Amos

The following is a short explication of a poem by Hardy who had experienced the end of religion in the hypostatic union and used the Titanic and iceberg to present this image. There in nothing lyrical about this poem but just beautiful words are used in the image of his present day.

Notice that The Convergence of the Twain would best describe the at-one-ment of the left and right brain which is twain and not twin. The Titanic and iceberg are twin but converged only through the Immanent Will and are twain in that sense. "The Father and I are one" would fit this description after rebirth. I should add for your benefit that in my intepretation Jesus was the reborn Joseph which is affirmed by "the father and I are one" after the convergence of the twain mind of Joseph (which is equal to rebirth).



Here is some comments but since every word counts the poem is explosive and my explanation never complete.

In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

Added to the solitude of the subconscious mind (the celestail sea) is the fruition of the conscious mind ("she" is the epitome of human vanity now consolidated). The Pride of Life is the ego that planned her and "stilly couches she" has to be my all time favorite expression of the image that reason is placed subordinate to intuition after consolidation in purgatory.

II
Steel chambers, late the pyres
Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

The ego, like an iron vessel, was built (now abandonned in "late") and maintained by cunning (serpentine) ideas and desires while in pursuit of happiness, stature and fame. While in this pursuit, treading (thrid) to and fro as the mood of the day presented (rhytmic tidal lyres). I should add here that the serpent is the female identity of the conscious mind that holds the carrot before us. This carrot is always 'fresh' and renewed with the "tydal lyres" that actually are renewed by the Immanent Will through Mary who is the greater serpent of the soul (hence the 'catfight' in our mind)--wherefore our mind is twain.

III
Over the mirrors meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls -- grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

In retrospect the ego was needed and had to be shined to perfection (tomb as if carved out of stone with his own hands) or it would not now be transparent ("to glass" in the virgin rebirth), but is now redundant even in all its former greatness because it is an empty shell (persona).
IV
Jewels in joy designed
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.

It was fun while it lasted for the sensuous man (ambition) but since they are illusory and impermanent in nature (new "carrot" every day to please our senses) they are not real ("they lie") and now appear to have been needed only to set sail in the journey of life (now "lightless").

V
Dim moon-eyed fishes near
Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: 'What does this vaingloriousness down here?'...

That's a ROFLOL but vainglory is an interesting choice of words because "moon-eyed" fishes know what vainglory is and have been through the same metamorphosis and hence they ask "why here" in our territory? Moon-eyed makes reference to being able to see in the dark in the celestial light of the seventh day of creation.

VI
Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything

The answer: He was designing this image in the fashion of his own (ego is 'like god' as opposed to 'God'), and therefore of cleaving wing (very fitting imagery). It is because we are divided in our own mind and so alienated from reality that the Immanent Will stirs and urges everything. The emnity between woman and the serpent (Mary and Eve) as two serpents in which one serpent strikes at the head of the lesser serpent (Eve) who in turn strikes at our heel is how we are motivated (this is what makes us restless).
VII
Prepared a sinister mate
For her -- so gaily great --
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.

As sensuous people we are motivated towards this collision from the time we are born because to built our own Titanic from scratch upon the blank slate is equal to becoming alienated from our soul (Eden), or subconscious mind (TOL), identity by that same amount. We become alienated as we shine our ego into greatness ("gaily great") and as we become more alienated the iceberg grows in size as well (or pleasure could be conceived to exist without pain).

I can add here that while we do this we also built an ark (in tithing 10% of our time for self reflection; the beads), and a tomb in the image of reality through our communion with the saints to prepare for the future--which is an illusion and therefore likely to clash with the iceberg, but then I would have to bring Catholicism into the argument and that is not part of the poem.
VIII
And as the smart ship grew
In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
See above.

IX
Alien they seemed to be:
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,

It is obvious that a collision with an iceberg is not alien to mortal eyes who can predict the outcome of such a crash. Unexpected, however, is the mystery of salvation which must come as a thief in the night and remain "alien" to mortal eyes (as opposed to "moon-eyes"). The "intimate welding of their later history" is the unification of the iceberg (TOL) with the Titanic (TOK) in the eternal now.
X
Or sign that they were bent
By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,

"No sign will be given" that the reign of of God is already in our midst and only time is needed for the twin halves to meet on a dark night event.
XI
Till the Spinner of the Years
Said 'Now!' And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

"The Spinner of the years" is Father Time in "Jude the Obscure" and the intantaneous "Now!" is the consumation of rebirth in the Beatific Vision ("each one hears"). The two hemispheres is the left and right brain now without division.

Amos

[ February 23, 2002: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>