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JOSEPH BRODSKY
Wooing the Inanimate (Four Poems by Thomas Hardy)
"Cold" in "Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres" under–
scores this transformation; but on the whole, the line is extremely interesting be–
cause it arguably contains a hidden metaphor of the very process of composing
this poem. On the surface - or, rather, underneath it - we have the movement of
the waves approaching the shore (or a bay, or a cove), which looks like the horn
of a lyre. Breakers, then, are its played strings. The verb "thrid," being the archaic
(or dialect) form of "thread," while conveying the weaving of the sound and
meaning from line to line, euphonically also evokes the triangularity of the stan–
zaic design, which is a triplet. In other words, with the progression from "fire"
to "cold" we get here to an artifice that suggests artistic self-consciousness in
general and, given the treatment a great tragedy receives in this poem, Hardy's in
particular. For, to put it bluntly, "The Convergence of the Twain" is devoid of
the "hot" feelings that might seem appropriate, given the volume of human loss.
This is an entirely unsentimental job, and in the second stanza our poet reveals
somewhat (most likely unwittingly) the way it's done.
Over the mirrors meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls - grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.
This is where, I believe, the poem's reputation for social criticism comes
from. It is there, of course, but that's the least of it. The
Titanic
was indeed a
floating palace. The ballroom, casino, and cabins themselves were built to rede–
fine luxury on the grandest scale, their decor was lavish. To convey this, the poet
uses the verb "to glass," which both doubles the opulence and betrays its one–
dimensionality: it is glass-deep. However, in the scene Mr. Hardy paints here, he
is concerned less, I think, with debunking the rich than with the discrepancy be–
tween the intent and the outcome. The sea-worm crawling over the mirror
stands in not for the essence of capitalism but for "the opulent" 's opposite.
The succession of negative epithets qualifYing that sea-worm tells us quite a
lot about Mr. Hardy himsel( For in order to know the value of a negative epi–
thet, one should always try applying it to oneself first. Being a poet, not to
mention a novelist, Thomas Hardy would have done that more than once.
Therefore, the succession of negative epithets here could and should be perceived
as reflecting his hierarchy of human wrongs, the gravest being the last on the list.
And the last on this list, sitting above all in the rhyming position, is
"indifferent." This renders "grotesque, slimed, dumb" as lesser evils. At least
