Big I, Eye, Aye.

The Convergence of the Twain, as the title implies, is about the meeting of two opposites. More specifically, it is the meeting of human vanity and supernatural humility, or the Titanic and the iceberg that brought about it’s demise. While many people see this accident as an enormous tragedy, the poet’s attitude is more cool and ambivalent. This is because both sides of the equation are represented. The poet’s use of personification, rhyme, meter, imagery and voice accomplish portraying this ambivalence. 2 devices usually work in tandem – personification and capitalization, rhyme and meter, imagery and voice. If one was without the other, the poem would fall flat, or would sway towards one side or the other.

 This poet uses personification and capitalization heavily in this poem. This brings attention to the main ideas or players in this poem, or personifies some key concepts that would otherwise be less concrete. “Pride of Life”, “The Immanent Will”, “A Shape of Ice”,  “the Spinner of Years” are all key components of the destruction of the Titanic. “Pride of Life” is the reason why the Titanic was built. Humans built this to be the pride of their life. If the first trip had been successful, the Titanic would have been a very important success in the history of ships, and human ability. The Immanent Will and Spinner of the Years represent the concept of the force behind the world spinning. This brings to light the poet’s feeling that the sinking of the ship was not the fault of humans – but due to fate. 

 Rhyme and meter in this poem also lend themselves to the meaning of ‘The Convergence of the Twain’. In this poem, every final line in each set of triplets rhymes. The poet follows this rule religiously throughout the poem. This gives the poem an almost lilting aspect. The length of the 2 first lines and the last line are also continious throughout the poem. Together the two create the rhythm of a chant, or folk poem. This could represent the rhymic turnings of the ship’s engine, time, or the ocean. Because of the nursery rhyme or folk tale feel of the poem, it lends the possibility of the supernatural to it – as folk tales or nursery rhymes usually feature talking spoons, dragons, witches, etc. Through this, the poet is relating his feeling of supernatural fate once again.

 Most important of all is the poet’s use of imagery and voice. This is when the poet’s attitude is truly conveyed. The poet uses imagery very effectively to accomplish a few things. One, it juxtaposes the ‘twain’, be it human vanity against supernatural humility, the artificial lavishness against the natural essentials, or the irreversible against the breakable. The ‘Titanic’ was called the ‘unsinkable ship’, in a moment of human vanity. In an ironic twist, nature brought down the ‘unsinkable ship’. In this way, human extravagance was grounded by the cold truth of life. And two, it gives the mood to his poem by his choice of words. For example, ‘cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres’ or ‘lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind’. It is truly a dark, sad and unadorned place, the bottom of the sea. Also, all the sea creatures depicted in this poem are depicted as base and ignorant. For example, ‘grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent’ or ‘dim moon-eyed fishes near’. They are unable to understand the human extravagance that has come to rest in their habitat. When showing the differences between the fish and the ‘vaingloriousness’, one gets the sense that the poet regrets the loss of beauty, and that this resting place is not fitting. This is what balances the vanity of humans argument. Finally, an example of the distanced voice is present in stanza ten “[or] signs that they were bent/ By paths coincident/ On being anon twin halves of one August event”.

 ’The Convergence of the Twain’ utilizes some interesting poetic devices to convey a certain message about a tragic event in the world’s history. The sinking of the Titanic ‘[jarred] two hemispheres’, and the poet echoes this sentiment. But he or she also feels (ambivalently) that it was a fateful event, and vanity’s downfall. It was not a mortal’s fault, nor a coincidence. The poem says this, without saying it all, through their use of imagery and voice, rhyme and meter, and personification and capitalization.

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