At an Inn

• A03:

  Poem is suggested to be autobiographical based on the relationship between Hardy and Henniker

  
  

  Poem arguably explores an inconsitent love experinced by the speaker
• A04:

  Five stanzas of octets with an alternating metrical pattern of iambic trimeters
• Quote 1:

  'Yet never the love-light shone between us there
• A02:

  Tonal shift from excitement and joy to harsh reality , speaker recognises the actuality of their relationship and that no love exists between them contrasts outward facade and appearance (Daisy and Tom's relationship)

  
  

  Alternatively can be argued to be in reference to the futility of Gatsby and Daisy's love
• Quote 2:

  'The pane-fly's tune
• A02:

  Dejected double entrendre homophone - pane- in reference to a struggle against a window (love that is thwarted ) / 'pain' as the speaker comes to realise the vain nature of the relationship
• Literary context:


  Victorian poetry had a moral purpose and tackled issues of love, truth and justice arguably Hardy utilises 'At an Inn' as societal commentary for love and the issues it entails
• A05:

  'The speaker curses the fact that fate has thrown them together
• A03:

  - The Victorian period (1837-1901) was known to be carefully censored, straight and exacting in standards, for example the values of the period such as religion, morality, evangelism and personal improvement, took root in Victorian morality.

  Hardy passionately opposed these constraints in his literary work as a poet and a novelist.

  The Victorian period was extremely strict in terms of permitted sexual relations; sex was not openly discussed which meant that many people born into the Victorian age were both factually uninformed and emotionally ill at ease about sexual matters. Additionally, moral panic over prostitution was at height in the 1850s and 1869s. This was partly because it betokened visible female freedom from social control. Female prostitutes enjoyed economic and personal freedom.

  - One of the most notable things about Victorian-age poetry is the constant return to themes of isolation and loss of innocence as well as romantic love and social injustice.

  'At an Inn' looks at the phases of love, that the first flush of love and

  desire, when anticipation is everything and lovers are yet to consummate their feelings is when two lovers' romantic and sexual attachment is most apparent to the world. It is when they have loved for years that they may go unnoticed by the world

  - In the Victorian period, poetry was highly valued and very popular. Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth (died 1850) were particularly revered and recited.

  - Much of Victorian poetry had a moral purpose, intended to oppose and object to the unfair social and political systems. This can be seen in 'At an Inn' as the speaker assesses the social constructs which hinder the blossoming of the love he desires. It is also seen in the scrutiny of the inn workers who make assumptions about the couple's status.

  - Another notable characteristic of
• A03

  In 'At an Inn' he addresses the conflicting issue of falling in love with a woman who (if we read the poem autobiographically) is married. Victorian society prevents the speaker from acknowledging any serious potential for the blossoming of such a love and then the tragedy in the final stanza of its impossibility when such restrictions are removed.

  Hardy wrote and published his poems at a time when ideas put into circulation by Darwin's Origin of Species were just beginning to take hold. Many of his readers would have still believed that the world was created by an all-powerful and loving God. This context is relevant in 'At an Inn' where the speaker draws on the ideas that a supernatural force brings the couple together. Hardy was agnostic and it is significant that his speaker questions the influence of much greater forces as a means of explaining the intensity of emotion and highlights his desperation to understand the situation.