Hardy's interpretation of the tragedy of the Titanic is different from many as he does not focus on the loss of many lives, but on the loss of the ship itself. Instead of recreating the death of a passenger, Hardy grieves "Over the mirrors meant/To glass the opulent" (lines 7-8) and "Jewels in joy designed/To ravish the sensuous mind/Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind" (lines 10-12) Hardy may focus on the material losses of the Titanic because the Titanic was designed to be for the extremely wealthy who might not have cared about those less fortunate, so their deaths were not as tragic.
However, Hardy's inclusion of the Immanent Will may indicate that the entire event was inescapable and inevitable as soon as the ship grew more and more extravagant; the Immanent Will wants to shift our focus from material things to the things in our lives that are not lost in shipwrecks.
3 comments:
Rachel,
Good choice of poem to discuss for Hardy, and some appropriately selected passages from the poem to analyze. Your analysis gets off to a good start but doesn't seem to go far enough, however, and your post seems a bit cursory as a result.
I love the idea of this poem being a eulogy, and that the recipient of the eulogy is the Titanic. I heard somewhere that ship is also a sign of feminism one of sexual connotation. It has something to do with the shape of haul. If you think of the ship in the beginning of the poem as a woman, and untouchable but inescapable woman the poem takes on a completely different meaning. Just an idea, and I could be completely wrong about the feminist ship thing.
I enjoyed this discussion! I loved the way you put different parts of the poem into your discussion and formed your sentences. I also blogged this poem and I felt the same way about it as you did. But as the great saying goes, all great things must come to an end. It's just unfortunate that so many people had to lose their lives in the process.
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