Revision help for thomas hardy in aspects of narrative
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The Voice Under the Waterfall Neutral Tones At an Inn and, Your Last Drive
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One second, i have a a bullet pointed word document for all the hardy poems. I don't think my notes on AAI or YLD are very good though.
Under the Waterfall
Arguably autobiographical - he uses Emma’s persona
Reminiscence and nostalgia match the lyrical telling and idyllic rustic pastoral imagery
Challenges the eternal nature of love; “thickening shroud of gray”. The moment is gone “slipped, and sank”
But the memory lasts forever: “there the glass still is”, “its presence adds to the rhyme of love”
The mundanity of triggering event
The stolen “chalice” represents/symbolise their love of “that time”
The second voice challenges the speaker’s ideas of reliving memories/sentimentality
Irregular stanza form shows the instability of living in the past
Remorselessness of time/change: “jammed darkly, nothing to show how prized”,“its smoothness opalized”
Rhyme couplets represent “the rhyme of love”
Onomatopoeic diction and rapid rhythms to mimic motion/sound of the waterfall
Neutral Tones
Universal theme of dying relationship, no specific names make it relatable, for empathy etc
Metaphorically uses nature to represent dying love - pathetic fallacy, setting
Natural background replicates sombre mood, winter, monochromatic, gray leaves, ash
“Chidden of god”, “ominous bird” “god-curst sun” - link to hardy and religion/fate (eg darkling thrush)
Oxymoronic personification “the smile on… strength to die”
Otherwise largely emotionally restrained/detached – passive and reflective
Repetitive rhythms and circular regular structure and mirrors the “tedious” nature of their relationship
This memory is etched into his memory and “have shaped to me” “keen lessons” on “Love deceives”/“bitterness”
Under the Waterfall
Arguably autobiographical - he uses Emma’s persona
Reminiscence and nostalgia match the lyrical telling and idyllic rustic pastoral imagery
Challenges the eternal nature of love; “thickening shroud of gray”. The moment is gone “slipped, and sank”
But the memory lasts forever: “there the glass still is”, “its presence adds to the rhyme of love”
The mundanity of triggering event
The stolen “chalice” represents/symbolise their love of “that time”
The second voice challenges the speaker’s ideas of reliving memories/sentimentality
Irregular stanza form shows the instability of living in the past
Remorselessness of time/change: “jammed darkly, nothing to show how prized”,“its smoothness opalized”
Rhyme couplets represent “the rhyme of love”
Onomatopoeic diction and rapid rhythms to mimic motion/sound of the waterfall
Neutral Tones
Universal theme of dying relationship, no specific names make it relatable, for empathy etc
Metaphorically uses nature to represent dying love - pathetic fallacy, setting
Natural background replicates sombre mood, winter, monochromatic, gray leaves, ash
“Chidden of god”, “ominous bird” “god-curst sun” - link to hardy and religion/fate (eg darkling thrush)
Oxymoronic personification “the smile on… strength to die”
Otherwise largely emotionally restrained/detached – passive and reflective
Repetitive rhythms and circular regular structure and mirrors the “tedious” nature of their relationship
This memory is etched into his memory and “have shaped to me” “keen lessons” on “Love deceives”/“bitterness”
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#3
I don't like these two as much, probably won't use them tomorrow:
At an Inn
Autobiographical, Hardy and his lover (not emma) go to an inn; the owners think they’re “more than friends”, when actually “Never the love-light shone between us there”.
Years later, he looks back and wishes they were actually together “as we stood then”
Irony of actually being “strangers” when the owners are jealous of their apparent “bliss”
Love is personified: “shaped us for his sport in after hours?”rhetoric, fits in with Hardy’s views of higher powers/fate
Final stanza is ironic as they finally want to together like people thought they were, but can't because of “laws of men” and geography
Then consider the alternative interpretation of the sexual connotations running throughout.
Your Last Drive
He drives past her graveyard and remembers when they drove through together “eight days” earlier (link to other reminiscent poems egat castle boterel)
He figures she gave no hint that she would die because she was “undiscerned” “heedless”, and “never you’ll know” what he does
Yet he still declares he will not neglect her now, calls her “Dear ghost”
Final bleak couplet has him accepting she is dead after engaging in a dialogue with her ghost
Yeah, I'm not so hot on YLD. Hope these are helpful, if you can understand them at all, aha.
At an Inn
Autobiographical, Hardy and his lover (not emma) go to an inn; the owners think they’re “more than friends”, when actually “Never the love-light shone between us there”.
Years later, he looks back and wishes they were actually together “as we stood then”
Irony of actually being “strangers” when the owners are jealous of their apparent “bliss”
Love is personified: “shaped us for his sport in after hours?”rhetoric, fits in with Hardy’s views of higher powers/fate
Final stanza is ironic as they finally want to together like people thought they were, but can't because of “laws of men” and geography
Then consider the alternative interpretation of the sexual connotations running throughout.
Your Last Drive
He drives past her graveyard and remembers when they drove through together “eight days” earlier (link to other reminiscent poems egat castle boterel)
He figures she gave no hint that she would die because she was “undiscerned” “heedless”, and “never you’ll know” what he does
Yet he still declares he will not neglect her now, calls her “Dear ghost”
Final bleak couplet has him accepting she is dead after engaging in a dialogue with her ghost
Yeah, I'm not so hot on YLD. Hope these are helpful, if you can understand them at all, aha.
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