The Convergence of the Twain - Thomas Hardy

I chose this poem for one reason - it's broken up into 3 line segments, which makes it easier to dissect and analyze...or one would think. Even though I get the gist of what's going on, and I love the way he describes the fate of the ship and the iceberg in the later sections, the first few sections are a little hard for me to understand. The first two lines are great, and are a really nice way to open the poem up, but the last line of the section confuses me. He says "And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she." If I'm interpreting this right, he's saying that the vain one who built and thought of Titanic is quietly sitting. But since he uses "she" at the end, he is therefore implying that the mind behind Titanic is a woman? Which wouldn't make sense because the builder was man, if I'm not mistaken. Then the third section...it seems like Hardy put the poem into these section to, like I said earlier, be able to dissect and interpret each one more intimately, which should make it easier. But it also seems that within this section, the idea shifts. He's talking about mirrors and glass, and wealth, and then shifts to a sea-worm that's slimy and gross? Is this section about the worm and what he sees? Everything seems so jumbled and out of place. ESPECIALLY when you get to section IV...because his thought just CUTS OFF AT THE END...and I'm like, whoa did I miss a line? Did I miss something? There's no ending to this thought! But as you read on, you see that the thought is continued at the next section. This is extremely confusing!!!

But now that I think about it, the whole setup of this poem makes me envision what the Titanic lies in now...which is a sea of jumble. The water just keeps swishing all over the place, scattering all of what lies/d in the Titanic around...like this poem. I can hear the movement of the water now, as I read this poem. What I also took notice of before, is why Hardy arranged this poem the way he did. This may seem far-fetched, but each stanza looks like a mini-Titanic, especially with the roman numerals on top of each stanza. The last line is the deck of course, and it has the layers on top (the other two lines) and the roman numeral could be the top of one of those pipe/stack/exhaust things that were on the Titanic.

I guess that's all I have to say about that.