SAMI NAQVI HARDY COURSEWORK
“Explore Hardy’s concerns over misery and loss”
In this essay I will look in to how Thomas Hardy portrayed his concerns of misery and loss in his poems. The poems I am going to use were all written after the death of Hardy’s wife Emma. This is significant as during the final years of their marriage, they never spoke to one another and had a non existent relationship. After the death of Emma, Hardy regretted not speaking or even having a normal relationship with Emma, so in a lot of his poems after her death he speaks about loss and misery.
The three poems I will discuss in detail are “The Going”, “The Voice” and “The Haunter”. I will also refer to other Hardy poems whilst discussing my main ones.
My first poem I will discus is “The Going”. “The Going” is about Hardy’s wife (Emma) who dies at night in her sleep. Hardy then feels sorry for the way he treated and no being able to say goodbye. Hardy’s first stanza is about the confusion and shock Hardy feels when he finds out his wife has died. He says “Why did you give no hint that night”, this shows his confusion and asks why she did not give him a sign or tell him. A significant fact is that Hardy and Emma slept in separate rooms during the last few years of her life. So Hardy would not have been able to see her when she died. Hardy then goes on to say “You would close your term here, up and be gone. Where I could not follow” This line shows loss, as Hardy says you died and went to heaven somewhere he could not follow. He feels misery as he can not go with her and he misses her. Another meaning for “where I could not follow” is that once he dies he wont be able to go to heaven as he thinks he will go to hell. Hardy was extremely bitter and never spoke to his wife during the last few years and in poems after her death he blames himself. In stanza 3 Hardy try’s to cope with her death. “And think for a breath is you I see” here Hardy thinks he sees her. This is typical for someone coping with loss. Hardy also mentions being able to sense, hear or see Emma in “The voice” which also shows how Hardy is trying to cope with the loss of Emma. Hardy then starts to reminisce the good times and shows nostalgia. “Along the beetling Beeny Crest” this sentence talks about the good times he had with Emma. Beeny Crest is also mentioned in the poem “Beeny Cliff”, this poem is about nostalgia and Hardy trying to remember the good times he had with his wife. The last stanza he briefly talks questions why he had bad times with Emma. He says “Why, then, latterly did we not speak” this line is self explanatory. Hardy dwells on the bad times more in his poem “The dead man walking”. He talks about his misery turned into death inside.
