Is Hardy Essentially a Victorian Poet - Essay Example

John Crowe Ransom described Hardy as essentially a Victorian poet, in which sense is this true Hardy initially viewed himself as a poet, in spite of the fact that he was an outstanding novelist as well. Over his life course he created over 900 poems, most of them were really spontaneous, and a few of these lyrics are the works of lasting lyrical genius. Hardy produced his poems before his career as an architect and throughout the whole period he was creating novels as a means of earning his living. In 1896, extremely critical reviews of 'Jude the Obscure' and 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', combined with his own 'literary inferiority complex' and his considerations of the novel form, led to his abandonment of prose writing in favor of poetry for the rest of his life. His first volume of poems, Wessex Poems, was not published before 1898, even though a number of its lyrics dated from the 1870s. Early critics found Hardy's lyrics tasteless as well as his novels, in particular, because of their unsophisticated style, pessimistic motifs and abstractive philosophy. He was also charged with his simplistic refrains and uncomplicatedness of his lyric forms. Furthermore, he was "accused of writing lyrics that were flawed by the pervasiveness of the philosophy that informed them. Gothic architecture loomed in the back of Hardy's mind throughout his career as a poet, providing a powerful model for artistic unity and complexity" (Mitchell, 1988, p.307). Contemporary critics admire his self-sufficient 'evolutionary meliorism' and his sharp poetical irony, woven into his own psychological insights as well as modernist 'spareness' and roughness of his poetic and melodic experiences. His poetry is a quintessence of loss, severe nostalgia and the somber borders of human hope and love. To great extent, Hardy saw himself as a poet - foremost a poet - through his literary career, and even though his poetic heritage is not always acknowledged by critics, his numerous powerful verses, such as 'Nature's Questioning', 'Neutral Tones', 'The Convergence of the Twain' and many others, make the reader re-think one's own existence and human emotions on the background of Victorian landscape. "His poetry is spare, unadorned, and unromantic, and its pervasive theme is man's futile struggle against cosmic forces. Hardy's vision reflects a world in which Victorian complacencies were dying but its moralism was not, and in which science had eliminated the comforting certainties of religion" (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2004, p. 684 (21027)). Thomas Hardy is often seen as a Victorian poet (Williams, 1972; Page, 2000; Mitchell, 1988) for his perception of time, space and external objects, typically attributed to Victorian realism. Thus, it is important to outline the typical features of classical Victorian poetry. First of all, poetry was considered superior than prose by Victorian poets, because the real genius can be noticed in lyrics and rhymes. Poetic illustration of social problems was vital, and poets were viewed as masters of style and rhythm, due to their ability to interweave profound philosophy (including philosophy of life) with such social issues, as marriage, gender and education. Secondly, Victorian poets widely used retrospective forms (such as epigram, epitaph and elegy) and archaic language. In addition, they sometimes referred to ancient mythical characters, especially to those from Greek mythology. On the other hand, despite the general elaboration of language and style, many poets practiced simplistic and colloquial genres. Thirdly, Victorian poetry is also characterized by the use of social themes, such as individual versus society, social drama, as well as by realistic approach (influenced by the emergence of Utilitarianism, Unitarianism and other moral theories). In addition, many poets appealed to the reader's sympathy and sentimentalism as well as to his/her imagination (Page, 2000) (especially as it related to rural landscapes and pastorals), but merely within the realistic context. In addition, the poets wrote mostly about the present time and described the epoch in sophisticated and critical manner simultaneously, so it is possible to say that the age of realism in literature has its own specification within the Victorian context. As for the stylistic details of Victorian poetry, the poets used neat stanzas (division) within a verse, and regular meters (rhythm), so that the poem looked strictly-organized and accurate regardless of its contents. That is to say, Hardy never recognized his own sympathy with the Victorian poetry during his poetic career. He exaggerated Tennyson's worries about the religious debates, presented in Victorian science and positivism, but he never longed to become a poet with a powerful heroic voice and bardic style. "Hardy's own lyrics often achieved the spoken harshness and toughness of Browning, but he eschewed Browning's persistently pervasive optimism. "'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came'," was perhaps Browning's most Hardyesque poem" (Williams, 1972, p.92). Hardy had almost none of the illustrative passion of Victorian poets like Tennyson and his PreRaphaelite 'descendants'. Hardy's images are rather architectural than illustrative, and his pastoralism, typical for Victorian poets, is to personal, it seems so private that the reader feels embarrassed when interfering into it. His pastoralism reflects Hardy's own dreams and fantasies, associated with early childhood: "This bears his missives of life and death With quickening breath, On whom the rain comes down" ('An autumn rain-scene', 1904, in the World's Poetry Archive, 2004, p.35). This poem reflects Hardy's decadence, his pessimistic perception of life, and probably, his nostalgia. It is possible to notice visualization of the object that corresponds to the requirements of Victorian poets for realism. Human eye at that time was considered, figuratively speaking, a filter, which can separate good from evil and beauty from ugliness. Similarly to the Victorian poets, Thomas Hardy might seem 'melancholic', when considered in terms of pathetic fallacies and criticism of the external world. On the other hand, such pathetic fallacy was a trope, which is an inherent characteristic of human language. Pathos, along with criticism was also a characteristic of Victorian poetry, especially for those times, when realism was steadily turning into symbolism and impressionism. In addition, it is important to note that Hardy's own perception of image was mostly inanimate so that the reader is able to imagine it in an inert state with further developing the image into an animate object. This was similar to Victorian paintings that, figuratively speaking, made an object remain inanimate in order to fix it in viewer's imagination. "For Hardy, to perceive is to personify, which implies that his writing not only uses but indeed requires prosopopoeia, and that the fulfillment of this requirement makes his writing possible" (Nishimura, 2003, p.178). For instance, describing the speaker's dead lover in the verse titled 'Her immorality', Hardy shows the object in a static state, and the ray represents (personifies) this inanimateness: "I lay, and thought; and in a trance/She came and stood thereby/The same, even to the marvelous ray/That used to light her eye" (The World's Poetry Archive, 2004, p.88). It is possible to note there the author's appeal to reader's sentimentality, or more, precisely, to the sense of 'harsh reality' that split two persons forever. This also points to typically Victorian perception of death as a mystical phenomenon. To see the dead person means to touch something supernatural, to dive into this 'paranormality' that Victorin scholars attempted to rationalize and conceptualize. Furthermore, in spite of the fact that his era and the demands of his time had considerable impact on Hardy, it is possible to note scarcely apparent irony, directed to Victorian mores. This, probably, was his own 'revenge' for accusations of obscenity related to his novels, but nevertheless Hardy, as a Victorian poet, touches social themes, such as marriage, family and maternity: "For now they solace swift desire/ By bonds of every bond the best/If hours be years. The twain are blest" ('At a hasty marriage', in The World's Poetry Archive, 2004, p.38) . As one might assume, the verse philosophically illustrates the development of family relations and connections as Victorian morality required -for years, for the whole life. On the other hand, the title 'At a hasty marriage' transparently cues at the author's ironical attitude towards marriages and family life, celebrate by 'descent' citizens living in the Victorian age. This short poem makes one consider social issues, despite its abstractness, reinforced by the refrain 'The twain are blest'. One might also assume that the poet regrets about something - either about his own understanding of marriage that didn't allow him to enjoy family life properly, or about inappropriate treatment of his first wife, who had to endure his impulsive offences. In his 'Poems of 1912-1913', Thomas Hardy exhibits to the reader his intensely personal poetic verse illustrating such issues as self-blaming and the loss of a loved one; the curse that forces a person to abide faithfully to the memories of the dead in light of vagueness with which such remembrances are re-thought. Three verses from the volume: 'Without ceremony', 'Beeny cliff' and 'At Castle Boterel' demonstrate the experiences Hardy and Emma had had before their marriage. "The poetry that Hardy produced subsequent to the death of his sometimes estranged wife marks a point in time when Hardy reflected on the meaning in his own life. Consequently, the death of Emma, and a general insecurity in the placement of humans in that new millennium, spelled for Hardy reflection and regret" (Bailey, 1969, p.105). 'Without ceremony' is a a painful decsription of Emma's last days before she slipped into a coma. After her death, Hardy finally understood that their marriage was not as happy as the Vicorian moralists promoted and advised, and that was his fault. His melancholy was close-knit with his perception of Victorian ethical doctrine so that Hardy blamed and sentenced himself. All those verses are rhymed and fit into the criteria of Victorian verse for their underlying psychosocial problems. Furthermore, the Hardy apparently incorporated the use of mythology, which was a typical feature of Victorian verse. These poems make an impression of ambiquety and make the reader switch between the natural and supernatural worlds -for instance, in 'At Castle Boterel' one can notice the depiction of nature, while the author's thought switches from reality to 'underworld' - the only place where he can meet his beloved Emma. This poem has also symbolic context, and looks like a transitional stage between Victorin poetry and symbolism that converted images into symbols and broadened personification. For instance, the castle itself can be viewed as symbol of inertness and stability, while human life is so unstable: the author had been there with Emma prior to their marriage, and now, after her death, he visits this place alone, but the castle has remained almost the same. In 'Beeny Cliff' hardy continues the theme of swiftness of time. Cliff is a metaphor for time that moves forward mechanically, routinely and without any concern for people, and Emma "cares for Beeny, and will laugh there nevermore" (In the World's Poetry Archive, 2004, p.46) The issue of mythology is widely used in the 'Poems of 1912-1913': in his verses Hardy refers to eternity of love as his only salvation and exemplifies it by the stories of Tristan and Iseult, Orpheus and Eurydice, Aeneas and Dido that were studies in the Victorian age as moral patterns of firm life-long monogamic family life. By referring to these tragedies and by re-thinking them in his consciousness, Hardy spiritually renewed himself. Hardy's 'The Convergence of the twain' is also an example of Victorian poem. 'The Convergence of the twain' is "an astonishingly realized picture of the Titanic (1912) couched on her eternal sea bed, which takes the sinking of the liner as a metaphor for all the failed hopes and optimism of the era through which Hardy had just lived" (Page, 2000, p.211). He usually loathed 'the jeweled line', and in this particular poem forces the reader to re-evaluate the beauty of the spoken word, or, more precisely, the mixture of 'higher' style and colloquial language: "As the smart ship grew/In stature, grace and hue, /In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too" (in The World's Poetry Archive, 2004, p.199). On the other hand, it is important to note that Hardy himself hated Victorian sexual mores - this emotion is apparent is his 'Dark-eyed gentleman'. The poem "shows us a case where the conventional wisdom is untrue: an illicit pregnancy brings joy. But Hardy is not satisfied with this, since it only shows the convention to be ridiculous and, by implication, harmless" (Nishimura, p.185). He forces the reader to realize that it is hideous as well; and so the implications of misery creep in, the ideas of bigotry and intolerance in the background. On the other hand, Hardy, becoming an artist and realist, tries to depict the situation as it is; and his character has her own importance, but since she has it only in her response to the principle, the convention is endorsed by the process in a way that Hardy, the polemicist, could not probably have planned: "Yet now I've beside me a fine lissom lad/ And my slip's nigh forgot, and my days are not sad/ My own dearest joy is he, comrade, and friend/ He it is who safe-guards me, on him I depend" (In the World's Poetry Archive, 2004, p.50) His description of an unplanned pregnancy challenges Victorian mores, so in fact it is hard to determine whether the poem attacks or defends them, but with respect to Hardy's ironic implications concerning the marriage and family life, one might assume that he, to some degree, respects the woman that doesn't regret about her sin. In general, Hardy is considered 'the last Victorian' (Page, 200, p.32), whose literary search was not limited by the frames of Victorian principles. Works cited 1) Bailey, J. The poetry of Thomas Hardy: A handbook and commentary. London: Macmillan, 1969. 2) The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press, 2004, Vol. 6 3) Hardy, T. Selected poems. The World Poetry Archive, 2004. 4) Mitchell, S., ed. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988. 5) Nishimura, S. Thomas Hardy and the language of the inanimate. Studies in English literature, 1500-1900, 2003, vol. 43. 6) Page, N., ed. Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 7) Williams, M. Thomas Hardy and Rural England. London: Macmillan, 1972. Read More