Lines On The Loss Of The "Titanic" by Thomas Hardy

Even though I enjoyed reading Lines on the Loss of the Titanic by Thomas Hardy, I enjoyed even more reading M.A.Peel’s analysis of the poem. I completely agree with her in that” it is a haunting poem whose theme, unexpectedly, offers a comforting way to look at heartache”.
The first part of the poem describes the ship on the bottom of the ocean and the second establishes that the catastrophe was an inevitably and unexpected event that shaked two hemispheres: the iceberg and the Titanic grew bigger at the same time to be afterwards two halves of the sinister event that took place in August, 1912.
Pen concludes the analysis of the poem relating this event to the experiences we have through our lives. There are events that are meant to be and “the twain shall be met”. What is really amazing is that Pen finds comfort in the poem because of the sense of inevitability of certain events. This inevitability takes away all the possible “if...” in our lives that very often torture us. Things have to be as they are and rarely have we the opportunity to make the choice.
For the first time I was able to see such a tragic and unfortunate event in a different way, I mean, from a somehow comforting perspective.
Cheeps
Click here to read the poem and M.A.Peel’s review