Armstrong, Tim. (1992) Hardy, Thaxter,

Armstrong, Tim. (1992) Hardy, Thaxter, and history as coincidence in "The Convergence of the Twain." Victorian Poetry, 30 (1): 29.

One way of viewing the tragedy of the Titanic is to see it as a tragedy of fate. However, Tim Armstrong sees Thomas Hardy's famous occasional poem "The Convergence of the Twain"

on the sinking of the Titanic as a depiction of the coincidental and impartial nature of the forces of history. Although the sinking of the Titanic is ironic, it is not necessarily inevitable. It is an example of the arbitrary nature of the forces at play in the world. To view the sinking as punishment by God is to deny the predominant view of nature in most of Hardy's poetry -- nature is not judgmental, but it is cool and impartial, despite humanity's attempts to rise above its strictures.

Dean, Sarah. (2001) Human fallibility in Thomas Hardy's "Convergence of the Twain"

The Victorian Web. Retrieved August 1, 2011 at http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hardy/dean1.html

Sarah Dean's essay on Thomas Hardy's "Convergence of the Twain" analyzes how Hardy uses the structure of the poem and a series of comparisons and contrasts to convey his feelings about the construction of the Titanic as an act of human folly, The first five stanzas contrast the images of the sunken ship under the water with images of the ship during its intact glory. Dean analyzes how seemingly arbitrary or overly ornate words such as 'salamandrine fires' are quite deliberately chosen by Hardy. In folklore, salamanders could survive fires. But, Hardy says in the final stanzas, as the ship grew in clout, immensity and power, the iceberg it would run against was also growing. Hardy's poem uses the Titanic as a symbol of Britain's inflated self-importance in the world, and to condemn its belief in how rational science can overrule the forces of fate and nature.

Graves, R.N. (1995). Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain." The Explicator, 53 (2): 96-99.

In this essay, the eventual unity of the iceberg and the Titanic is described as a kind of love relationship. Ironically, the supposedly unsinkable ship and the iceberg were 'born for one another' to create a historical, real life metaphor of the folly of humanity. The word 'consummation' at the end of the poem is given great significance. There is a kind of humor to how the jarring hemispheres -- the 'shaken world' -- makes the crash seem like a common wedding night metaphor -- 'the earth moved.' The unity of ship and iceberg is like a sexual union of an overly willing groom and a cold bride. The ship is an illustration of the Victorian folly of trying to overcome the natural world -- both the coldness of the sea and also human sexuality.

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