"The Voice" by Thomas Hardy
Summary: Provides a detailed commentary of the poem "The Voice", by Thomas Hardy.
The poem "The voice" is a touching account of a man's sense of loss and of his difficulty to come to
terms with the absence of a loved woman. The narrator, hearing the voice of the woman he loved but
who is now absent from his life, addresses her directly and is led to happily and in a very touching way
reminisce in the second stanza about his past with her; however, there is then a shift in tone in the third
stanza, as he is brought back to earth whilst questioning the probability of really hearing this woman's
voice. Finally, in the fourth stanza, we leave him struggling with his sense of loss.
The poem starts with "Woman much missed," thus immediately introducing the notion of a sense of
loss. This sense of loss is not an acute pain but rather a soft ache: this impression of softness is
emphasized by the use of soft sounds such as "w" and "m" as well as the repetition of "call to me" at
the end of the line. The flowing rhythm (the only form of punctuation within the stanza are commas)
also suggests that the narrator's thoughts are rather more pleasant than painful. The repetition of "call to
me" with its echoing quality also serves to place emphasis on the subject of the narrator's
preoccupation: the narrator cannot escape from the woman's voice; it is incessantly present in his mind.
In the next three lines, we learn what it is that this voice is saying to the narrator. An opposition is
drawn in the state of the poet and the woman's relationship at different times. This opposition is made
explicit by the key words "now" (l.2), "when" (l.3 and 4) and "at first" as well as the use of the past and
present tenses for instance in "now you are not as you were" (l.2). The woman was "all to me,", then
she "changed", and now, she says she has changed again. We do not know the reason why the woman
is no more "all to" the narrator until later on in the poem. However what is clear is that the narrator
misses the time when "our day was fair." The last word is emphasized by the fact that it does not fit the
rhyming pattern that had been set in the first three lines (one expects a word rhyming with "were").
Moreover, as this voice is in the narrator's head, it is highly probable that what it is saying is wishful
thinking on his part: he wants things back as they stood "at first."
The 5th line's question "Can it be you that I hear"" confirms the impression that at the back of the
narrator's mind, his reason recognizes what the voice is saying as being impossible. This doubt leads to
a logical statement "let me see you, then." However, the narrator is not unwilling to listen to the voice
of reason: he would rather reminisce, and the ambivalence of the word "then" banishes reason from his
mind as he willingly returns to fond memories. The semi-colon followed by the decisive word "yes"
(l.7) show that reminiscence has confirmed his desire to see her again. Moreover, the exclamation mark
after "Even to the original air-blue gown!" shows the narrator's emotion and how affected he is by his
memories.
In the 3rd stanza, the narrator realizes that he has been carried away and returns to being more
reasonable. In this stanza, the narrator is suddenly aware of elements around him ( "the breeze", "the
wet mead") and of the fact that things cannot change as he had been wishfully thinking beforehand (
this impression is emphasized by the finality in the terms "ever", and "no more again,", and in the terms
"far of near"). This finality suggests that his beloved woman is dead and that is why the narrator no
longer has such a close relationship with her.
This return to reality is even more strongly marked in the last stanza. Indeed, the rhythm that had up till
now been flowing is suddenly halting, as every word practically is stressed (in line 13, "thus I; faltering
forward,"). Moreover, the notion of effort is reflected by the word "faltering", by the alliteration in "f";
the narrator probably finds it hard to live on without the woman he loves. There are two ways of
interpreting the last line "And the woman calling." Either he is still thinking about his lover, or he is
trying to ignore this voice in his head. One can also notice that the woman in no longer directly
addressed in this last stanza ("the woman", opposed to "you" in the first two stanzas. This shows that
we are not witnessing the narrator's thoughts anymore. Maybe it has become too painful for him to
share them with us; maybe his sense of loss is too delicate. Anyhow, we are left with the image of the
narrator symbolically struggling against the wind as he is struggling with his overwhelming sense of
loss.
In this poem, the poet very effectively and touchingly portrays the pain that comes with the realization
that a loved one will never be seen again, that the special relationship that there was has been lost
forever. the intensity of the emotion expressed in the poem makes me feel that the narrator is in fact the
poet, but the expression of the pain of loss as well as the portrayal of little cherished details in a
relationship in the poem are definitely of universal value.