Analyse the poetry of Thomas Hardy Essay Example For Students

Analyse the poetry of Thomas Hardy Essay Thomas Hardy Is an Intriguing and enigmatic poet whose poetic themes deviate from war, nature and heroism to love, the transience of life and the death of the soul. Though penned some eighty years ago, the poetry of Thomas Hardy remains remarkably accessible and identifiable to a modern reader. While some critics claim that his poetic writing is archaism. His language elegant but awkward and his work difficult to comprehend, I enjoyed the poetry of Hardy for its diversity of themes, its earthly realism and his descriptive and metaphorical language. I identified and metatheses with his poetry of love and loss, change and decay. Hither he Is describing the transience of life and the onslaught of time Down their carved names the raindrop ploughs or the mystery, enchantment and wonder of first love with magic in my eyes, the world that Hardy creates is always vivid and real for his reader. When I set out for Loneness Is a beautiful, sad, magical and poignant lyric that captures the magic , mystery and wonder of first love. Despite the fact that the poem describes the wonder and Joy that the poet feels for his new love, the poem Is devoid f any specific details about the narrators beloved, their initial meeting or the nature of their relationship. And it is because of this, because of the poets description of an emotion rather than an event that When I set out for Loneness becomes a universal love poem to all and for all that have ever loved or have hoped to love. While much of Hardys work focus upon the Irrationality of war, the transience of life and the destructive progress of time, When I set out for Loneness is different in many respects. Depicting great personal happiness. Fulfillment and love. A ransoming and memorable moment In the poets life, a time where everything has changed. Despite the Joy and happiness that the poet describes, it Is Impossible to ignore the poignancy of this simple lyric. After all, Hardy composed this poem after his wifes death, forty-four years after their initial encounter. Biographical details indicate the marriage was an unhappy and unfulfilled one. Hardy might thus be suggesting that despite the fervor, romance and enchantment of first love, such feelings will never last, that love Itself Is little more than an elaborate Illusion, that eve is transience, as subject to the ravages of time as we are. On the 7th March 1870, at the second bidding, Hardy traveled to SST Julio in Cornwall to draw an architects plan of the church. It was during this visit that Hardy was to meet, fall in love with and eventually to marry Emma Gifford. Their marriage was thirty-eight years long and an unhappy one. After Emma passed away Hardy found a series of manuscripts among his wifes possessions. One of them described their first meeting and It appears that it was this manuscript that provided the motivation for his poem. Hardy noted l have a faculty for burying emotion in heart or brain for forty years and exhuming it at the end of that time as fresh as when interred. While Hardy is frequently condemned for his archaism language and awkward tots language. Despite the unusual alliterated expressions durst declare and Should sojourn, the poem is easily comprehensible and is laced with the mythical, magical, even childlike terms such as wisest wizard or prophet. Structurally, each stanza describes a different stage in Hardys Journey. Stanza one depicts the departures, Tanta two the Journey itself and stanza three the transformation. When I set out for Loneness is based the Wordsmiths principal of emotion recollected in tranquility. There is a sense of reluctance rather than anticipation at the beginning of the poem as the poet emphasizes the loneliness and isolation of the speaker starlight lonesomeness yet there is a sense of enchantment evident from the poets first utterances. The still night sky creates a luminance of romance and mystery. Loneness, a mythical kingdom normally associated with King Arthur is more of a fairytale world than a real one. It is hundred miles away, and thus the land described assumes magical, mythical significance Repetition, particularly of the word Loneness, and rhyme contribute to the musical quality of the poem. There is a contrast between the narrators demeanor at the outset and the demeanor of the poet upon return from his Journey. Hardy captures the sense of transformation as a result of falling in love. While initially feeling only lonesomeness, the poet returned with magic in my eyes. American Poetry EssayAs the narrator plunge(s) moment from the past. Through this simple action, the poet can excavate and recall her memory of that day frequently and vividly. While the memory fades and corrodes over time, the narrator never miss(sees) the sweet sharp sense of fugitive day. Much of the poem is dedicated to the description of the idyllic picnic. The scene is evicted as one akin to Eden, a perfect and happy time in the lives of the lovers. August, to paint the scene, and we placed our basket of fruit by the runlets rim, where we sat to dine. The wine glass, so central to our understanding of the poem as a whole is introduced in the main body of the text and with it, the tone of the poem alters, becoming darker and bleaker. While the function of the wine glass is ambiguous with some critics suggesting that the glass, while lost, functions as a symbol of the all enduring love of the narrator for her beloved. Equally it may be argues that the forever lost and unbound glass becomes a powerful and extended symbol of the lost and unattained love of the protagonists. Just as their love faded over time, There the glass still is. In the intricate detail, the loss of the glass is conveyed, Where it slipped, and it sank, and was past recall, Through we stooped and plumbed the little abyss With long bared arms. It is for this reason that plunging her arm in a basin reminds her of the wine glass. Written in 1917 during the First World War and during what the poet presumed to be the final years of his life. Afterwards is an elegy, lyric and self portrait that reflects the manner in which the poet wishes to be remembered after his passing, once he has stilled at last. Afterwards contains obvious philosophical musings surrounding life, death and reputation, and while Hardy maintains the perspective of a detached outsider and observer, the poem reveals much about Hardy as a person. Afterwards suggests that Hardy cared little for reverence brought about by his literature, preferring that he would be remembered as a keen environmentalist, who dedicated his life to the dew-fall hawk, the green leaves and the innocent re turns. While death is mentioned in each stanza, it is not depicted as something fearful of apprehensive, rather it is familiar and gentle. Afterward illustrates Hardys craft and skill as a poet. 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 h=gives an appropriately solemn, funeral quality to the poem. The poem opens with an image of Hardys death, an unusual personification of the present fastening its back gate posters after Hardy had departed. Posters suggests a small a gate used by unimportant guests. The adjective tremulous suggests fragility, uncertainty and brevity, emphasizes the transitory nature of life itself, or Hardys stay on earth. Creature. This is my favorite line on the English course. And the May month flap s its glad green leaves like wings 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 cycle of nature, of birth and rejuvenation will continue long after the poets passing. The may be associating the new leaves with a fledglings wings, suggesting the innocence, youth and naivety that the poet lost a lifetime ago. The new-spun silk can be further associated with the silk of a cocoon, within which the process of metamorphosis occurs. Thomas Hardys gloomy poem about the turn of the twentieth century The Darling Thrush, remains one of his most popular and anthologists lyrics. The Darling Thrush is a transitional poem, illustrating the trepidation and doubt many people felt about the future as the Victorian Era came to an end and the modern Era was about to begin. During Wind and Rain is a haunting, poignant, beautiful and pessimistic reflection on the transience of life, the passage of time and fragility of life. Though inspired by the memories of his late wife, During Wind and Rain is an intensely personal poem, a lament for inexorable march of time and the destruction and oblivion, which time precipitates. In many ways, the poem is an elegy for life itself. A conclusion needs to be added