A Review

of Thomas

Selected Poems:

Afterwards
Darkling Thrush
During Wind and Rain
eutral Tones
N
The Voice

Bibliographical Data of Thomas Hardy

homas Hardy a man of great influence and prestigeas it relates to his progress as a
writer and a poet, the development in his career can be divided into three
phase.The

first

phase

(1840-1870)

embraces

childhood,

adolescence,

apprenticeship, first marriage, early poems and his first unpublished novel. The

second being (1871-1897) his intensive publication of fourteen novels and a number of short
stories. In the third phase (1898-1928), when his writing fame rise, he abandoned writing and
returned to poetry. 1
CHILDHOOD & YOUTH

Being the most renowned poet and novelist in English Literaturehistory, Thomas Hardy was born
on 2nd June, 1840 in a brick thatch two-story cottage in the hamlet called Higher Backhampton,
in the Paris of Stinsford, three miles east of Dorchester, the country town of Dorset. With an
exception of five years, he lived all his life in his home country. His father, was also named
Thomas, who was a self-employed master mason and building contractor. 2 Hardys family was
an old Dorset family, of whom were the descendantsfrom Le Hardy family residing in the Isle of
Jersey since the 15th century. His mother Jemima, a former maidservant and a cook, came from a
poor family, but adapted from her mother the zeal for reading Latin and French romances in
English translation. She was very supportive to her sons education where she taught little
Tomas to read and write before he was four, and instilled in him the love for literature. His
father who was a violin player, passed on to young Thomas a love for music. As Paul Turner
wrote: Apart from parental influences, Hardys childhood was dominated by two things: the
local church and the natural world around him.3

ardy received his early schooling at the National School in Lower Backhampton, in
1848. At the age of 10, he was enrolled at a non-conformist school, where he learnt
Latin and French among other subjects. At a very tender age, young Thomas began

1Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy. A Biography Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2004.

2 Tomalin, Claire. Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man. New York: Penguin Press, 2007.
3 Norman, ed. Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2001.

reading Greek, Roman classics in translation, the Bible and romance. In addition he read
Shakespeare tragedies.4

4Emily Hardy. The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1840-1891 (autobiography), Macmillan, 1928.

Pprenticeship unable to pursue a scholarly or critical career, Hardy became

apprenticed in 1856 to a local architect, John Hicks, who was specialized in
church restoration. Whilst working in Hicks office Hardy had an encounter
with, Henry Bastow, who had a similar interest in classical literature, especially

poetry and religious matters. In Dorchester he met a local school master and a poet William
Barnes (1807-1866), who published poetry about rural life in local dialect in which he had,
inspired young Thomas to start writing his own poems on a similar theme.5
Hardys architectural apprenticeship, which lasted a little more than four years, provided him
with experiences that later informed his fiction and poetry. While still in Dorchester, Hardy met
Horace Moule, a vicars son who became his best friend, being eight years older than him and a
mentor who encouraged him to read Greek tragedies and contemporary English Literature. At
that time the most recent development in English Literature included the publication of Alfred
Tennysons poems Idylls of King, George Merediths two important novels Richard Feverel and
Evan Harrington, Wilkie Collins The Woman in White and George Eliot The Mill on the
Floss. Apart from those in 1859, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, a book
which exerted a profound influence on Hardy.6

n 1862, Hardy was sent to London to work with the architect Arthur Blomfield. During
his five years in London, Hardy immersed himself in cultural scene by visiting the
museums, theaters and studying classic literatures.

Even though he did not stay in

London, he returned to Dorchester as a church restorer, and took his new found talent for writing
to Dorchester as well. From 1862, Hardy wrote poetry and novels, though the first part of his
career was devoted to the novel. His first popular novel was Under the Greenwood Tree,
published in 1872.7

5A Chronology of Thomas Hardy's Collected Short Storiesby Martin Ray (Ashgate, 1997). 1997.
6 Hardy, Evelyn. Thomas Hardy. A Critical Biography. Pg-1 London: The Hogarth Press, 1954.
7Ibid. Thomas Hardy. A Critical Biography. Pg3 -6

With the profit made from his other novel, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), he was able to
marry Emma Gifford. His novels included, The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of
Caster Bridge (1886), The Wood Landers (1887) etc. along with three collection of short stories,
five smaller novels, all being moderately successful.8

Despite the praise Hardys fiction

received, man critics also found his works to be too shocking, especially Tess o DUrbervilles
and Jude theObscure. The outcry against Jude was so great that Hardy stopped writing novels
and return to his first love poetry.

n 1898, Hardy saw his dream becoming a poet under the little Wessex Poems. He was
awarded an honorary degree at the University of Aberdeen and recognized as one of the
most outstanding British authors. After his eighty-seventh birthday Hardy became weak,

due to his reclusive and reticent about his past life. In the autumn 1927 he fell seriously ill and
died on the evening of 11th January, 1928. He was an important influence on Modernism, and
many writers, including Virginia Woolf, O.H. Lawrence and Robert Graves, named Hardy as
influence.9

Thomas Hardy My

opinion is
that poets should express
the emotions of all ages
and the thought of our

http://guyanachronicle.com/braving-rains-lindeners-kick-start-come-on-scene-keep-it-cleancampaign/

8 Halliday, F.E. Thomas Hardy: His Life and Work. London: House of Stratus, 2001.

Summary of the prescribed

List of Poems

Poems

Poet: Thomas Hardy

Afterwards
Darkling Thrush
During wind and Rain
Neutral Tones

The Voice

1. THE VOICE
In this poem, Thomas Hardy emphasized the death of late wife Emma. The beginning the word
women give the idea of the poet being angry however, women much missed shows us that he
misses his wife. In the beginning of the poem Hardy hears Emmas voice calling him, saying
that she has reverted to her earlier self which he loved a lot.
However, in the first stanza of the poem tells us how much the poet misses his wife. They were
in love in the past, but since Emma began to change, Hardy loosed interest in her. The present

9http://www.studymode.com/essays/Analysis-Of-Thomas-Hardy-837853.html

consists of the time after Emma died when the speaker hears her voice, looks back at their time
2. DARKLING
together
and expressesTHRUSH
feeling of grief, regret, guilt and loneliness.
Thomas Hardys The Darkling Thrush, is a poem full of sorrow.It is dark and bleak
even though it possess an atmosphere of sadness it is very deep that demonstrates a lyric, with a
rhyme scheme of abab. It is written in iambic pentameter, and it consists of quatrains, talking
about a lack of faith.
Hardy begins this poem talking about his setting. It was winter, cold and dark looking ugly
outside, and even the sky and the frost was unattractive. It was a very depressing place. The
poet felt that everything around was dead, and the wind sounded like a moan. The world seemed
like it used to be alive, but now its just small and old. The poet believed that everyone around
him felt the same way, even though he felt this, he still somehow felt alone.
All of a sudden, heheard a voice coming from above. At that instant, all that was ugly appeared
beautiful. All whom he thought felt the world was dead, are now seeing it for a second time. All
was good, and everyone was happy. Still, Hardy felt the same instead of thinking things were
beautiful, he thought things had gotten worse.
He felt there was no use in being happy. The things that seemed ugly didnt really matter much
to him, even more scared and alone than before. The air seemed happy, and all were blessed with
hope, but Hardy saw no hope.

3. NEUTRAL TONES
In this poem, Thomas Hardy begins by telling the story of two people in a now-failed
relationship. The setting of this poem is by the pond, where the two once-be lovers meet
together for their sorry love. In the course of their appointment, the girl takes the despising
attitude towards the boy, while the boy is self-evidence that the fine-sounding words uttered for
the girl is nothing, but a trick that gives the boy a bitter hateful impression.
The second verse looks at the womans eyes and the boredom in them, and remembers the
desultory words between the two people, the communication that is no longer a pleasure. The
third looks at the dead smile on the womans mouth, the smile that is no longer alive and joyous.
In the last verse, Hardy notes that whenever he experiences a painful reminder of deceiving love,
he pictures the womans face, and the winter landscape by the pond.

4. AFTERWARDS

In Afterwards Hardy the poet, reflects on what people may say of him after his death, and
represents them as remembering him for all his love and observation of the natural world.
The poem opens with an image of Hardys death. Thomas considers what neighbours may say
to him if he were to die in May. He represents the month as a creature.
The second stanza considers what may be said if he were to die at dusk. The speculation of
third stanza is what would have said if he were to die in the night. The next stanza also
considers death at night but Hardy imagine the neighbours watching the full-starred
heavens of a frosty winter night and thinking of him as a man who observed mysteries.
In the final stanza Hardy imagines his funeral bells ringing bell of quittance. As the
breeze fades, the sounds of the bell are heard more loudly as if they were a new bells
boom.

5. DURING WIND AND RAIN

In this poem Hardy contracts the happiness of his dead wifes childhood with the inevitability of
times victory.
In the first stanza, the family gather around the piano to sing their dearest songs here
Hardy evokes a memory of music and how living things changed and faded. The music was then
changed to the sound of the dead autumnal leaves being blown by the wind Reel has the
sense of leaves falling and being whirled by the wind; together with being a type of song suitable
for a group of people gathered round a piano.
The second stanza, the family elders and juniors work in the garden to make the
pathways neat/and the gardens gay.
The third stanza, sees the family blithely break fasting all but the wind removes the dead
rose from the wall.
In the fourth stanza the happy family had prospered and is moving to a high new
house.Their possessions which indicate they live in some comfort (but not extreme luxury) are
scattered on the lawn all day, during the happy confusion of the more. Although they possess the
brightest things ultimately the rain drop ploughs down the carved names on their
tombstones.

depicts mans destruction to Natures wealth

his is where Hardy associates his feelings of rejection with the details of his immediate surroundings; h
, and a tree, and a pond edged with grayish leaves tells that the poet was engaged in a painful relatio

touch with some blessed hope for the future of mankind in the twentieth century of which the poet is
he Voice the ghost explicitly states that her younger self (the self the poet fell in love with) is doing
ge in the way he acknowledged the environment for what was and is now changing seems like dead le

ertainty and brevity, emphasises the nature of life itself, or Hardy's stay on earth. For the harm that
im to conclude that mankind should desist from their wreck less behaviour and see the creation of God
a world which is devoid of virtues that support human existence, with the thought that man have know