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O-LevelLiterature in EnglishPoetryMay/June 2014Paper 1 Q1325 Marks

Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it: The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the ‘Titanic') I In a solitude of the sea Deep from human vanity, And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she. II Steel chambers, late the pyres Of her salamandrine fires, Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres. III Over the mirrors meant To glass the opulent The sea-worm crawls – grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent. IV Jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind. V Dim moon-eyed fishes near Gaze at the gilded gear And query: 'What does this vaingloriousness down here?' VI Well: while was fashioning This creature of cleaving wing, The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything VII Prepared a sinister mate For her - so gaily great A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate. VIII And as the smart ship grew In stature, grace, and hue, In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. IX Alien they seemed to be: No mortal eye could see The intimate welding of their later history, X Or sign that they were bent By paths coincident On being anon twin halves of one august event, XI Till the Spinner of the Years Said 'Now!' And each one hears, And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres. How does Hardy make this poem so powerfully dramatic?

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About This O-Level Literature in English Question

This structured question appeared in the Cambridge O-Level Literature in English (2010) May/June 2014 examination, Paper 1 Variant 1. It tests the topic of Poetry and is worth 25 marks.

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