6 SEPTEMBER 1986, Page 5

SEA CHANGE

THE magical television pictures of the Titanic on the floor of the ocean go to confirm that nature imitates art. The wreck appeared as Hardy imagined it at the time in his poem 'The Convergence of the Twain (Lines on the loss of the Titanic)':

In a solitude of the sea Deep from human vanity, And from the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she Steel chambers, late the pyres Of her salamandrine fires, Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

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