I have decided to concentrate on three main poems: 'At Castle Boterel’, 'The Voice’ and a poem that I found interesting while doing some background work called 'After a journey’. As these poems best help show how Hardys loss is the real driving force behind his creativity.
'At Castle Boterel’ is written mostly in a sombre and sad tone, then becoming philosophical and finally regretful in the last stanza. Hardy is recalling a romantic encounter with a past lover which "filled but a minute", in time but has lived on in his memories, despite its insignificance in the eyes of time. Hardys memories are battling times unflinching rigour, which although has destroyed the physical aspect of his relationship, still cannot destroy his memories of his times with his loves. This shows how shallow Hardy may have been, whereas memories remain creating feelings of wistfulness and in this case the realisation of how short and meaningless his relationship was. Hardy cannot recall what exactly happened that day, only that it felt good at the time. He may be making the point of how unimportant events are when viewed from a distance of years. Hardy is questioning loves power for good at this point, which gives the poem a slight fatalistic attitude towards love. This poem links very well to 'The Voice’ as both are slightly loss-based poems, each accepting the enervating effect of time and the inevitability of loss.
Instead of a vision from the past as in 'At Castle Boterel’, 'The Voice’ contains a ghostly voice. This poem gives the feeling of being haunted by love from the past. 'The Voice’ symbolises the feelings of regret and wistfulness, which Hardy feels for his wife. As in 'At Castle Boterel’ Hardy points out clearly the thinness of love "you had changed" here referring to Emma who changed during their relationship. However it does not look like it was Emma who physically changed, merely Hardys feelings changing for her "changed from the one who was all to me". He is saying that she no longer meant anything to him, however this is due to the change of the conception of the love in the relationship in Hardys mind. Also in 'The Voice’, another link to 'At Castle Boterel’ is at the end of the poems the character is near to death and enervated because of love, Hardy goes "faltering forward" in the final stanza of 'The Voice’. Also the break down of rhythm here conveys the feeling of Hardys despairing state as he realises how fickle love is and how it is so easily transformed by time.
In 'After a Journey’ Hardy has a "voiceless ghost" haunting him, probably Emma again, this is a link into 'At Castle Boterel’ and 'The Voice’ as Hardy is haunted in both by a ghostly form or sound. This poem is slightly more positive than the other two especially in the final stanza. Love seems to have some power for good here because it allows Hardy to look back on his relationship nostalgically and with fond memories. The transience of love is mentioned in this poem again "despite times derision, despite the fact that time plods endlessly and rhythmically on, Hardy still remembers what happened a long time ago. The way that nature stays the same is pictured very well in this poem, as Hardy remembers everything as it used to be, he could even be living that moment over again if it was not for his weakness and Emma being dead.
I have explored the extent to which Hardys poetry emphasised the truth about relationships and how his relationships create most of his poems. It is obvious that Hardy is not happy with time wishing that time would stop altogether and therefore not bring him any more losses, which he writes about. The reason most of Hardys poetry is about loss is that he was near death while writing most of the poems. Which is why some poems like 'At Castle Boterel’ and 'The Voice’ concentrate on death as well as the sheer number of close relations to himself that have gone and the hardships he faced while growing up.
Loss is a very important part of hardys poetic sources. You have to question whether without the losses hardy faced would he be able to inject so much feeling into his poetry. Would he be able to speak of loss with so much penetration and wiseness because of the experiences he has. His poetry would not have been so heartfelt without his wife dying or his poor childhood. Emma Hardy his wife died in November 1912, and was buried in Stinsford churchyard. Hardy felt heavily guilty and pangs of remorse, but the result was some of his best poetry, expressing his feelings for his wife of 38 years. Therefore in a sense the loss helped him reach his poetic potential.
Eventually in 1914 Hardy remarried, to Florence Dugdale, his secretary since 1912. Thomas Hardy died on January 11, 1928 at his house of Max Gate in Dorchester. He had expressed the wish to be buried beside Emma, but his wishes were only partly regarded; his body was interred in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, and only his heart was buried in Emma's grave at Stinsford. This loss helped him with his poetry but I do not think it is related to his poetic creativity. Creativity to me is making something out of nothing not using your experiences and life stories in a poem.
In a short overview of my views on Hardy using loss as the driving force behind his creativity I would agree but not use those exact words. It seems to me that Hardys losses gave him the resolve and really a topic that he had experience in. He could then talk of this subject not just because he was a poet but because he knew what it was like to loose someone dear to him.
Josh Harris