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.