Thomas Hardy - critical quotes

(Hardy critics quotes based on themes)

Religion

“a man with a God-shaped hole” - Claire Tomalin

love and relationships

war

“the poem is anti-war, drawing our attention tot he uncommemorated victims of a senseless conflict”

isolation

death/mortality

modern world

“Many of his poems express a lack of resolution regarding the ultimate nature of reality’ – Bruce bennet

The Voice

“focuses not on his grief for his wife, but on a self indulgent depiction of himself, no doubt, in this reading, designed to evoke pity” - feminist reading of ‘The Voice’

The Haunter

“The Emma poems move between an old man’s sorrow and a young man’s bliss” - Tomalin

At Castle Boterel

“a perpetual elegy on the death of possibility” James Richardson

To Lizbie Browne

“ loves women for their beauty and their mystery, but at the same time detests the power they have over him” - ?

Afterwards

“Hardy wanted to be remembered here as simply a ‘lover of nature’” - Allingham

The Oxen

“although he could no longer believe, he cherished the memory of belief, and especially the centrality and beauty of christian ritual in country life” - Tomalin

The Darkling Thrush

“god shaped hole” - tomalin

An August Midnight

Drummer Hodge

“the poem is anti-war, drawing our attention tot he uncommemorated victims of a senseless conflict”

Heredity