What Is The Irony In The Convergence Of The Twain

In “ The Convergence of the Twain” Thomas Hardy talks about the sinking of the Titanic. What once was a gigantic glamorous ship is now nothing but a indifferent piece of grimy wreckage at the bottom of the ocean. There is lots of irony to be found in the sinking of the believed to be unsinkable ship. This irony is shown through the use of contrast, imagery, and symbolism that Hardy deliberately chooses to put into his poem. Hardy makes a point to show the difference between the Titanic and the iceberg within the ocean. He shows this contrast when he states, “Steel chambers, late the pyres/ Of her salamandrine fires,/ Cold currents third, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres,” (4-5). The harsh contrast between fire and cold are used to show chaos and panic of the ship as it was sinking as opposed to the bitter yet tranquil coldness of the ocean. Furthermore, contrast is used by Hardy when he says, “And as the smart ship grew/ In stature, grace, and hue,/ In shadowy silent distance grew the iceberg too” (22-24). These line portray the rise to fame and glory of the ever-amazing and

One example of this imagery is, “The sea-worm crawls – grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent,” (9). The sea worm is meant to be an overall description for how disgusting and unwelcoming the ocean floor is, which is where Titanic is now since it has sunken. Another example of imagery is where it says, “Jewels in joys designed/ To ravish the sensuous mind/ Lie Lightless, all there sparkles bleared and black and blind” (10-12). Jewels, which are typically though of as elegant and powerful and expensive, are now being depicted and meaningless and black because wealth and power mean nothing if it has all been lost in the current of the sea. Hardy uses visual imagery to further showcase the bitter, depressing, and even gross feeling that bottom of ocean seems to