The Convergence of the Twain (extract)

...

And as the smart ship grew
In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
 
Alien they seemed to be:
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,
 
Or sign that they were bent
by paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,
 
Till the Spinner of the Years
Said "Now!" And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

Thomas Hardy