The Convergence of the Twain: Lines on the loss of the "Titanic"

English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy wrote “Convergence of the Twain” on April 24, 1914, shortly after the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the largest ocean liner at the time. The ship, outfitted with the latest technology and interior design, was deemed unsinkable. However, during its maiden voyage, the Titanic famously hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean near midnight on April 14, 1914. With too many passengers to fit into its too few lifeboats, the Titanic’s casualties were vast: 1,517 of the 2,224 passengers aboard lost their lives. Most of the victims were second- and third-class passengers.

The poem was composed well into Hardy’s career, after he had stopped writing novels and turned to poetry. Hardy initially read it at an event called “Dramatic and Operatic Matinee in Aid of the ‘Titanic’ Disaster Fund“ at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden on May 14, 1912. As reprinted in the program of the event, the poem did not contain Stanza 5. That June, the additional stanza did appear with the poem’s first official publication in The Fortnightly Review. The poem’s elegiac tone remains true to Hardy’s interest in the arbitrary nature of fate, unfair class systems, depression, and disaster—all of which are recurring themes in his work.