"The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the Titanic)" is a poem by Thomas Hardy, published in 1912. The poem describes the sinking and wreckage of the ocean liner Titanic. "Convergence" consists of eleven stanzas (I to XI) of three lines each, following the AAA rhyme pattern. Themes and structure One interpretation is that Hardy's controversial poem contrasts the materialism and hubris of mankind with the integrity and beauty of nature. This is accomplished in an almost satirical manner, given the absence of compassion and not even any reference to the huge loss of life that accompanied the ship's sinking. It is also possible that Hardy, who aspired to become an architect but lacked the resources to do so, criticizes what to him seem the unnecessary pursuits of wealthy people, epitomized in the building of such an enormous luxury vessel. The references in the first stanza to "human vanity" and "the Pride of Life that planned her" support such an interpretation. The reader might expect to see grief, a depiction of the chaos, or an emotive telling of individual losses. The poem fails to fulfil such expectations, instead focusing on the ship and the iceberg and how the two came to converge. Seen as the epitome of Britain’s wealth and power, the Titanic was extravagantly appointed for the British and American rich, and exhibited the new technology and fashions of the day. In the eyes of its makers the ship was unsinkable. Critic Peter Childs describes the Titanic as "full of Edwardian confidence but bound for disaster" and it is this display of vanity and pride that Hardy sardonically highlights in the first five stanzas, as he contrasts the ship’s current position at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to its glorious construction and launch. By juxtaposing expensive items like the "jewels in joy designed" with their sea-bed position where they "lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind" (IV, 12), Hardy emphasises the immense waste caused by the sinking. Another stanza has: "Dim moon-eyed fishes near/Survey the gilded gear/And query:"What does this vaingloriousness down here?" At the beginning of the sixth stanza, there is a definite shift where Hardy goes from looking at the ship’s past and present to discussing the cause of the disaster, the collision of the ship and the iceberg. The pairing of the two or the idea of a pair