Today we will read an extremely famous poem about what happened to the Titanic. This poem was written not long after the sinking of the Titanic by a well-known novelist/poet, Thomas Hardy.  Hardy was struck by the fact that the Titanic was such a grand ship – the most beautiful, the richest, the largest, ship ever built. She was said to be unsinkable!  Hardy felt that human beings were trying to be like ‘gods’ – as if Nature could not touch them any more as they were so clever and so wealthy! His poem is very hard and you might not understand all the words, but you should not worry about that. Listen to the poem as if it were music – just enjoy the sound of it. 

You will need access to paper and either crayons and pencils, or charcoal, or blue and black paint, water and brushes. We will be going through the poem again, and you will be painting or drawing how the poem makes you feel. You can either draw actual objects and/or people or else you can sketch abstract shapes or colours. You are simply expressing in a visual way, the feelings evoked by the poem and the sound of the words.

Listen to the poem again, this time pausing over each verse. Use ‘Notes on The Convergence of the Twain’. As you listen to the poem, draw or paint to express the feeling you think the poem is conveying.  

Then have a go at reading the poem aloud yourselves