The Concurrence of 'Samuel Langhorne Clemens'

vaingloriousness (n.) -- excessive elation or pride over one's own achievements, abilities, etc.

So I'd say I enjoyed Thomas Hardy's The Convergence of the Twain fairly thoroughly.  It answers #14 with a great jump-off point by alluding to the massive cruise liner Titanic and its largely public and fatal demise.  For the first half or so of the stanzas, Hardy describes the opulence and luxuriousness of the ship as it was, and as it presumably is now on the ocean floor.  The most striking of these lines is in the fifth stanza, "Dim moon-eyed fishes near/ Gaze at the gilded gear/ And query: 'What does this vaingloriousness down here?'..." [lines 13-15].  The speaker here seems to me to mock the wastefulness and the use of over-excess that those who created the Titanic were so fond of, showing instead fish pondering what its purpose serves on the bottom of the sea.  Later in the poem the author appears to recount the actual event of the crash, supplying the reason behind it as fate and coincidence.  The final stanza refers to God as the 'Spinner of the Years' and details his role in the great catastrophe as well.  Very good stuff, I say.