Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 25-27
Alien they seemed to be;
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,
- The speaker even goes so far as to say one side of this immanent force is alien to the other, just like the Titanic that's unaware of its sinister mate. So it's impossible for a mortal eye, any random dude, to really see or anticipate the welding of these forces in any particular event.
- But still, as the speaker tells us in line 27, these events comprise "history" and happen nonetheless.
- The word "alien" really emphasizes the opposite but equal idea the speaker is working with. One thing is just as alien to the other, and yet they're doomed to meet each other in such a tragic welding of history. They may be "alien" but they're destined for an intimate connection in the not so distant future.
- So there's no denying the impact of the collision of such forces, whether they're creative or destructive. The foreshadowing we see in line 27 tells us that these kinds of collisions are what make history so memorable and "intimate" since these stories tend to really hit home.
- After all, events that make us reconsider our understanding of such powerful but necessary forces tend to reveal all sorts of questions about creation and destruction. Deep stuff here, right?