Thomas Hardy's poetry - study guide
Introduction
I have written this study guide for students taking GCE Advanced level
(AS and A2) courses in English literature, and other comparable literature
courses. It is suitable for undergraduates and the general reader who is
interested in the study of poetry. This guide was originally written to
cover a selection of poems prescribed as a set text for exams at GCE
Ordinary and GCSE level. But it can be used as a way in to the study of
Thomas Hardy's poems generally.
About Thomas Hardy
Hardy lived from 1840 to 1928. He was the son of a mason, from Dorset,
in the south west of England. He studied to be an architect, and worked in
this profession for many years. He also began to write prose fiction. His
first effort (The Poor Man and the Lady) was never published, but his
second novel was published in 1871. This was Desperate Remedies. It
was not well-received, but the next book, Under the Greenwood Tree
(1872), did better. Hardy eventually published many novels - these vary
in merit but include many which are established as masterpieces of
English fiction: Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native,
The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders, Tess of the d'Urbervilles
and Jude the Obscure.
Hardy enjoyed commercial success, but his work proved controversial,
and his publishers continually tried to tone it down. Critics savagely
condemned his last two novels, Jude and Tess (as they are abbreviated for
convenience). Hardy no longer needed to write prose fiction for a living the royalties from his existing work gave him more than enough security.
He had always preferred poetry - and believed that he was better as a
writer in this form. He wrote verse throughout his life, but did not publish
a volume until Wessex Poems and Other Verses (for which he did his
own illustrations) appeared in 1898. Hardy certainly made up for lost
time, eventually publishing six collections of verse as well as the huge
poetic drama, The Dynasts, of which the first part appeared in 1904.
Thomas Hardy was married twice - his first marriage, long and mostly
unhappy, was to Emma Gifford. They married in 1874. Emma died in
1912, and in 1914 Hardy married his secretary, Florence Dugdale, who
later became his biographer. Hardy died in 1928, aged 87. He had asked
to be laid beside Emma, but his body was buried in Poet's Corner in
Westminster Abbey. Only his heart was placed in Emma's grave - or was
it? There is a curious story that his housekeeper placed the heart on the
kitchen table, where his sister's cat seized it, and ran off into the nearby
woods. In this version of events, a pig's heart was duly buried beside
Emma.
War poems
Hardy wrote poems at the times of the second Boer War of 1899-1902
and the Great War of 1914-1918. Some poems obviously reflect these
particular conflicts (Drummer Hodge and Channel Firing, for example).
But others, though written at the time, have a more general relevance such as The Man He Killed and In Time of “The Breaking of Nations”.
This is not accidental - Hardy explicitly tried to relate specific historical
conflicts to a wider historical scheme. He attempted to do this in a grand
or epic poetic drama of the Napoleonic Wars - The Dynasts (which has
three parts, nineteen acts and one hundred and thirty scenes). In this he
also relates the great moments of history to the lives of ordinary people.
Hardy's war poems show a great diversity of attitude. We cannot, on their
evidence alone, identify a clear-cut opinion of war to which Hardy keeps
consistently. Channel Firing presents a horribly pessimistic view of man's
bellicose stupidity. In Time of “The Breaking of Nations” is triumphantly
optimistic in asserting the fact that the good things of everyday life will
survive when wars are long forgotten.
The Going of the Battery captures the sadness (for those left behind) that
war brings, but no criticism of war is stated or implied. The reference to
“Honour” in the fourth stanza suggests that the soldiers' cause is worth
fighting for.
In Drummer Hodge, while he shows the tragedy and waste of war, and
perhaps implies that Hodge's sacrifice is rendered futile by his ignorance
of the land over which he is fighting, yet Hardy makes no explicit
criticism of war.
In The Man He Killed, on the other hand, Hardy's skilful device of the
narrator's vain attempt to justify his action is an obvious indictment of
war, as it is clear that he has no reason to kill his “foe”.
The Going of the Battery
This poem is about what happens when a group of soldiers and their field
guns leave for service overseas. The guns collectively are the “battery” of
the title, though this noun normally includes also the men who operate
them - an artillery company. They are travelling by train to a port of
embarkation for service overseas - probably South Africa, and the poem
appears to have a setting at the time of the second Boer War.
The sub-title points us to the fact that a narrator (who is one of the
deserted wives) speaks the poem. Hardy's concern in this poem is not
really with war as such, so much as with the effect on the wives of the
departure of their men folk. The poem is written in the first person as if
spoken by the wife of a soldier: this is evidence of Hardy's trying to see
the situation through the eyes of the women so deeply affected by the
leaving of the men.
The jaunty rhythm, internal rhyme (in the first and third line of each
stanza) and frequent alliteration ( “through mirk and through mire”;
“great guns were gleaming” ) echo the brisk marching pace of the
soldiers. However the highly contrived rhyme and the stilted (artificial)
syntax to which it leads (as in the penultimate stanza) make the narrator's
mode of address seem somewhat unnatural. We do not (as we do with
The Man He Killed) have a clear and immediate sense of the narrator's
character.
Commentary
Stanza 1
Knowing that soldiers are “light in their loving” (inconstant), the narrator
acknowledges how foolish she and her friends have been to choose such
men as husbands, even without the additional hardship of losing them to
uncertain battle in a distant country. Note the internal rhyme: “sad ...
mad”, “choosing ... loosing”. This will recur in every stanza.
Stanza 2
Undeterred by the driving rain the women walk through the blackness
and through the mud underfoot. The despondency of the women as they
trudge along is contrasted with the enthusiasm and eagerness of their men
folk “stepping steadily - only too readily!” , almost as if the men do not
realize that the swifter their pace, the sooner will come the parting from
their wives. This fact does not apparently cross the soldiers' minds, or, if
it does, they are not unduly concerned about it.
Stanza 3
“There” in the first line, is not identified, but is evidently a station or
point of entrainment (getting on the train). To the narrator's eye, the field
guns, draped in tarpaulins, resemble monstrous animals: “living things
seeming there”. This personification (or more precisely animation) of the
guns is developed by the references to mouths ( “upmouthed” ) and
“throats”: an apt image not only because they are round and open, but
also because, though they are yet still (“blank of sound” ) they are
“prophetic to sight” . We can see that they will, in due course, be heard.
Stanza 4
The gas-light, obscured by the driving rain, sheds faint and eerie light on
the faces of the wives ( “pale” both because of the faint light, and because
they are chilled and fearful) as they wait for a farewell kiss and embrace
their men, entreating them ( “a last quest” = a last request) not to seek
danger which can honourably be avoided: to be brave but not foolhardy.
The use of the word “court” may be inadvertent on the narrator's part, but
Hardy evidently is aware of the sense in which the army is a rival of the
wives for the affections of their men, who “court” danger in battle as
eagerly as they might once have in a literal sense courted their wives and
sweethearts.
Stanza 5
The train, bearing all the men of the battery, ( “all we loved” ) moves out,
and the women sigh audibly, their eyes blinded (with tears, to say nothing
of the rain and the gloom). As they retrace their steps - slowly now and
alone - the women pray for the safety of their men. Note the clumsiness
that the internal rhyme creates in the highly stilted third line of this
stanza.
Stanza 6
One of the women despairingly voices her fear that the men will never
return, but the narrator contradicts this fear and asserts that God or
benevolent fate ( “some Hand” ) will guard the ways of the men and bring
them home safely sooner or later. This assertion suggests a confidence
that the narrator wishes to have but which may not really be so assured.
The first and last stanzas of the poem make it clear that the narrator is
anxious about the fate of the men. She asserts her hope that they will be
safe, almost as if to invoke protection over them: she must realize that
soldiers are, in fact, often killed or wounded in battle.
Stanza 7
The pathos of the women's position is shown skilfully in this stanza in the
presentation of the contrasting hopes and fears of the wives. In the night,
“when life beats are low” , the women are the prey of “voices” (their own
imaginations or malicious spirits?) that “hint” at a less happy lot for their
men folk. The narrator and her companions, however, try to be brave and
to wait in trust (in “some Hand” protecting the men) to see what will
happen in the end.
The poem only refers to war insomuch as it represents danger to the men
and so, possible heartbreak to their wives. There is neither suggestion that
war is wrong, nor patriotic celebration of battle: the cause for which the
men are fighting is apparently immaterial. It is merely implied by the
contrasting attitudes of the men and their wives that war is exciting to
soldiers but distressing to their wives, who try to come to terms with this
distress, realizing that marrying soldiers necessarily involves such risks as
they now face.
Discussing the poem
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Does this poem show the women's point of view, the men's or both
equally?
What things in the poem make it seem very old? Which things are
still relevant?
Explain how this poem shows the effect of war on ordinary people.
How convincing is the suggestion in the poem that some “Hand”
will guard the men?
Drummer Hodge
This economical and very restrained poem contains no explicit (clearly
stated) condemnation of war, but the implied criticism can hardly be
missed. The language of the poem is for the most part simple and natural
and conveys with clarity what befalls Hodge.
Drummers were usually the very youngest of soldiers, considered too
young to fight. This drummer has a name that was once used as a kind of
nickname or disrespectful term for people from the country (like
“bumpkin” or “yokel” ). Hardy does not support this kind of prejudice,
and intends no ridicule here.
The poem tells of a West Country boy, who has fallen in battle in South
Africa, during the Boer War. The strangeness of the terrain, of the soil
even, and of the constellations that nightly appear over Hodge's grave is
repeatedly stressed. Hardy uses Afrikaans words to emphasize this
strangeness. The poem is restrained but evokes great sympathy for
Hodge. From clues that Hardy works skilfully into the verse account we
can work out a great amount of information about what has happened.
Detailed commentary
Stanza 1
“They” are not identified but are evidently Hodge's fellow soldiers,
members of a burial detail. The use of the monosyllabic pronoun is most
economical. Hodge is thrown, not lowered with dignity and military
honours, into his grave. He is not even placed in a coffin (there is no time,
or inclination from his superiors, to find one) and he is buried “just as
found” (a phrase better suited to an object than a person). It as if his body
has not even been properly laid out, a suggestion confirmed by his being
thrown into the ground. Hodge is given no headstone to mark the site of
his burial, and the only landmark to show the position of his grave is the
“kopje crest/That breaks the veldt around” . The foreignness, to Hodge, of
his resting place is emphasised by the use of Afrikaans terms such as
“kopje” and “veldt” , and by the strangeness, to him, of the stars that rise
nightly over his grave. The reference to the stars recurs in the remaining
stanzas of the poem, providing a kind of linking motif.
Stanza 2
The contrast between the simple English boy, “Young Hodge the
Drummer”, fresh from his West Country home, and his remote and alien
resting-place is further developed in the references to:
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the “Karoo” (another Afrikaans term),
the scrub and barren soil, and,
the foreign constellations which Hodge would have witnessed
before his death, but too rarely for him to come to know them.
Stanza 3
Yet, despite his ignorance of his surroundings, Hodge will now be a part
of the South African veldt forever. His remains will nourish the roots of
“some Southern tree”. This stanza, too, ends with a reference to the alien
constellations, which will “reign” forever over Hodge's grave.
The pathos of Hodge's fate is made more striking by the restrained
manner in which Hardy relates his burial. The young man's innocence
and youth make his premature death seem all the more wasteful.
Discussing the poem
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The subject of the poem is a teenager - does this make a difference
to its effect on you?
How does Hardy show the strangeness of the foreign land where
Hodge is killed?
What is interesting in Hardy's language in the poem?
How does Hardy use references to the natural world to explain
Hodge's situation?
What do you think of this poem?
Things to comment on
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Hodge's name - to some a snobbish term for a country “bumpkin”,
but not to Hardy, who is sympathetic.
The details of Hodge's burial - is it dignified? What is missing?
What we learn of the battle - for what strategic position is it
fought? Why all the hurry in the burial?
The shortness of Hodge's service before his death - his
unfamiliarity with the country and its soil. Why is this important?
The way Hardy uses Afrikaans words in the poem to show this.
The irony of Hodge's being a part of this alien land forever.
The repeated references to the stars.
The presence or absence of comment on war in itself in the poem.
The economy of the poem - how much does Hardy manage to say
in these eighteen lines?
Rhyme and metre.
What you think of the poem, and why?
The Man He Killed
Superficially a simple, uncomplicated piece, this is, in fact, a very skilful
poem heavily laden with irony and making interesting use of
colloquialism (writing in the manner of speech). The title is slightly odd,
as Hardy uses the third-person pronoun “He”, though the poem is
narrated in the first person. The “He” of the title (the “I” of the poem) is
evidently a soldier attempting to explain and perhaps justify his killing of
another man in battle.
Detailed commentary
In the first stanza the narrator establishes the common ground between
himself and his victim: in more favourable circumstances they could have
shared hospitality together. This idea is in striking contrast to that in the
second stanza: the circumstances in which the men did meet. “Ranged as
infantry” suggests that the men are not natural foes but have been
“ranged”, that is set against each other (by someone else's decision). The
phrase “as he at me” indicates the similarity of their situations.
In the third stanza the narrator gives his reason for shooting the supposed
enemy. The conversational style of the poem enables Hardy to repeat the
word “because”, implying hesitation, and therefore doubt, on the part of
the narrator. He cannot at first easily think of a reason. When he does so,
the assertion ( “because he was my foe” ) is utterly unconvincing. The
speaker has already made clear the sense in which the men were foes: an
artificial enmity created by others. “Of course” and “That's clear enough”
are blatantly ironic: the enmity is not a matter of course, the claim is far
from “clear” to the reader, and the pretence of assurance on the narrator's
part is destroyed by his admission beginning “although…”
The real reason for the victim's enlistment in the army, like the narrator's,
is far from being connected with patriotic idealism and belief in his
country's cause. The soldier's joining was partly whimsical (“Off-hand
like”) and partly the result of economic necessity: he was unemployed
and had already sold off his possessions. He did not enlist for any other
reason.
The narrator concludes with a repetition of the contrast between his
treatment of the man he killed and how he might have shared hospitality
with him in other circumstances, or even been ready to extend charity to
him. He prefaces this with the statement that war is “quaint and curious”,
as if to say, “a funny old thing”. This tends to show war as innocuous and
acceptable, but the events narrated in the poem, as well as the reader's
general knowledge of war, make it clear that conflict is far from “quaint
and curious” and Hardy employs the terms with heavy irony, knowing
full well how inaccurate such a description really is.
This is a rather bitter poem showing the stupidity of war, and demolishing
belief in the patriotic motives of those who confront one another in battle.
The narrator finds no good reason for his action; Hardy implies that there
is no good reason. The short lines, simple rhyme scheme, and everyday
language make the piece almost nursery rhyme like in simplicity, again in
ironic contrast to its less than pleasant subject.
Discussing the poem
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Does Hardy share the views of the speaker in the poem?
How different and how similar are the two men in the poem? What
do they have in common?
Comment on Hardy's use of colloquial writing (writing like speech)
in this poem.
Why does the soldier say that war is “quaint and curious” ? Does
Hardy want the reader to agree with this view?
Things to comment on
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The title: why third person “He” for a poem narrated in the firstperson?
What makes it clear that the narrator is not Hardy? Who is he and
what sort of person?
What does the narrator suggest would have happened if he and his
victim had met socially in a public-house? Why was the outcome
of their meeting in fact very different?
In what sense were the two men enemies?
What is suggested by the repetition of “because”? How convinced
are we by “just so”, “of course” and “that's clear enough”? How is
any force these might have undermined by “although...”?
Do the men have any real enmity or quarrel of their own, or do
they fight to sort out someone else's differences? If so, whose?
What does the narrator guess to be the reason why his victim
joined up? Why has the narrator joined up? How alike are their
situations supposed by him to be?
What is the usual sense of the words “quaint and curious”? Is war
really ’ or does the narrator say this to avoid some less pleasant
description, in the light of what he has done?
What does Hardy achieve by having this “told” by an ordinary,
simple man, rather than writing in an obviously literary, possibly
too intellectual manner?
Most of the words are familiar; the ones which are not are clearly
slang words. Does this mean the poem, too, is simple? Can you
find evidence of how its simplicity on the surface hides real skill in
the writing?
How well does Hardy give the reader a sense of a real foot-soldier's
speaking. When read aloud, is it even obviously a poem? How
easily can we overlook the rhyme and metre?
The soldier calls war “quaint and curious”: is this what Hardy
believes, too?
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What do you think of this poem, and why?
Channel Firing
This humorous treatment of war is savagely critical in its scornful
condemnation of man's incorrigible desire for conflict.
Detailed commentary
The poem is spoken in the first person by one of the dead buried in a
church, in which the windows have been shattered by the report (noise
and vibration) of guns being fired for “practice” in the English Channel.
So great is the disturbance that the skeletons believe Judgement Day (and
so, the resurrection of the dead) to have come. In a gruesomely comical
picture, they are represented as suddenly sitting up in readiness for the
great day.
The humour takes an irreverent turn as Hardy introduces God to the
proceedings, reassuring the corpses that it is not time for the Judgement
Day but merely “gunnery practice”, adding that the world is as it was
when the dead men “went below” to their graves. That is to say, every
country is trying to make its methods of destruction more efficient, and
shed more blood, making “red war yet redder”. God sees the living as
insane and no more ready to exercise Christian love than are the dead,
who are obviously now “helpless in such matters”. In other words, the
living, too, do nothing “for Christes sake”. Note how the archaic (old
fashioned) spelling adds to the humour of the piece.
God continues, observing that those responsible for the “gunnery
practice” are fortunate that it is not the day of judgement. If it were, their
bellicose (warlike) threats would be punished by their having to scour the
floor of Hell. While the suggested punishment is somewhat ridiculous,
and so comic, it is almost a fitting one. Certainly Hell seems the
appropriate place for the war makers. With a hint of malice God suggests
that He will ensure that His judgement day is far hotter. He concedes that
He may not bother, though, as eternal rest seems more suited to the
human condition. The scriptural image of the blowing of the trumpet that
signals the end of the world seems rather comic when God Himself uses
it literally.
When God's remarks are finished, the skeletons voice their own opinions
of the gunnery practice, wondering if man will ever achieve sanity (that
is, a rejection of armed conflict. Significantly, while many of the
skeletons nod as if to suggest that man will never learn, the parson regrets
having spent his life giving sermons which have had no effect on his
congregation: “preaching forty year” has made no difference to his
hearers.
The final stanza of the poem drops the somewhat surrealistic humour of
the preceding lines. Instead, Hardy writes of the threatening sound of the
guns, ready “to avenge” (to avenge what?). It resounds far inland, as far
as the places he names. Hardy does not refer to these landmarks merely to
provide authentic local detail: by invoking the dead civilisations of the
past Hardy sets the poem in a far more expansive historical time-scale.
Perhaps he further suggests that civilisations (including his own?) are
doomed because man's nature never makes any moral advance.
Although the poem is comical, the humour is of a grisly kind, and
“Channel Firing” is not a light-hearted piece. The humour is meant
seriously, to show the stupidity of those who wish to make war. While the
passages spoken by God are rather comically stilted, the narrator's
contribution is written in an un-affected, natural and unobtrusive manner,
which, with the simple iambic tetrameter and simple ABAB rhyme
scheme make the argument of the poem easy to follow. It is not hampered
by the kind of stylistic clumsiness from which, say, The Going of the
Battery suffers, nor the affected, rather inflated vocabulary of To an
Unborn Pauper Child.
Discussing the poem
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How does the poem use humour to make serious points about war?
Comment on the way Hardy presents a conversation among a
group of dead people and God.
In what way is this a pessimistic poem (seeing the worst in a
situation)?
What does the poem tell us of man's progress?
Why might Hardy want to refer to civilizations from the distant
past?
Things to comment on
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The narrator - how does Hardy make a joke out of taking the
phrase about “waking the dead” literally, not figuratively?
The way Hardy depicts the general resurrection on the Day of
Judgement very literally, and shows God, in somewhat Old
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Testament terms, as a kind of stern headmasterly figure, thinking
up suitable punishments for those who threaten war.
Writing about God in this way - it is humorously irreverent, and
writing of speaking corpses is in doubtful taste; does this mean the
poem, as a whole, is not serious? Is the humour used to criticise
someone? If so, who?
The way both God and one of the dead men refer to war as a kind
of madness: do you think Hardy shares this view?
How the dead men compare the present to the earlier time when
they were alive; in the last stanza Hardy refers to places associated
with different stages of civilisation going back to ancient times:
why is he bringing history into the argument?
Rhyme and metre, which are very strong and obvious throughout
most of the poem (more subtle in the last, serious, stanza): how
does this strengthen the humour?
In Time of “The Breaking of Nations”
This is a simple and unpretentious piece marked by a rather
uncharacteristic optimism that is in clear contrast to the resigned, almost
fatalistic, character of Channel Firing. Hardy presents the reader with a
series of three impressionistic glimpses or cameos of everyday, rural life
and suggests that these will persist, unchanged, while kingdoms rise and
fall, and long after the details of the various wars have been forgotten.
Detailed commentary
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First Hardy shows us an old horse being led along, slowly, as it
breaks up the clods of earth with a harrow. Both the animal and the
man leading it walk half asleep. The slowness of the harrowing and
the silence of the scene create a sense of peacefulness.
Next Hardy describes the equally slow and peaceful burning of the
weeds, which, he asserts, will continue despite the passing of
“Dynasties”.
Finally, he depicts as girl and her lover, also silent as they whisper,
and assures us that their story will outlast the stories of war.
Hardy shows these three simple and everyday details of the scene to
represent:
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work (seen as work of an agricultural nature, for it is this which
sustains life) and
love (which also sustains the life of the human race).
These things, the poet claims, will survive, in spite of “Dynasties” and
“wars”.
This is an unusually optimistic poem, but the optimism is asserted rather
than reasoned: perhaps Hardy implies that the things he describes are so
fundamental and natural to human existence that they must survive,
whereas kingdoms and wars are not essential to man's life - a very
different conclusion from that drawn in Channel Firing.
Discussing the poem
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Explain the scenes that Hardy describes in this poem. Why does he
choose them?
Is this an optimistic or pessimistic poem in your view? Why is
this?
Comment on effects of language in this poem.
What kind of mood does Hardy create in this poem? How does he
do so?
Are work and love more important than war?
Things to comment on
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The three details of which the complete picture is composed; what
do these scenes typify? What is Hardy saying about work, the
natural world, love?
The tranquillity (peacefulness) of this scene. Why might this be
important?
How far the scene belongs to any particular time and how far it is
timeless.
Use of the word “Only” (twice), of soft consonantal sounds,
especially “Is”, and of archaic (old) vocabulary.
What you think of this poem.
Comparing war poems
In comparing the poems together, you may, for example,
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Say which you like or dislike most, and why.
Look at viewpoint (for instance, is there a narrator or not?)
Explore use of language - is it simple or literary, colloquial, oldfashioned and so on?
See how far an attitude to war is stated or implied (suggested).
See whether the poems are optimistic and pessimistic in outlook.
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Consider whether the poems are set in a particular war or look at
war generally.
Decide whether Hardy looks, in the poems, at great commanders
and war heroes or at ordinary people.
Poems about Emma
In these poems Hardy explores the guilt he feels for his neglect of Emma,
his first wife, over the latter years of their marriage. He uses his writing to
absolve himself of this guilt and come to terms with it.
The Going
The Going, like most of the pieces in this section, is written in the first
person - here Hardy evidently speaks for himself. The poem is in the form
of a monologue addressed to Emma, containing many questions. She
alone can give the answers.
Detailed commentary
Hardy asks Emma why she did not alert him to her imminent death, but
left him “as if indifferent quite” to his feelings, without bidding him
farewell: neither softly speaking words of parting, nor even asking him to
speak a last word to her. He notes how, as the day dawned, he was
unaware of what was happening to his wife, and of how this “altered all”.
Hardy asks Emma why she compels him to go outside, making him think,
momentarily, that he sees her figure in the dusk, in the place where she
used to stand, but ultimately distressing him as, in the gathering gloom,
he sees only “yawning blankness” and not the familiar figure of Emma.
Turning back to the days when Emma's youth and beauty captivated him,
Hardy wonders why, in later years, the joys of their courtship were
neither remembered nor revived. He imagines how they might have
rekindled their love by revisiting the places where they met while
courting.
Finally Hardy concedes that what has happened cannot be changed and
that he is as good as dead, waiting for the end ( “to sink down soon” )
and, in conclusion, informs Emma that she could not know how so
sudden and unexpected a passing as hers could distress him as much as it
has.
The metre of the poem is surprisingly lively, though the rhythm breaks
down in the disjointed syntax and brief sentences of the final stanza. The
brief rhyming couplet in the penultimate two lines of each stanza
exaggerate this jauntiness, which seems rather inappropriate to the subject
of the piece.
Though the reader sympathises with Hardy's evident grief, it is difficult
not to be a little impatient with his tendency to wallow in self-pity. He
reproaches Emma for leaving him, and thinks despairingly of his and her
failure to rekindle, in later years, their youthful affection. Yet we feel that
this is a tragedy largely of his own making. He has, after all, had some
forty years in which to “seek/That time's renewal”. The fact that he
expresses regret at his failure to do so only when the possibility has been
removed by Emma's death casts doubt upon the sincerity of his grief.
The Haunter
Imaginatively, and most pathetically, Hardy writes this plaintive and
moving poem from the point of view of Emma. It is written in the first
person, with her as the imaginary narrator. It is almost as if, in putting
these words in the mouth of Emma (who, in the poem, sees Hardy as
oblivious of her presence) Hardy is trying to reassure himself that she
forgives him and continues to love him.
Detailed commentary
Though Hardy does not know it, Emma's phantom follows him in his
meanderings, hearing, but unable to respond to, the remarks he addresses
to her in his grief. When Emma was able to answer Hardy did not address
her so frankly; when she expressed a wish to accompany him Hardy
would become reluctant to go anywhere - but now he does wish she were
with him. She is, but he does not know this, even though he speaks as if
to Emma's “faithful phantom”.
Hardy's deep love of nature appears in his choice of the places where he
walks, the haunts of those given to reverie (daydreaming or
contemplation): where the hares leave their footprints, or the nocturnal
haunts of rooks. He also visits “old aisles” - are these literally the aisles
of churches or natural pathways in woods and copses? In all these places
Emma's ghost keeps as close as “his shade can do”. “Shade” is
ambiguous: it is used here to mean “shadow” (Emma is as close as his
own shadow to Hardy) but the term more usually means “ghost” - which
is evidently very appropriate here. Again, Emma notes that she cannot
speak to Hardy, however hard she may strive to do so.
Emma implores the reader to inform Hardy of what she is doing, with the
almost desperate imperative: “O tell him!” She attends to his merest sigh,
doing “all that love can do” in the hope that “his path” may be worth the
attention she lavishes on it, and in the hope that she may bring peace to
Hardy's life. The lyrical trochaic metre and subtly linked rhyme scheme
seem in keeping with the optimistic content of the poem, unlike The
Going, in which the liveliness jars with the sombre, self-pitying character
of the piece. In The Going Hardy reproaches Emma, for leaving him
without warning. Here he celebrates her essential fidelity and
benevolence, which she retains, even in death. While the idea of Emma as
the faithful phantom is, of course, entirely fanciful, it is strikingly
plaintive and touching.
The Voice
As in The Haunter Hardy imagines Emma trying to communicate with
him. The poem is in the first person, and Hardy is the speaker, imagining
that Emma calls to him. She tells him that she is not the woman she had
become after forty years of marriage, but has regained the beauty of her
youth, of the time when her and Hardy's “day was fair”.
Detailed commentary
Imagining he can indeed hear her, Hardy implores Emma to appear to
him, in the place and wearing the same clothes that he associates with
their early courtship. Hardy introduces, in the third stanza, the mocking
fear that all he hears is the wind and that Emma's death has marked the
end of her existence - that she has been “dissolved” and will be “heard no
more”.
The lively anapaestic metre of the first three stanzas gives way, in the
final stanza, to a less fluent rhythm, capturing the desolate mood of Hardy
as he falters forward, while the leaves fall and the north wind blows, as
Emma (if it is she) continues to call.
The poem begins optimistically with a hope that Emma is really
addressing Hardy. But by the end, a belief or fear that the “voice” is
imaginary has replaced this hope. Though the vigorous anapaestic metre
of the poem helps convey this initial hope, it proves unwieldy for Hardy,
as is evident in the clumsy third stanza, where “listlessness” rhymes with
Hardy's unfortunate coinage (invented word) “existlessness”, and we find
the gauche and repetitious phrase “no more again” in the stanza's final
line.
Philosophical and personal poems
During Wind and Rain
In this poem Hardy contrasts the happiness of his now dead wife's
childhood with the inevitability of time's victory. The seven lines of each
stanza of the four-stanza poem tell of different aspects of Emma's life
with her family. The final lines of each stanza, however, speak of decay
and death.
Detailed commentary
Stanza 1
In the first stanza the family gather round the piano to “sing their dearest
songs” - here Hardy evokes a memory of music - and then we are
reminded of how living things change and fade:
“Ah,
no;
the
years
O!
How the sick leaves reel down in throngs.”
The music has now been changed to the sound of the dead autumnal
leaves being blown by the wind - “Reel” has the sense of leaves falling
and being whirled by the wind, together with being a type of song
suitable for a group of people gathered round a piano. The final word
“throngs” has something of the sound of dry leaves being brushed
together, or falling against one another.
Stanza 2
In the second stanza the family - “elders and juniors” - work in the garden
to make “the pathways neat/And the gardens gay.” However, these
energies are as nothing in the face of time because “the white storm birds
wing across the sky;” the birds' appearance means that the dark
thunderstorm is coming.
Stanza 3
The third stanza sees the family “blithely breakfasting all” but the wind
removes the dead rose from the wall in line 7. The alliterative effect of
“rotten rose is ript,” together with the harsh finality of “ript”, suggests the
wind's strength and the decayed flower's fragility.
Stanza 4
In the fourth stanza the happy family has prospered and is moving to “a
high new house.” Their possessions - which indicate they live in some
comfort (but not extreme luxury) are scattered on the lawn all day, during
the happy confusion of the move. Although they possess the “brightest
things” ultimately the “rain-drop ploughs” down the carved names on
their tombstones.
Hardy's technique
In this poem Hardy adopts an almost mathematical precision in his
rhythm and in his choice of words. The second line of each stanza, for
instance, lists the members of the family:




“He, she, all of them” stanzas 1 and 4,
“Elders and juniors” stanza 2,
“Men and maidens” stanza 3,
and each stanza begins with “they”.
The final lines of stanzas 1 and 3 can be seen as being references to the
wind of the title, whilst the final lines of stanzas 2 and 4 refer to the rain.
The penultimate line of stanzas 1 and 3 ( “Ah, no; the years O!” ) is
modified in stanzas 2 and 4 to “Ah, no; the years, the years”. And the
final word of the second line in stanzas 1 and 3 is “yea”, anagrammatised
to “aye” in stanzas 12 and 4.
At the same time the main lively business of each stanza, the first five
lines, refers to times of bright happiness - times, almost always, which are
spent outdoors - indicating the seasons of spring or summer. Whereas the
final line invariably evokes the colder seasons of autumn and winter.
Hardy uses the annual changes as a metaphor for the changes in the
human condition which, in reality, take a number of years; but the
inevitability of each stanza's final two lines is like the inevitability of
death.
Although During Wind and Rain was written during the months after
Emma's death, and describes incidents from Emma's past, it does not
belong thematically to the series of poems from The Going to Beeny
Cliff. In those poems Hardy is facing his guilt and remorse over the
reality of his marriage to Emma, and creating a myth of their life: in the
Cornwall poems he goes on an emotional journey, getting closer and
closer to Emma “as at first when our day was fair” (The Voice, line 4)
and reliving their relationship of forty years before. During Wind and
Rain has a different concern. This elegy was apparently inspired by
Emma's account of her childhood in Plymouth - which Hardy read after
her death - and by his visit to Plymouth and her old home. But it is far
more than a personal poem; it is a lament for the destruction and oblivion
which time brings to everything.
The poem's universality
The poem is a series of pictures of typical incidents in the life of an
ordinary family:




Stanza 1: the family sing songs by candlelight, one playing a
musical instrument;
Stanza 2: they work in the garden clearing moss, tidying paths and
building a seat;
Stanza 3: they breakfast in summer under a tree from where they
can see the bay, and pet fowl come to their knees;
Stanza 4: they move house and all their possessions are laid out on
the lawn all day.
As in, In Time of “The Breaking of Nations”, it is the sense of the simple
and ordinary, combined with a lack of particularity in the images, which
gives the poem its universality.
Structure
In this poem Hardy's sense of structure is seen at its best. The four verses
are all constructed alike.



The first five lines of each verse describe a typical moment of
family life.
The second line of each set of five is a semi-refrain in which it is
the sense which is repeated rather than the words: “He, she, all of
them - yea, “ “Elders and juniors - aye”, “Men and maidens - yea,”
“He, she, all of them - aye.” Each of these lines suggests a family
or natural domestic random group of people of different sexes and
ages, and each ends with an affirmative: “yea” or “aye”, meaning
“yes”.
After each five-line description there is a full refrain line varied
slightly in alternate stanzas: “Ah no; the years O!” “Ah, no; the
years, the years.” The “yes” of the preceding lines is cancelled out
by the “no” and the “years”; the refrain suggests the passing of

time and emphasises the fact that all the aspects of life portrayed in
the preceding lines are subject to time's destruction.
This refrain is followed by a longer last line, which stresses the
theme and contains a multiplicity of associations.
o In “How the sick leaves reel down in throngs,” “sick”
suggests decay of death, “reel” suggests lack of control, and
“throngs” suggests enormous quantities.
o “See the white storm-birds wing across!” is visually vivid
and suggests the imminence of a storm.
o “And the rotten rose is ript from the wall” derives part of its
power from the alliteration. “Rotten” suggests the decay of
death and time, and is especially powerful when related to
the “rose” normally dealt with by poets as a thing of beauty.
The verb “ript” suggests the destructive violence and power
of time.
o The last line, “Down their carved names the rain-drop
ploughs,” is the only one that makes it clear that the people
described are dead. It shows not only that are people subject
to time's destruction but also that they face oblivion, for even
their names are erased from their tombstones by the endless
processes of nature. The verb “ploughs” is particularly apt,
suggesting the idea of forceful and relentless action.
Rhyme and metre
Rhyme is also a significant part of the construction. Each verse is rhymed
a b c b c d a so the first and last lines are held together by rhyme
emphasising the contrast. Each second line - the semi-refrain line rhymes with the fourth line of each stanza, which is part of the descriptive
first half, and is the same rhyme throughout the poem. This has the effect
of emphasising continuity: each of the four distinct memories hands on a
rhyme to the next verse - “yea/play”, “aye/gay”, “yea/bay”, “aye/day”.
The whole poem is very like a song, especially in the refrain lines and the
last lines of each verse. The rhythm is broadly iambic, though the number
of syllables in the corresponding lines varies.
Alliteration
Alliteration is important in these pictures: “garden gay”, “blithely
breakfasting”, “clocks and carpets and chairs” and “high new house”
capture in sound as well as sense the contentment, and perhaps the
complacency, of life.
The Darkling Thrush
Stanza 1




How does Hardy establish a sense of time, place and mood in this
stanza?
Consider the time of year (and of the century), the time of day, and
the place where the poet finds himself.
Why does Hardy tell the reader that other people who might have
been present: “Had sought their household fires?”
What is suggested to the reader by Hardy's use of the phrase
“spectre-grey” and the verb “haunted?”
Stanza 2




What does the bleak winter landscape suggest to Hardy? How is
this image developed in the next two lines?
What does “The ancient pulse of germ and birth” mean? Why is it
“Shrunken hard and dry”? How does it mirror Hardy's own mood?
Why does Hardy imagine that “every spirit upon earth” shares his
sense of spiritual desolation?
What is significant in Hardy's choice of the verb “seemed”, to
qualify his lack of fervour?
Stanza 3




What is the effect of the words “voice” and “chosen”, when
applied to the “aged thrush”?
Why is the bird's singing called “... a full-hearted evensong of joy
illimited”?
Why does Hardy inform the reader that the thrush is “aged...frail,
gaunt” and “blast-beruffled”? What light does this throw on its
joyful singing?
Why does Hardy imagine the thrush as flinging his soul “upon the
growing gloom”?
Stanza 4


Why is the bird's song described as “carolings of ... ecstatic
sound”?
What does Hardy mean by saying that “little cause” for the joyful
singing was “written on terrestrial things” ? If the cause is not

found in terrestrial things, where, by implication, might it be
found?
What conclusions does Hardy reach concerning the thrush's
inspiration? Is there any hint that Hardy would like to share the
thrush's hope?
General questions




How does Hardy suggest his own spiritual state by images of
darkness, desolation and decay in the poem?
Do you find any significance in the fact that the poem was written
on the last day of the last year of the century?
What do the thrush and the poet have in common? How are they
different in their attitude to adversity?
Do you like or dislike this poem? Give reasons for your answer.
Shut Out That Moon
This poem, one of many in which Hardy explores the ideas of time and
change, is among the most bitter and pessimistic: its argument is similar
to that of He Never Expected Much, though the conclusion drawn is far
more pessimistic.
The poem is a very formal piece, the first three stanzas reflecting on the
pleasures of the past (and their loss) and arguing against the attempt to
rediscover these, the final stanza offering a hard-headed advice for
minimising life's pain.
The poem is written in the first person, as if spoken by Hardy to another,
probably Emma, as frequent reference is made to their past shared
experiences.
Detailed commentary
Stanza 1
In the first stanza, in a series of imperatives, Hardy directs that the
window be closed and the blind drawn, so that the moon is shut out: the
reason for excluding the moonlight is the fact that it is the same
moonlight Hardy associates with past happiness. The moon is referred to
as “that stealing moon” perhaps (as the editor suggests) because it has
stolen away youth and beauty, though a more natural and idiomatic
reading would be that the moon is “stealing” (i.e. entering by stealth) into
the room, trying to enter where it is unwelcome, forcing Hardy to
remember. “Lutes” in the fourth line may be a metaphor for feelings of
love (the lute is the traditional instrument of the minstrel of mediaeval
romance) or for natural and artistic talents. These are now “strewn/With
years-deep dust” - weakened or relinquished with the passing of time.
The names of those once familiar to Hardy and Emma are now “hewn”
on “a white stone”: they have died. The moonlight is unwelcome as,
retaining the beauty it had in the past, it recalls to Hardy the time before
these unwelcome changes occurred, a time he wishes to forget, as the
memory evokes a poignant sense of loss.
Stanza 2
The formerly enjoyable pleasure shunned by Hardy in the second stanza
is that of stepping onto the dew-soaked lawn to gaze at the various
constellations. The reason for forgoing this star-gazing is that this
pleasure belongs to, and, in Hardy's mind, is inseparably linked with, the
time when “faded ones were fair”, i.e. when those people were young and
beautiful who are now devoid of beauty or of life, whichever it is which
Hardy believes to have “faded”.
Stanza 3
In the third stanza Hardy proscribes the pleasure of smelling the scent of
blossom at midnight: perhaps this is another memory of those evenings
recalled in the preceding stanza. Such sweet aromas are to be avoided
because they may evoke, or re-awaken, tender feelings, the same ones
communicated by the scent of the blossom (note the slightly
anthropomorphic touch of the verb “breathed” ) formerly, when Hardy
was able to take life less seriously. The use of “a laugh” to mean “lighthearted” seems somewhat colloquial (it has become a modern
colloquialism) but is striking and unusual in a poem written as long ago
as 1904. Not only did “living” seem “a laugh”, but love seemed “all it
was said to be”: love, evidently, no longer seems to measure up to its
popular reputation, and has not kept its promise.
Stanza 4
After the negative injunctions of the first three stanzas, the final stanza
contains positive advice. Hardy insists that his outlook in both the literal
sense (“my eyes”) and the metaphorical sense (“thought”) be confined to
the “common lamp-lit room” (the moonlight having been excluded)
where the reader imagines him to be writing. He wishes his attention to
be directed to trivial and unevocative things ( “dingy details” ) and would
like to restrict himself to automatic, unthinking words ( “mechanic
speech” ) only.
Bitter fruit
The reason for all this rejection of pleasure, hitherto only hinted at, is
given, albeit in cryptic fashion, in the metaphor contained in the poem's
concluding lines: “life's early bloom” was “fragrant”, but the “fruit” into
which it matured was bitter. The pleasure of the third stanza has supplied
the metaphor of these lines. Hardy's early experiences (the “bloom” )
suggested sweet fruit: fulfilment and happiness later, but instead maturity
has only brought unhappiness and disillusionment, “tart” and unpalatable
fruit.
The poem's theme
Overall, the poem shows how what once brought pleasure to Hardy now
causes him pain because it elicits the memory of the lost pleasure and
aggravates the keenness of its loss. The exact nature of Hardy's grievance
is not made clear: he merely tells the reader that the “fruit” belied the
promise of the “bloom”. How, or why, we are left to guess. The poem is
obviously personal and records a profound change in Hardy's attitude to
life, from youthful optimism to the disillusionment of maturity. Though
this has been Hardy's experience, there is no attempt to prove that this
experience is universal or even commonplace. The poem's value is of a
statement of Hardy's outlook but the causes of his adopting this outlook
are not forthcoming.
The refusal to enjoy the pleasures of life seems perverse, and the fatalistic
outlook to which Hardy here subscribes inevitably self-fulfilling: if he
determines to find no further happiness in life then he will, of course, be
unhappy, but the misery will be of his, not life's making.
Style
The style of the poem is restrained, natural and direct. The short iambic
lines (alternating in length between eight and six syllables) produce a
simple metre (effectively ballad-metre, with an extra pair of lines) and the
rhyme scheme is simple, if slightly irregular: second, fourth and sixth
lines share the principal rhyme: in stanza 2 lines 1 and 5 rhyme; in stanza
3 lines 1 and 3 rhyme, while the final stanza has a full ABABAB rhymescheme.
As an expression of Hardy's pessimism the poem is skilfully and
forcefully written, though the argument (if it can be called such) is not
wholly convincing. Few poems in the selection are so negative in their
outlook, though there is, to Hardy's credit, the same resolute acceptance
of his lot which marks such pieces as Night in the Old Home, rather than
the self-pity of, say, Nobody Comes.
To an Unborn Pauper Child
Here Hardy considers the probable fate of a child soon to be born into
poverty. This is a poem which grew from an incident that he probably
witnessed in the Dorchester Magistrate's Court but Hardy's sincerity and
compassion for the plight of human beings makes the incident of concern
to us all. The poem is worth comparing with other pieces on the birth of
young children. It is very like William Blake's Infant Sorrow in its bleak
view of things or Louis MacNeice's Prayer before Birth. For a more
optimistic outlook we might consider Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Frost at
Midnight and W.B. Yeats' A Prayer for My Daughter.
Stanza 1
The poem begins startlingly with an opening line in which Hardy
addresses the child as “hid heart” because it is as yet unborn in its
mother's womb, and advises it not to be born - to “Breathe not” and to
“cease silently”. The rest of the stanza gives Hardy's reason for this
advice. It is better to “Sleep the long sleep” because fate (“The
Doomsters”) will bring the child troubles and difficulties (“Travails and
teens”) in its life, and “Time-wraiths turn our songsingings to fear”, that
is our spontaneous feelings of joy and happiness in life are turned to fear
by time. Time as usual in Hardy's writings is seen as the enemy of man
and the unusual conceptions of Fate as “Doomsters” and Time as “Timewraiths” (Spirits) suggests a conscious and deliberate process at work.
Stanza 2
In the second stanza, Hardy develops the idea of the destructiveness of
time urging the child to listen to how people sigh, and to note how time
destroys all such natural positive values as “laughter”, “hopes”, “faiths”,
“affections” and “enthusiasms”. Set against these positive nouns are
negative verbs suggesting this withering process: “sigh”, “fail”, “die”,
“dwindle”, “waste” and “numb”. The verse concludes by stressing that
the child cannot alter this process if it is born.
Stanza 3
In the third stanza, Hardy vows that if he were able to communicate with
the unborn before their life on earth began, and if the child were able to
choose whether to live or die, he would impart all his knowledge to the
child and ask it if it would take life as it is.
Stanza 4
Hardy immediately, and forcefully, rejects this as a futile vow, for neither
he nor anyone can explain to the child what will happen to it when it is
born ( “Life's pending plan” ). The stanza contains weaknesses of style:
the oddity of “theeward” and the clumsy inversion “Explain none can”.
But the last two lines present starkly the inevitability of birth in spite of
the most dreadful events Life can bring.
Stanza 5
In contrast to the ending of the fourth stanza, the fifth one opens very
gently. Hardy speaks directly and tenderly to the child, in simple
monosyllables, wishing that he could find some secluded place ( “shut
plot” ) in the world for it, where its life would be calm, unbroken by tear
or qualm. But with tender simplicity, and the absence of any bitterness,
Hardy recognises that “I am weak as thou and bare” - he is as unable as
the child is to influence fate.
Stanza 6
The poem ends with the recognition that the child must come and live (
“bide” ) on earth, and the hope that - in spite of the evidence - it will find
health, love and friends and “joys seldom yet attained” by people.
The Oxen
This short poem refers to a superstition about Christmas, which the author
recalls from his childhood. As a child, Hardy lived in rural Dorset, and
this poem has its origins in the simple beliefs of country people. In
writing about it, you should try to consider both the content (what the
poet has to say) and his method (how he says it). Note: barton is a West
Country dialect word for a cow-shed (byre or shippen); coomb, which
often appears in place names, is, like Welsh cwm, a word for a valley.
The questions below can be used for talking about the poem, or can be
used as prompts for a written response.
Introducing the poem

Briefly introduce or outline the argument of the poem: what was
the belief Hardy had, as a child, about what happens on Christmas
Eve, and what is his attitude to it now?
Content - what is the poem about?




Why is the poem called The Oxen? What do cattle have to do with
Christmas traditionally?
When the poet was a child, what superstition did he have about the
oxen (cattle) on Christmas Eve? Which people encouraged him to
believe this? How firmly did he and his friends hold this belief?
Does the poet still have this belief? Explain why, in spite of his
doubts, the poet is still willing to see if the superstition could be
true?
Is this poem, in your view, simply about one particular belief, or is
it about a more general loss of religious faith?
The poet's method







Comment on the picture given in the first stanza of the children
listening to the elder. Why are they seen as a “flock” ?
In what way did the children think of the cattle? Comment on the
phrase “meek mild creatures”.
What is suggested by Hardy's claim that it did not occur to any of
them to doubt?
Comment on the use of speech and colloquialism to suggest
authenticity?
Comment on the poet's use of short lines and simple ABAB rhyme
scheme.
How does the poet show the connection between the past and the
present?
Explain the relationship between the penultimate and the final
stanzas or between doubt and hope in the poem.
Conclusion



Do you like the poem or not? Why?
Do you share the poet's attitudes or outlook in any way?
Has your attitude to Christmas changed since your childhood?
Afterwards
In Afterwards Hardy reflects on what people may say of him after his
death, and represents them as remembering him for his love and
observation of the natural world. The poem is characterised by a strong
sense of melancholy reflection, and very precise, and sometimes
surprising, imagery.
Detailed commentary
Stanza 1
The poem opens with an image of Hardy's death, an unusual
personification of the present fastening, its back gate (“postern”) after
Hardy has departed. The adjective “tremulous” with its suggestions of
fragility, uncertainty and brevity, emphasises the transitory nature of life
itself, or Hardy's “stay” on earth. Hardy considers what neighbours may
say of him if he were to die in May. He represents the month as a
creature. The verb “flaps” compares its “glad green leaves” with the
wings (“Delicate filmed as new spun silk,”) of a newly emerged butterfly.
The simile is unexpected and embellished by alliteration. The last line,
presented as direct speech, is the neighbours' imagined comment on
Hardy's vivid awareness of the natural world.
Stanza 2
The second stanza considers what may be said if he were to die at dusk.
The powerful use of imagery and diction is continued ion the comparison
of the coming of a hawk moth with an “eyelid's soundless blink” a simile
that conveys a sense of silence and suddenness of arrival. Hardy imagines
someone ( “a gazer” ) watching the moth alight at dusk on “the windwarped upland thorn”, and thinking that to Hardy such a sight was
familiar. The alliterative epithet suggests how the wind has bent the thorn
bushes out of their habit of growth.
Stanza 3
In the third stanza Hardy speculates on what may be said if he were to die
in the night. As descriptions of the darkness of a summer night the words
“mothy” and “warm” are exact and evocative. Hedgehogs are described
as travelling “furtively” an adverb which expresses the vulnerability of
hedgehogs that can move safely only at night - or perhaps Hardy means,
more accurately, that they are furtive, in order to secure their prey. Hardy
imagines being remembered as someone who cared for “such innocent
creatures” and tried to save them from harm although he could do little
for them.
Stanza 4
The next stanza also considers death at night but now Hardy imagines
neighbours watching “the full-starred heavens” of a frosty winter night
and thinking of him as a man who observed such mysteries. The verb
“rise” creates a subtle indication of a thought rising like the moon.
Stanza 5
In the final stanza Hardy imagines his own funeral bell's ringing (the
“bell of quittance” ). The vision is equally clear and precise. The poet
imagines that a “crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,” that is,
the sounds of the bell are momentarily carried away from the ear by a
wind's blowing across their path. As the breeze fades, the sounds of the
bell are heard more loudly as if “they were a new bell's boom.”
Afterwards is a good example of Hardy's art, with its control of diction
and image to create the effect required, and its equal control of syntax and
rhythm. Each stanza is written in a single sentence with the main verb
coming late to introduce the imagined comment at the end. The repetition
of this sentence structure, with the slow rhythm of the lines, gives an
appropriately solemn, funereal quality to the poem.
Responding to the poems
Many tasks will allow you to show understanding of one or more poems,
or will help you compare them. But you can also treat the poems more
creatively as a way in.
Comparison and contrast
What's the difference? As a method, no difference at all - you put A and
B together (or A, B and C). And when they show some similarities we
find a comparison and when we see some difference we make a contrast.
So we compare Channel Firing and In Time of “The Breaking of
Nations” (both poems about war) and contrast the pessimism of the first
and optimism of the second.
You need to beware of finding a contrast or comparison that is
meaningless. Suppose you are comparing several war poems. It would be
silly to write: “Hardy wrote Poem A in Dorset, but wrote Poem B in
Cornwall”. And even sillier to write: “These poems are similar because
both use language.” It's not enough to find similarities or differences they need to be interesting or tell us something.
So what kinds of similarity or difference are worth looking for? Are there
things we can expect students to look for in any texts? There are - some
of them will be in many and some are almost guaranteed to be in all texts.
These could include comparisons or contrast in:
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time (relative or absolute, short term or long term)
sex and gender
attitude, mood, atmosphere
purpose and audience
language, form, genre, structure and other technique or method
relevance
the reader's preference
Creative approaches to study
This guide can be used to study the poems in a very traditional way,
leading to a piece of written work. However, there are other useful
approaches, especially for developing an understanding of the poems if
you are meeting them for the first time.
Using computer software
If you have the use of a computer you can use appropriate software to
present your work attractively:
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Use presentation graphics software (like Microsoft Powerpoint ™)
to create audio-visual tutorials for your friends.
Use electronic mail and chat sites to exchange ideas with other
students. You may even be able to get in touch with Thomas Hardy
or teachers who know his work well.
Transcribe passages of the poems, using a word processor, then
add comments, to show how you understand these extracts.
Speaking and listening
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A good way to learn things for an exam is to prepare a live talk for
a specific audience, and then present the talk. Do this individually,
in pairs or a small group.
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Write a script for a radio or TV arts magazine feature on Thomas
Hardy. Record it (as well as you can). Play it back to your friends
or yourself for revision.
Prepare detailed readings (explanations, comment, comparison and
evaluation) of poems or parts of them. Record these using a taperecorder, dictaphone or other recording technology. Play them back
for revision.
Varying the audience
Prepare (for reading or listening) different kinds of text which show your
understanding of the poems, which are suited to a range of possible
readers or audiences. Some examples include:
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Teaching notes for people much younger or older than yourself
A report to the Committee of the Nobel Prize for Literature (find
out how writers qualify for this prize, and decide whether Thomas
Hardy would have been a suitable candidate)
A message to transmit to an alien
An article for an encyclopedia of poetry (could be in print, on CDROM or a Web site)
A letter to Thomas Hardy, explaining what you have enjoyed in
reading his poetry (you could really send it)
Imaginative writing
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Choose one or more of the people or characters about whom Hardy
writes. Write a monologue (can be prose or verse) in which you
speak as if you are that person.
Use one or more of Hardy's poems as the starting point or plot for a
narrative.
Write a travel guide for the places you have encountered in
Thomas Hardy's poems. Research with print and electronic media
to find out more about them - show how they are important in his
poems.