Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 16-18
Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything
- Although the speaker doesn't directly answer that rhetorical question from the previous stanza, he does give us a little background here. At this point we see the ship's cleaved body (split in half), which brings us back to when it was first being fashioned (built).
- So in the midst of the Titanic's construction we find this "Immanent Will" that's hovering over everything in a way that guides all things. Immanent, by the way, means something that's inside of us and all parts of the universe. It's kind of like a divine force of some sort that moves all things whether we're aware of it or not. We're talking Star Wars kind of stuff, you know, Luke using the force and such.
- The speaker is juxtaposing that Immanent Will with the actual construction of the Titanic that is stirred and urged by that same force. Nothing, including that luxurious ship, is outside of its influence and pull.
- Notice that the speaker has also capitalized Immanent Will, just like he did with Pride of Life. So again we see him bringing together man's priorities with the immanent forces that lie in nature and in man. Don't forget to check out "Symbols, Imagery, and Wordplay" for more on that.