Analyses of the poem "Afterwards" by Thomas Hardy.

The opening image of the poem represents the vision of the Hardy’s death. In a remarkable yet strange picture he visualizes when “the Present” locks its back gate after the author has deceased. Firstly, the usage of the word “postern” makes the reader feel that there is absolutely no possibility for the dead to reenter the deserted life. Secondly, the adjective “tremulous” reflects a great amount of fragility, insecurity and vulnerability. This adjective surely gives emphasis to the transient nature of life of humankind, or specifically Hardy's earthly life. In the second line of this stanza Hardy uses a powerful image representing the month of May as a living thing that plays with its creatures, “glad green leaves”. A simile follows immediately after this image between the leaves and the wings of a newly freed butterfly “new-spun silk”, both of them “flaps” according to the poet. This comparison is even more powerful within the frame of multiple alliterations playing with the consonants k,s and l. The main idea of this stanza is that Hardy reflects on what his neighbours may say of him if he were to die in May. The last line is written in direct speech, which the poet had used throughout the poem once in every stanza, and it represents the neighbours' imagined comment on Hardy's vigorous awareness of the natural world.

In the second stanza the poet considers what the people may think of him if he were to die at dusk. The main idea of this stanza is the comparison of the coming of a hawk with the blink of an eyelid. With the usage of two powerful adjectives, soundless and dewfall, and the impulsive movement of the hawk, the image tends to change from a silent picture towards a sudden arrival of the bird. Hardy then pictures a person, called “a glazer”, who is watching the hawk flying across the upland appearing from the shade to the light. The description of the land makes the reader think that the observer is sensitive to every little beauty of nature, alliterating with the w consonant only for a greater emphasis. The last line of the stanza actually telling this excellent capability in the above mentioned direct speech, that to Hardy such a sight must have been familiar.

In the third stanza the readers find themselves in the middle of a dark night of the summer, as the “mothy” and “warm” adjectives explicitly describe this season. The main question this time what may be said if Hardy were to die during the night. The travelling of the hedgehogs is pictured during the night because they can move surreptitiously at this time of the day, which indicates their defenselessness and weakness. The direct speech in this stanza extends over two lines this time declaring that although Hardy “could do little for them”, he is remembered as a person who cared and struggled for these kinds of “innocent creatures” and tried to secure them preventing anything that could harm them.

        In the fourth stanza although the author also considers his death at night, this time it is winter now, and he portray his neighbours watching the sky at night with numerous stars on it. Hardy has chosen the words in this verse indicating the calmness, the peace and the serenity surrounding nature. The verbs “still” and “stand” and the expression “full-starred heaven” makes the reader feel the tranquility of that minute. In the third line of this stanza he introduces the upcoming question in a severe way that will anyone whom he will meet no more have the following thought in mind: he was a person who could observe these secrets of the nature.  

In the last stanza a picture opens up in front of the reader where one can hear Hardy’s funeral bell’s ringing. The word “quittance” means his departure from this world and with the other expressions of the first line it forms a complete clear vision. In the second line the poet describes how the sound of the bell is carried away by the blows of the wind. This is a short and temporal interruption and eventually as the breeze lightens the sound resumes its path in the air, but at this time it is heard more loudly like it was a “new bell’s boom”. It is interesting to note that there are two existing versions of the third line of this last stanza. In the Gibson edited version in Collected Poems it is quoted as “Till they rise again, as they were a new bell’s bloom”, while in the Hynes edition in Wessex Edition it is published in this way: “Till they swell again, as they were a new bell’s bloom”. In the original manuscript of Hardy’s the poet used the word “rise” and it was put into the Collected Poems in this way. However when he revised the poem for the Wessex Edition he changed the word rise to swell. It is still argued why he made that change, but it is clearly noticeable that with the word “swell” there is an alliteration for the consonant ‘s’ and also a rhyme between the words “swell”  and “bell”. This assonance also gives even more emphasis to the big bloom of the bell.

This last stanza is interesting for one more reason: it is very similar to the closing verse of Tennyson's lines in his poem Crossing the Bar: ‘Twilight and evening bell / And after that the dark! / And may there be no sadness of farewell, / When I embark.”. Still, while Tennyson’s poem offers a hope for a union with the Divine, Hardy’s only seek is to be remembered as one who observes and cares about the external world and its poorest inhabitants.

        The meter of this poem is hexameter, it contains exactly twenty hexameter lines, which Brodsky described as “the glory of English poetry, and they owe all that they have got precisely to hexameter”. Although this observation can be considered good, but most of the stanzas are read to be having six ox or five stresses, in feet varying between anapests and iambs. There are also quite some ambiguities, for example in one of the last lines: “bell’s bloom” can be either considered to be an iamb or a spondee.

        Also Hardy’s poem magnificently controls syntax and rhythm together. As one can notice each stanza is written in a single sentence, and the main verb of it comes at the end of the verse, with which the poet introduces the important comment at the end. Also while the first three lines of each stanza are quite poetic the last lines are always becoming colloquial. He reproduces these structures and tendencies in every sentence in each stanza. With the deliberate rhythm and alliteration of the lines and words this forms a perfect atmosphere for a serious, glum and yet solemn picture such as a funeral should be.

The overall view of the poem can indicate several interesting observations to the reader. First of all, the first four stanzas each specify a particular season of the year, and the four all together symbolize the passing of the time. In the first stanza it is daytime and it is spring, and then follows the nightfall of the hawk, the nighttime of the hedgehog during the hot summer. The “glad green leaves” of May and the “new-spun silk” clearly suggest the positive and warm term of the year. This is followed by the starry night of the winter, with the cold images like the “upland thorn” is “wind-warped”. This can be understood as the passing of a person’s time, either day or year, eventually ending with the tolling of the funeral bells. But also with the continuous leading from the spring to the winter one never knows when that day will come when his/her own bell will be heard.

        Secondly, it is clear that every day and every season is a result of nature and our lifetime should be spent in close relationship with nature. This is one of the main messages of the poem that everyone should seek to find the small beauties of the surrounding nature and see it as a mystery of God. Hardy clearly expresses his aim in this poem how he wishes to be remembered after he dies. He does not want to be remembered as a lyric man, who wrote magnificent novels and poems. Rather he would like to be remembered someone who noticed and cared for the subtle beauties of nature and its small creatures. This is emphasized with numerous marvelous images which attracts both the inner ears and eyes of the reader. Hardy lists several mysteries from the almost unnoticeable things like the “alighting of the hawk” to the colossal view of the starry heavens of the winter sky.

        An interesting thing to note is that unlike the great Romantic poets, like Wordsworth and Coleridge, Hardy was a post-Romantic writer, who noticed and reflected nature as it is, without any glorification and retouch. He presents nature from both sides, either it is beautiful or ugly, marvellous or horrible. This can be found in this poem also, the expressions describing the spring suggest a warm and good feeling while the winter is pictured as a black and gloomy thing.

Afterwards is a magnificent poem by Thomas Hardy, who clearly expresses some of his last thoughts. He collected his own values he wishes to be remembered for. Interestingly this has nothing to do with his poetry or literary work but his observation and the love of nature. Hardy states that he wants to be remembered as a person who had awareness for the objective outside world and who could notice the petite and the giant magic of nature.

Work Cited

Abrams, M. H. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. Vol.2. W.W. Norton&Company, NY & London, 2000. p.1917.

Brodsky, Joseph, introduction. The Essential Hardy. by Thomas Hardy. (The essential poets, v.21). Ecco Press. Hopewell, N.J. 1995. p.57

Chapman, Raymond. The language of Thomas Hardy. MacMillan Ed. LTD. London. 1990. p.50, 69, 144.

Gibson, James and Johnson, Trevor ed. Thomas Hardy: Poems. A selection of critical essays. The MacMillan Press LTD. London. 1979. p. 116, 159, 239-240.

Mardsen, Kenneth. The Poems of Thomas Hardy. A Critical Introduction. University of London. The Athlone Press. 1969. p.76.

Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy, A biography. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1982. p.6.