Hardy Critics

• Drummer Hodge

  • The poem ultimately offers a hopeful conclusion 'Young Hodge' will 'reign eternally amongst the stars'
  • 'The poem is a cry of rage from an angry poet who witnesses the suffering of men in a hostile universe'
  • 'The poem is anti-war drawing our attention to the uncommemorated victims of a senseless conflict'
• The Darkling Thrush

  • 'poet was simply an observer of an empty and seemingly chaotic universe'
  • 'profound connection between the nihilistic poet and the optimistic Thrush'
  • The Thrush's 'instinctive song represents the natural world's anticipation of Spring and regeneration'
• The Ruined Maid

  • 'She is no longer forced to do demeaning farm labour which begs the question of who is actually ruined'
  • 'Hardy implies that the only way a women can obtain independence in this society is by selling herself'
  • 'The poem could also be read as an internal dialogue: the before or after states of the same person'
  • 'The voices are personifications of the old rural order and the new urban codes in conflict'
• The Haunter

  • 'Old man's sorrow and a young man's bliss'
  • Davie argues 'love triumphs over time' as Hardy asserts Emma' s presence in memory
  • 'Hardy's poetry is pre-eminently about ways of seeing. This is evident in the numerous angles of vision he employs in so many poems'
• The Voice

  • 'Old man's sorrow and a young man's bliss'
  • Jacobson - Hardy's remorse 'wasn't strong enough to allow her to have her say'
  • FEMINIST CRITIQUE - 'even in death, sought to belittle Emma in his relationship with her, Hardy's focus on her clothes reduces her to an object'
• Afterwards

  • Hardy described as a 'time-torn man', but now he comes to acceptance'
  • 'The poem resists the passage of time...there are grounds for seeing this as a quietly optimistic poem'
  • 'one final victory over time by enabling him to speak from beyond the grave; times natural end'
• At Castle Boterel

  • 'the cruel indifference of Time and Nature is symbolised in Castle Boterel'
  • 'the poem itself is an elegiac journey from grief to acceptance'
  • 'Hardy's notion of immortality is achieved through human art and memory'
• The Oxen

  • 'he encapsulates beautifully the urge to find faith that persists even in the face of all his better judgement'
  • 'Although he could no longer believe, he cherished the memory of belief'
  • 'burdened by inescapable memory'
• An August Midnight

  • Hardy gives the insects 'a wisdom dissimilar to that of the speaker'
  • 'wonderfully Darwinian'