Use of Poetic Devices in Thomas Hardy’s Poem, The Convergence of the Twain
Using distinctive diction, detailed imagery, and references to God, Thomas Hardy portrays his perspective of the sinking of “Titanic” in his poem, “The Convergence of the Twain.” Employing these poetic mechanisms, Hardy claims that the sinking of the Titanic was fate and meant to happen. The title furthermore portrays the coming together of the hemispheres as Titanic and God.
Hardy uses strong meaningful diction to convey his thoughts of the sinking of the Titanic. Words such as “vaingloriousness”, “opulent”, and “jewels in joy” illustrate Titanic for the reader so that he/she can picture the greatness of the ship. Phrases such as “Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind” describe what the Titanic looked after the sinking, loosing all of its great features. Hardy’s use of strong, describing diction depicts his view of the ship, before and after.
In addition to the use of colorful diction, Hardy employs detailed imagery. The phrase “Dim moon-eyed fishes near Gaze at the guilded gear” depicts fishes looking at the sunk Titanic and wondering what “this vaingloriousness” was doing under the sea. He also mentions in the third stanza how the “jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind” were all lost and covered by darkness. Using these detailed images, Hardy is portraying the contrasts of before the ship sunk and after.
Using powerful diction and verbose imagery, Hardy furthermore instills his attitude of the sinking up employing references to God indirectly. When he states that “The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything Prepared a sinister mate”, he is referring to God and how fate made the iceberg. He also refers to the power of God again when he says, “Till the Spinner of the Years Said, ‘Now!’.” In this phrase, he conveys that God said it was time for the people onboard the Titanic to go down under. Hardy’s references to God supported his own claim that fate claimed the Titanic.
The juxtaposition of the Titanic and the environment in the first five stanzas symbolizes the opposition between man and nature, suggesting that nature overcomes man. The speaker characterizes the sea as being “deep from human vanity” (2) and deep from the “Pride of Life that planned” the Titanic. The diction of “human vanity” (2) suggests that the sea is incorruptible by men and then the speaker’s juxtaposition of vanity with “the
Some of the most intriguing stories of today are about people’s adventures at sea and the thrill and treachery of living through its perilous storms and disasters. Two very popular selections about the sea and its terrors are The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger and “The Wreck of the Hesperus” by Henry Longfellow. Comparison between the two works determines that “The Wreck of the Hesperus” tells a more powerful sea-disaster story for several different reasons. The poem is more descriptive and suspenseful than The Perfect Storm, and it also plays on a very powerful tool to captivate the reader’s emotion. These key aspects combine to give the reader something tangible that allows them to relate to the story being told and affects them strongly.
the tragedy of the Titanic. He cites these works, I feel, to support his own
The Titanic makes most people very curious and is a very compelling topic. Deborah Hopkinson, the author of Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, Apples to Oregon, and others wrote a marvelous book about the Titanic. The book is about the horrific disaster of the marvelous ship called Titanic Voices From The Disaster. This book provides a story about the Titanic and includes story’s from passengers, that were aboard the Titanic the night it hit an ice berg and sunk. Titanic is a very popular book published by Scholastic. It is rated 4 stars on goodreads.com and 4.5 stars on Barnes and noble.com. There are many great reviews of the book and few bad reviews. This
He turns her from beautiful, innocent, and pure to lifeless, brown, and limp like the dead seaweed. Additionally, just like how the daughter’s body is being tossed around by the waves without anyone else’s control, the outcomes of arrogant behavior also happen without anyone’s control. Although the skipper did not intend for his daughter to die, his borderline-smug attitude ultimately ends up ruining everything about her. The imagery used here depicts what a person’s overconfidence does to the things they love and care about. In conclusion, Longfellow uses imagery of the skipper’s eyes and daughter’s hair to convey the poem’s theme to his audience.The author of “Wreck of the Hesperus”, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, uses personification, simile, and imagery to establish that the overconfidence and pride that people have leads to a wild downward spiral for that person, and for the innocent things that the person loves. This is important for people to remember because overconfidence leads to an over-inflated ego and an excessive amount of pride, which weakens people and their relationships with others. People like this find it difficult to reach out and think it’s below them to ask for help or want help.
The tragic history of the Titanic, the sinking of the “unsinkable” giant of a ship shocked the entire world and contributed to important shifts in the mass consciousness of the people who lived at that period and assessed the achievements of new technologies and their role. However, one would have been hardly able to predict in 1912 that this tragedy, no matter how significant and meaningful, would leave such a deep imprint on the history of human civilization. The continuing interest in the fate of the great vessel has taken the form of various narrations and given rise to numerous myths enveloping the true history and, in this way, often obscuring the facts related to the tragedy. In recent years, this interest has been emphasized by the dramatic discovery of the wreck and examination of its remains. The recovery of artifacts from the Titanic and the exploration of the site where it had sank stimulated new speculations on different issues of the failure to rescue the Titanic and the role of different factors contributing to the disaster. These issues have been traditionally in the focus of discussions that caused controversies and ambiguous interpretations of various facts. They also often overshadowed other parts of the disaster story that were confirmed by statistical data and revealed the impact of social realities. The social stratification of passengers that reflected the social realities of the period and its class interests determined the chances of survival, with most of those perished in the Titanic disaster having been lower class individuals.
This consistency in rhyme scheme and structure supports the doomed fate of the Titanic. The fate of the vessel cannot be changed or avoided so Hardy selects a structure for his poem and adheres to it throughout the entirety of his piece. He formats this poem by first describing the Titanic’s current condition under the sea and then moves back in time to the crucial moments when the Titanic and Iceberg paths collided. By ending his poem with the commencement “Now” by the “Spinner of Years”, Hardy is able to heighten the image of the Titanic and Iceberg being bound together by
This process is aimed at ensuring the project being pursued has a potential of delivering by adhering to the allocated time, sticking to the budget and very important, meeting customers specifications (Mott McDonald, 2002). It involves assessing the projects at critical stages (also referred to as gates) in its lifecycle and thus assuring it can advance to the next stage successfully. This function is performed by an independent experienced team, after which they assure the Senior Responsible Owners that the project can progress successfully (National Academies US & National Research US, 2004). There are six critical stages (gateways) in the lifecycle of a project that the independent gateway review team will evaluate and thus provide th...
Priestly presents Mr Arthur Birling and a ignorant and foolish character with us use of Dramatic Irony. As Mr Birling was delivering his speech at his daughter, Sheila's engagement, he mentioned that the titanic, was ''unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable''. As the play was written in 1945, we know that this bold statement is far from correct.
Even Diving into the Wreck plays a more general note of individuality than of feminism; in the words of Judith Lewin, ‘In Rich’s 1972 poem “Diving into the Wreck,” the lyrical voice is that of a diver, who, as her body descends in the water, resists the distraction of undersea life in order to pursue her goal, both the exploration of a sunken ship and the exploration of self’(54).
In Thomas Hardy's poem, “The Convergence of the Twain, or the come together of the two, demonstrated his attitude toward the sunken ship,Titanic. Today, everyone at least know that Titanic was a real life love-tragedy that once happened. Although the movie Titanic was filmed in the perspective of the love couple. On the opposite, Hardy’s poem is not, but rather in a perspective of an observer with a tone of mocking when describing the sunken ship and sinking of the ship through the use of poetic devices, including alliteration, imagery, and enjambment.
“...the TItanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 pm and sank at 2:20 am” (Lord 173). April 12, 1912 marked the night the RMS Titanic vanished into the vast Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic only had enough lifeboats for ⅓ of the 2208 people on board. This survival rate is so meager because the appearance of the Titanic was more salient than its passengers’ safety. Captain Edward Smith figured all the necessary amount of lifeboats would look “cluttered” on deck. The Titanic also had the prominent title of “unsinkable ship” because of that, the captain thought lifeboats wouldn’t be needed but indeed they were. The impact of the lifeboat shortage on the Titanic forced the captain to call the BirkenHead drill, caused men to dress as women, and brought passengers to participate in bribery.
The story’s theme is related to the reader by the use of color imagery, cynicism, human brotherhood, and the terrible beauty and savagery of nature. The symbols used to impart this theme to the reader and range from the obvious to the subtle. The obvious symbols include the time from the sinking to arrival on shore as a voyage of self-discovery, the four survivors in the dinghy as a microcosm of society, the shark as nature’s random destroyer of life, the sky personified as mysterious and unfathomable and the sea as mundane and easily comprehended by humans. The more subtle symbols include the cigars as representative of the crew and survivors, the oiler as the required sacrifice to nature’s indifference, and the dying legionnaire as an example of how to face death for the correspondent.
Have you ever considered that several of the noises you hear are noise pollution? The thought of pollution, to the majority of people, brings reflections of chemical spills, radiation, and holes in the ozone layer, and noise is usually last on the list. "The term "noise pollution" is the term used to describe environmental pollution that deals with annoying or harmful noises and is constantly happening"(1). Some common examples of noise pollution, that many people take for granite, are lawn mowers, airplanes, and car alarms. Noise pollution should be taken seriously because it can cause permanent hearing loss.
Noise does not discriminate, it has no face, no limits, no size however it has an identity which is described as a loud, surprising, irritating, static, or unwanted sound just to name a few. Noise affects people in several ways, from nature cause noise to artificial noise. It will be here and it has a substantial effect on our lives. Noise exists in every area, where some sorts of energy of any kind occur. Any form of noise can be very damaging to our hearing. Both the level of noise and the length of time you constantly hear to the noise can put you at risk for hearing loss and stress.