“When, in a second (2)
As if from fear
Of Life unreckoned
Beginning here,
It starts a sighing (3)”
The very second in which the tree is planted – fated to suffer – it appears to awake (“While there lying/ ‘Twas voiceless quite.”) and become aware of its tragic fate. Consequently, it begins to ‘sigh’ – just like Marty, as previously detailed. Indeed, Hardy draws a number of deep comparisons between the tree and Marty. Apart from the obvious remarks upon their equal desperation in being fixed, there exists an equal focus upon the sudden change in mood within the two entities:
Neither was conscious of the rapid change which they would undergo when ‘planted’ – neither the tree’s planting or the appearance of Marty’s rival lover were planned nor expected.
They are both silent to their suffering, apart from sighing.
Perhaps Hardy partially condemns them both for failing to ‘reckon with Life’? An abstract thought.
Second Stanza Notes:
Much of the second stanza is unworthy of comment (Hardy emphasizes the image of the tree sighing, in another episode of anthropomorphism) but we should focus on these lines:
“Grieving that never
Kind Fate decreed
It should for ever
Remain a seed
And shun the welter” [a confused mass of something]
To put the point simply, Hardy creates the effect of the seed (note the personification) wishing it had never been planted – or in Marty’s case, that she had never been born. There is a great emotive impact of these lines. Hardy’s intentionally chooses words to create this effect: “grieving”, “decreed” and “for ever” are examples. Equally, observe how Hardy negates the sense. He place the word “never” before the sentence runs its course, thus meaning that it would be otherwise positive. Why? I don’t know – it may simply be a product of a forced rhyme. The line (word positioning) is successful, however, in emphasizing the negation.
The ‘welter’ is a confusing mass of something – perhaps, in a clichéd philosophical sense, Hardy is referring to Life itself, through the obvious metaphor of seeds and trees?
How does Marty’s emotional state compare to the seed’s? The seed wished it could have avoided the tragedy and suffering of “storm and drought”. Within his reverie, Marty never makes this point explicitly... There is a suggestion within Marty’s reverie that the relationship was happy once – the seed never is. This evidence points to a reasonable demand; don’t drag immediate comparison into it – Hardy is not examining precisely the same ideas in Part II as in Part I. That’s why they are listed differently!
Stanza III Notes:
“Thus, all unknowing (1)
For whom or what
We (2) set it growing
In this bleak spot (3),
It will grieve here
Throughout its time,
Unable to leave here (4),
Or change its clime;
Or tell the story (5)
Of us to-day
When, halt and hoary,
We pass away. (6)”
Hardy seeks to create a sense of finality in his last stanza – a definity in Time – but also arrives at the crux of the matter expressed.
Through the assonance of the empty ‘o’ sounds, Hardy affirms the tree’s fate, which is determined (to an infinite chronological degree) by the planting. Marty suggests yet another odd principle; she does not know why they planted the tree – therein lies another Modernist principle; a question towards why suffering is created in the first place.
Hardy also reiterates the lack of articulacy of the tree – emphasizing the similar trait found in Marty – but also the above mentioned irony in the persona. Equally, the application of the natural world’s cruelty is further added to the cruelty of unrequited love through both entities’ inability to move from their position of suffering. See (4). They both are fated to suffer, as Hardy suggests, until they die.
Hardy intentionally leaves this image of ‘thanatos’ upon the reader to conclude his poem – again, emphasized oddly through the use of understatement
