents Titanic as a neat embodiment of human vanity and the reflexive urge to clothe impermanence in jewels and gaudy frocks. Dressed to the nines, Titanic still could not avoid or delay its dreadful fate.

This motif weighs particularly heavily in stanzas five through eight. Here, in the middle section of the poem, Hardy's speaker utters a series of jarring statements, all purposed...