Extracts from this document...

Introduction

How does Hardy in ?I Look into My Glass? move the reader to feel sympathy? ________________ ?I Look into My Glass? is a poem about old age and how a man reflects on his lifetime with bittersweet memories and is now waiting for his life to come to an end though natural old age. He feels his life has just passed him by almost like a day and I think this because Hardy refers to ?noon? as his youth and ?eve? as his old age and death. In ?I Look into My Glass? two of the most effective ways Hardy moves me to feel sympathy is by the language and the imagery that he uses. Hardy is always using ?I? ?me? or ?my? and from this I can tell by the language/words he uses that this is personal poetry and he is talking about himself. This moves me to feel sympathy because he obviously does not particularly like the experiences he is speaking of. I also think the language used in the poem is effective because the words are simple and easy to understand. ...read more.

Middle

Although it may not be true; you and I, and even Hardy, still refer to our heart as the centre of all our emotions; and if Hardy was in love with someone and then they died, Hardy would then be ?heartbroken?. This moves me to feel sympathy towards him as this scenario is universally appealing and I, and many others, can relate to him in this situation. In stanza two of the poem, Hardy writes: ?For then, I, undistrest By hearts grown cold to me, Could lonely wait my endless rest With equanimity.? He is alone and alienated as he is just waiting for his life to come to an end, which Hardy referred to as his ?endless rest?. Here Hardy is using euphemism to make his situation sound nicer and more appealing. Although he is approaching death by old age; this does not necessarily mean he wants to die. Hardy paints a very gloomy, dull, grey picture in the readers mind by his simple yet effective use of imagery. Even though Hardy may not want to die, I can tell he is patiently waiting for his time to come rather than it driving him absolutely crazy. ...read more.

Conclusion

But then if I was looking at it from a different perspective, Hardy?s use of the word ?throbbings? could refer to his physical body pains from old age or his heart that is beating full of bad memories; and I feel sympathy towards him because it is not something that he can help with old age. Hardy has written a simple yet powerful poem which represents the feelings of the elderly people today. I feel the imagery and language Hardy used in his poem made me feel sympathy towards not only him but to other elderly people too. In my opinion, because I am a young person and young people are so naive, I never think about getting old and wrinkly because, in a way, I think I?ll be young forever. I know that eventually I will get old too; it?s just no one particularly wants to think of themselves like that. Nowadays, people try to avoid the unavoidable instead of facing the harsh realities of life and I think this poem has been a real eye opener which has made me feel sympathy towards Hardy and every other lonely, old person out there. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Thomas Hardy section.