Thomas Hardy AO5

Critcal interpretations based on Hardy's poetry and themes

Religion

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

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, […] 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” - Claire 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

‘although ‘excited about ideas of his age’, and caught up with the clash between christian faith and modern science, 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

‘a new voice at the end of an era’ - John Carey

Drummer Hodge (political)

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

Drummer Hodge (hope)

‘Ultimately, a hopeful conclusion - ‘Young Hodge’ will ‘reign […] eternally’ amongst the stars’

To Lizbie Browne (V.W.)

Hardy’s poetry offers the reader ‘vision of a man’s lot’ in a changing world of the New Woman - Virginia Woolf