Thomas Hardy met his wife Emma Gifford while he was working as an architect on St. Juliots Church, just outside Boscastle on the North Cornwall Coast. He married Emma in 1874 and she died in 1912, he wrote several poems about their first meeting and their marriage, most of his poems were written immediately after her death. In Hardy’s poems he explores the guilt he feels for neglecting Emma, he uses his writing to absolve himself of this guilt and come to terms with the fact that his wife Emma is now dead.
In the poem “Your Last Drive” the mood of the poem is changing throughout, in each stanza Hardy is recalling something different about Emma. He is thinking about Emma persistently “What profit, move me much?” this line portrays that he will still memorize Emma even though she’s gone. He remembers her in a positive way and also contrasts death and heaven together “To be in a week the face of dead, and you told of the charm of the haloed view”. Hardy representation of Emma is really positive; Imagery is used as he associated her to a lot of light showing that Emma is naive and innocent. Hardy uses simple language in most of his poems “That never again would beam on you” which gives us the clear meaning that his wife is now dead.
In the title “You Last Drive” there is a big emphasis of the word Last it connotes the fact that this was the last time Emma and Hardy went on a drive. Death in this poem is presented very unexpected like it is presented in his other poems, he mentions in the poem the he had no idea Emma was close to death which symbolises the fact that there was a lack of communication between the both as they both use to live in separate rooms and didn’t talk to each other. Hardy uses of rhyming couplets adds a sombre tone to the poem with a few lines of the stanza’s rhyming “tree – everlastingly”, it flows and creates rhythm and then suddenly changes dramatically, causing a huge impact towards the end “Dear ghost, in the past did you ever find” in which he expresses guilt, regret and finally the realisation of Emma’s death.
The Essay on Waterfall Which They Found And How This Waterfall Hardy Emma Poem
... would be 'halted everlastingly'. Hardy expresses deep regret within the poem that he wasn't with Emma on this drive and that he didn't spend ... he uses. Although he wrote thousands of poems, his themes are limited to those of death, regret, love, nostalgia, reminiscence, and missed ... as she would be dead soon. .".. all un discerned" In the next stanza it is ironic that Emma passes the place where ...
In the last stanza Hardy has written it in Emma’s voice, stanza 4 has a main focus of Emma’s voice in which Emma is writing was he thinks Emma is thinking. In a way he is criticizing himself, and is also expressing how much he misses Emma “You are past love, praise, indifference, blame.” Moreover Hardy is so ashamed of himself and is so upset he is disguising Emma’s name like he does in other poems “Dear ghost” he is referring to Emma as a ghost.
In the poem “The Going” Hardy once again is surprised and shocked about Emma’s death and is denial and is drowning in his sorrows. In the first line we sense the shock as he asks Emma a rhetorical question “Why did you give no hint that night”. Hardy portrays Emma as being happy to die and leave him escaping his neglect as they were living together but separately. Emma and Hardy relationship is portrayed as being dead well before Emma “Did we think of those days long dead” this shows us a glimpse of their relationship being dead and gone. In the poem there is a lot of regret, he is remembering Emma in a negative way by neglecting her. This is showed when he says “Darkening…dankness… yawning blackness” which shows us his realisation that he was never there for Emma, she was gradually going to disappear and one day fade away.
Hardy’s language choices change throughout the poem, firstly he talks about his as “I” and Emma as “You” who is representing them as two different people and even though they were married they went together. But then he changes his language in a positive way referring to him and Emma as “Us”. Moreover Hardy uses some techniques linguistically to make the poem poetic and rhythmical to represent reality. There is a strong rhyming scheme, as the rhythm contrast with the poem is jolly and happy while the words are morbid; there is too much urgency and blame. This is shown in the lines of “I seem but a dead man held on end, to sink down soon”, throughout the poem Hardy is choking with a lot of emotion.
The Essay on Death and Decay in Thomas Hardy’s Poems
A lot of Thomas Hardy’s poems share these themes of death and decay. The poems may have diverse topics, but they speak volumes about these themes symbolically or directly. Hardy explains the themes of death and decay in the poem “I look into my glass” in a way that breaks a lot of stereotypes. The poem begins with Hardy’s dissatisfaction at his physical state in his old age. Phrases like “wasting ...
The poem is structured in a way that all stanza’s have a separate focus stanza 1 is all focused on blame and urgency, stanza 2 is all focused on guilt, stanza 3 is all focused on torment and memories, stanza 4 is all focused on positive memories, stanza 5 is all focused on one question of “Why” and in the last stanza Hardy just totally breaks down and is angry with himself “Not even I – would undo me so!” wishing he can rewind back time.
Like most of Hardy’s poem’s “I Found Her Out There” is another journey of Emma and Hardy’s, this journey is a description of Emma and Hardy first meeting which was in Cornwall which is referred to in the first stanza. The first stanza is setting the scene like a story, from the first line and the title “I Found Her Out There” we figure out that this is the first time Hardy saw Emma. The second line “On a slope a few” it is implying that it was a place for just them to away from people’s sight, which makes it sound special and unique. In the second stanza Hardy is blaming himself “I brought her here” this connotes the fact that he brought death to her “And have laid her to rest” which is showing that he is happy she is free and away from him somewhere in a better place. This line also has a reference to heaven like in “Your Last Drive”, in the last stanza hardy has also referred to heaven as in the first view lines he’s talking about her spirit which will always be with him.
Hardy is clearly blaming himself in the poem like the other poems” Your Last Drive” and “The Going” but in this poem he is expressing it much more. “In her loamy cell” this represents that she was in an alienated place and didn’t want to be there. This relates to the history between Emma and Hardy in which they were living together but separately, this is also shown in the two other poems mentioned above. Hardy uses the past tense in the third stanza “And loved so well” this shows that it was in the past now she’s not here anymore their not in love. Denial is a key point in all three of these poems as hardy definitely still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that she is dead. “So she does not sleep” Hardy is giving himself false hope that she may still be alive, he is in his own world but then in the last two stanza’s he finally accepts she is dead “She is far from now”.
The Essay on Abab Format Poem Stanza Person
This poem was very hard to make an argument for to tell what it means. The poem deals with the idea of depression, hurt, weighted choices, and death. It is the most uplifting of poems, but I don t think Emily Dickinson was trying to make it that way. She uses the idea of winter to represent darkness, the comparison of the weight of a choice the heft of Cathedral tunes. She uses a line, which ...
In the last stanza Hardy is referring to reincarnation mentioning that Emma may come back as a child “With the heart of a child”, here he is talking supernaturally and talking about the afterlife. “You Last drive” is a poem which has a change of tone and mood throughout just like this poem “I Found her out there”. Unlike the other poems “You Last Drive” and “The Going”, “I Found Her Out There” is the one poem which brings Hardy back to earth in which he realises Emma is dead, whereas in the others Hardy is in denial and still don’t believe that Emma is now gone far far away from him.
In all three poems Hardy is remembering Emma in different ways, some of which is a journey and some of it which is not. Hardy remembers the days of which they were together, until the days that came that drifted them apart. In Hardy’s poem he contrasts different concepts in “I Found Her Out There” he contrasts time and then relates it to youth and ages and in “Your Last Drive” he contrasts the two concepts of heaven and death. In Hardy’s poems he doesn’t actually mention Emma and he sometimes just disguises her name, this is showing that he is so ashamed and regrets the way he treated her. He realises he drifted her apart, brought death to her and didn’t value her, he didn’t realise what he had until he lost it. He wishes he could rewind back time but finally realises it too late, no matter how much false hope he gives himself Emma will never come back.
