Hardy describes his skin as ‘wasting’. This tells us that he has aged and he does not like this physical change. It seems he has not changed emotionally though because he does not appear to have forgotten his past. He has lost people in his life either through death or relationships that have not worked out. I can tell this when Hardy says:
‘And say,’ Would God it came to pass
My heart had shrunk as thin!’ ‘
He wishes his heart had shrunk too, just like his skin. This is where I feel Hardy uses clever imagery to move me to feel sympathy. As when Hardy talks about his heart, he is actually speaking about his emotions; for example being loved and loving someone. So when he is wishing for his heart to shrink too, it’s so he would no longer feel any strong emotions. 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. I think this because he uses the word ‘wait’. Hardy could have used any other word but he chose ‘wait’; and this makes it seem as if he is simply waiting in a waiting room ready to die. Also he says he waits with ‘equanimity’ which implies that he is calm and completely in control.
In the final stanza, Hardy continues to feel depressed and sorry for himself when he writes:
‘But Time, to make me grieve,
Part steals, lets part abide;
And shares this fragile frame at eve
With throbbings of noontide.’
In the first line of the stanza, Hardy uses personification when speaking of ‘Time’. Time steals our youth and makes us grow old; and I feel Hardy views time in a negative way because it has made him miserable over the years. The imagery here makes me feel sympathy towards Hardy as it appears to me that he hates time because it has stolen the youthfulness of his face and body but left his heart which is full of strong emotions that have wounded him.
The ability of being hurt and unhappy takes its toll on Hardy’s weak and broken body; which Hardy refers to as his ‘fragile frame’. Hardy paints an image of a weak and fragile old man in my mind which instantly makes me feel sympathy towards him.
When Hardy uses ‘eve’ I think there is a dual meaning behind it. It refers to him nearing the end of his life but also he is making the comparison with evening, being the end of the day. The end of the day is like the end of his life.
In the final line of the final stanza, Hardy says:
‘With throbbings of noontide.’
This suggests that his life was eventful and full of energy when he was younger. 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.