The Convergence of the Twain

"The Convergence of the Twain"
Thomas Hardy

Couldn't help myself...

When I first read this poem I immediately noticed that there are eleven stanzas.  I looked up the time the Titanic sank, and numerous sources claimed it was at 11:40, which would give significance to the number of stanzas in the poem.  The physical structure of the poem actually looks like either the ship itself or possibly the iceberg.  Like a real ship or iceberg, the largest part is at the bottom, and the top is rather smaller.
      The poem is very beautiful, regardless of the fact that it covers a gruesome topic which caused much suffering and many deaths.  It is very interesting that the narrator does not even touch on that aspect of the sinking of the Titanic, since it touched so many lives.  He instead chooses to focus on the physical appearance of the ship and claims that the "vaingloriousness" (Hardy, line 15) should not be so, and vanity will not help any situation.  77777IT is also kind of creepy that he insinuates that God, or even nature, created a mate for the titanic, even though it was so vain.  However, I think that he is just over-exaggerating here-- he claims vanity meets its downfall (the iceberg).  "No mortal eye"(line 27) also suggests that God or a higher being created the iceberg as vanity's downfall, and humans are unaware or unable to see it.