“altered all” (Stanza 2, Line 14)
“Unmoved, unknowing” (Stanza 2, Line 12) creates a contrast from the stanza before. The mood from the stanza before is of confusion and admiration. But in this stanza certain words and phrases create a blunt, sharp and sorrowful mood of finality. The mood of finality also creates a mood of loss and regret, because Hardy has to get used to life without his late wife, Emma. And that there is no going back for him to rectify his mistakes. Emma’s death has made things final, no going back.
And the lines: “Till in darkening dankness
The yawning blankness” (Stanza 3, Lines 19 – 20)
Creates the feeling of loss and bereavement, because this type of imagery gives the reader a picture in their mind that Hardy’s life is a big empty space, after he realises she has gone. The word “dankness” seems that Hardy feels his life is in a dark, wet and damp place. The word “yawning” emphasises that his feelings of misery has no end.
Hardy makes the fourth full of passion, because Hardy talked about the pleasant and positive times they had. This is illustrated to us, when Hardy writes: “By those red veined rocks far West” (Stanza 4, line 23), because the colour red can be connoted with romance, in this context. Maybe because was trying to imply that she bought life, love and happiness where ever she went, because she was so special.
“When life unrolled us its very best” (Stanza 4, Line 28). This showed that he had positive memories with him and his wife and the quote gave an image that life is like a carpet, waiting to be trod on softly. We find out later on from the poem that they did not stay on the path that life had created for them.
Because in the fifth stanza we see that, they did not speak to each other: “latterly did we not speak” (Stanza 5, Line 29). This shows that they did not stay on the path that life had created for them, because if they did, they still would have had good time, when Emma was alive. Hardy shows feelings of loss and regret because he wanted he wanted to turn back time: “And ere your vanishing strive to seek” (Stanza 5, Line 31), because if Hardy felt there was nothing he had lost or regretted with his late wife. Why would he want to turn back time?
“In this right spring weather
We’ll visit together” (Stanza 5, Line 33 – 4)
This shows the feelings of loss and regret, as this what Hardy wanted if his wife was still alive, that is why he feels guilty because Emma is dead, and it is not possible for them to visit the places they once visited together.
The tone of the last stanza varies from the rest of the stanza, because in this stanza it seems as if he has moved on: “Well, well! All’s past amend,
Unchangeable. It must go.” (Stanza 6, Lines 36 – 7). But the tone then changes, it turns on to resentment:
“I seem but a dead man held on end” (Stanza 6, Line 78).
This shows Hardy has no control over his life, as if his feet are not on the ground, he is just a flimsy shadow of a man. And he resents the fact that when his wife was with him, he did not make an effort to get along with her. And now that she has gone he can’t move on because he realises he misses her to much.
From the poem you can tell that the poem is very personal and very cathartic. This poem does not have a general message. The poem is directed at the woman who is the subject of the poem.
The poem: The Voice is about a woman who he believes is calling out to hi. His subconscious mind is making think that the woman is calling him, when really it is the wind blowing. We can presume that this woman is his late wife, who died in the same year this poem was written.
Stanza one opens with a very powerful word: “Woman”. (Stanza 1, Line 1) This is a very powerful word because woman is a very strong word to call a lady, or the audience or reader could interpret the woman as a very unusual greeting, it could show that, at this point of time (December 1912) is in control of hid emotions.
The word “Woman” can also create a feeling of loss because, she has died and he has bereaved her, he does not feel close to her no more. So the only way he feels he can greet her, is with the cold word, in this context, “Woman”. We could also interpret the way he says “Woman“, shows a sense of distance.
“How you call to me, call to me” (Stanza 1, Line 1) The repetition makes it seem as if he cannot quite reach her, this emphasises her intangibility, because the repetition makes it seem like an echo. It is like a feeling of mystery, an echo effect, which makes it appear as if emotions from the past are still hanging on from the past.
In Stanza two, Hardy tries to demonstrate to the reader that he is hearing voices, and to him he thinks it is Emma, his first wife. Stanza two talks about a memory that Hardy can still remember and is fond of, because he remembers every last detail: “Even to the original air – blue gown” (Stanza 2, Line 8). For Hardy to remember the details of his wife’s dress creates the mood of happiness and youth and reinforces memories of his late wife.
We again see examples that Hardy’s emotion from the past are still clinging on to him, because he is desperate to see and hear her again.
“Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,” (Stanza 2, Line 5)
The line “Let me view you, then,” shows similarity with this poem, The Voice and The Going because even in the poem The Going, Hardy is so intent on seeing her that he imagines her: “At the end of the alley” and similarly in the poem The Voice he desires to see Emma, creating similar images from the two poems.
Stanza three, is when Hardy comes face to face with reality and realises what other possible explanations, it could be, other than the woman (who we presume is his late wife) calling out to him:
“Or is it only the breeze in its listlessness” (Stanza 3, Line 9).
This line creates an image that the wind has no sense of direction, no purpose. That line could be interpreted as a metaphor to Hardy’s feelings, that he has no energy to keep moving forward, because he feels as if he cannot go on without Emma. The word “listlessness” also creates the mood of helplessness.
“You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness” (Stanza 3, Line 11) creates the imagery that Emma, is fading away. She is leaving his mind. ”Dissolved” emphasises her intangibility. And just to reassure him of reality that Emma has really gone he says:
“heard no more again far or near “(Stanza 3, Line 12)
In the last stanza of The Voice, we see the final imagery of Hardy being emotionally unstable: “faltering forward” (Stanza 4, Line 13). “Faltering” creates an illustration, of Hardy, stumbling through life, as if he cannot control himself.
“Leaves around me falling”(Stanza 4, Line 14) Shows how Hardy is trying to deal with his bereavement, because the leaves falling represent the end of Emma’s life, and gradually people have to die, Autumn represents end of life, because in Autumn dead leaves fall. Hardy tries to represent Emma’s death as dead leaves. I think he is trying to day that death happens to all and like in autumn, when most things die. It’s due to nature and nature cannot be stopped. This creates a feeling of abandonment, emotional detachment, coldness and the feeling of regret. The leaves fell and Hardy could not do anything about it. Emma died and Hardy could not do anything to stop it. It is all down to nature.
Hardy shows loss and regret when: “wind oozing thin through the thorn” (Stanza 4, Line 15). Because “oozing” seems like a warm word, as if Hardy is comforted by nature. That line, I believe tries to show Hardy is the wind trying to move on, but is struggling because his remorsefulness and sorrow for loosing his wife is making it hard to move on.
This poem The Voice is about the subconscious mind of the poet, of when the wind blows he thinks “woman” (presumably his late wife, who died in the same year this poem was written 1912) is calling out to him. The poet, Hardy is not talking to an audience, he is addressing to a particular “woman”. To show that he does not know her. The poem, The Voice, does not tell a story but rather an event for him. Because he remembers personal events such as the times where she: “would wait for me” (Stanza 2, Line 7). The setting of this poem is based on a woman calling him in the midst of nature.
The feelings and moods suggested through this poem are loss and regret, abandonment and coldness, Hardy has to move on and accept reality. Emma has gone: “Heard no more again or far” (Stanza 3, Line 12)
In the poem: At Castle Boterel, in the first line we see that Hardy is unsure of what to do:”As I drive to the junction of lane and highway” (Stanza 1, Line 1). This shows a feeling of uncertainty, Hardy is uncertain of what to do. The junction represents where he is at, like a metaphor, because in life he has to make decisions, just like you’d have to at a junction. The highway symbolises fast life and the lane symbolises the simple and tranquil life he could lead.
In the same stanza, Hardy uses the phrase: “drizzle bedrenches” (Stanza 1, Line 2), creating the imagery of a morbid depressing scene, because drizzle is not a lot of rain, but it is enough to make you feel dull and dreary. It creates a dismal mood, because drizzle is not as exhilarating and exciting as total downpour. Also in the same stanza we see that Hardy is alone and has to make decisions by himself: “As I drive to the junction of lane and highway” (Stanza 1, Line 1).
Whereas in stanza two, he is with someone else, we can presume that it is his late wife as she died a year before this poem was written: “Myself and a girlish form benighted” (Stanza 2, Line 6). We see that he is now not alone and the stanza itself gives a mood of happiness, because the stanza says: “dry March weather” (Stanza 2, Line 7). March is seen as the beginning of life, things start to grow, and bloom in spring (March is a month in spring). As if a new love was to grow in spring. Furthermore there is a weather comparison between the two stanzas. In the first stanza we see that the weather is dismal and damp “drizzle” (Stanza 1, Line 2), where in stanza two see that the weather is: “dry” (Stanza 2, Line 7), creates a complete a complete contrast.
In the same stanza we see that the tense that Hardy is writing in is present tense. “We had just alighted” (Stanza 2, Line 8). From reading the stanza we can see that Hardy is talking about a memory, but Hardy is explaining his flashback in the present tense to show the remorsefulness and guilt he feels of loosing Emma.
In the fourth stanza of the poem Hardy is reminiscing about how much he and (presumably) Emma had fun, in that place: “A time of quality… In that hill’s story” (Stanza 4, Line 17 & 18),
“A time of quality, since or before,
In that hill’s story?” (Stanza 4, line 17 & 18)
When Hardy uses a comparison on time “since or before” he makes a contrast of time. He makes it seem to the audience that in that moment of time, was the most magical or breathtaking event that ever occurred in the hill’s history. That quote shows how Hardy feel, he is at loss, the loss of his wife, that they can never have moments again like, the moments they shared on the hill together again. This is how Hardy shows loss and regret.
Further down the poem, in the sixth stanza we see that Hardy feels regret of loosing Emma: “One phantom figure
Remains on the slope, as when that night
Saw us alight” (Stanza 6, Line 28 & 29)
And by using that quite Hardy is trying to illustrate that even if he forgets Emma, the hills are evidence that Hardy and Emma were at one point in time together and happy.
And in the last stanza, we see that Hardy is finally trying to move on when he says: “for my sand is sinking,” (Stanza 6, Line 33). When Hardy says this it creates an imagery that the sand symbolises or represents his love and his love for Emma is slowly sinking and fading away that is how Hardy shows loss and regret in his poems.
Hardy shows the feeling of loss and regrets in his poems, by using nature and objects to symbolise the way he feels. I think he uses nature and other objects to try and describe his feelings of loss and regret because nature and the other techniques he uses add deeper meaning to his feelings.
