The Convergence Of The Twain

(Lines on the loss of the "Titanic") I         In a solitude of the sea         Deep from human vanity,     And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she. II         Steel chambers, late the pyres         Of her salamandrine fires,     Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres. III         Over the mirrors meant         To glass the opulent     The sea-worm crawls grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent. IV         Jewels in joy designed         To ravish the sensuous mind     Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind. V         Dim moon-eyed fishes near         Gaze at the gilded gear     And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" . . . VI         Well: while was fashioning         This creature of cleaving wing,     The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything VII         Prepared a sinister mate         For her so gaily great -     A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate. VIII         And as the smart ship grew         In stature, grace, and hue,     In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. IX         Alien they seemed to be:         No mortal eye could see     The intimate welding of their later history, X         Or sign that they were bent         By paths coincident     On being anon twin halves of one august event, XI         Till the Spinner of the Years         Said "Now!" And each one hears,     And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.