The Voice
by Thomas Hardy
Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me,
But as at first, when our day was fair.
Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,
Standing as when I drew near to the town
Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,
Even to the original air-blue gown!
Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness
Travelling across the wet mead to me here,
You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness,
Heard no more again far or near?
Thus I; faltering forward,
Leaves around me falling,
Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward,
And the woman calling.
I first read Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd and the Mayor of Casterbridge when I was studying Victorian Fiction. I found the stories tedious and I had little sympathy for his characters. I wasn’t very hopeful when we moved onto Hardy’s poetry, but his poetry beautiful.
The Voice is my favourite Hardy poem. It is about the idea of love in the beginning of a relationship, how it fades, and realising the value of loved one after they are gone.
Most analysis of this poem discusses Hardy’s state of mind and his remorse when he wrote this poem. Emma and Hardy were estranged in the latter part of their marriage, and he had an affair with his secretary while Emma was dying. After she dies, Hardy longs for Emma the way she was when they first married.
Emma’s ghost haunts the poem through the soft sounds in words like dissolved, breeze, and listlessness. As the poem reaches the final stanza, these sounds are replaced with fs and ths that mimic the faltering and stumbling of Hardy as time moves him away from Emma.
Hardy had already married his second wife when he wrote this poem. The Voice is the regret of letting love fade over time.
Remember, if you'd like to be in the draw to win a copy of 2016 Poetry d'Amour, please subscribe to my blog. The winner will be announced on Valentine's Day.
by Thomas Hardy
Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me,
But as at first, when our day was fair.
Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,
Standing as when I drew near to the town
Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,
Even to the original air-blue gown!
Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness
Travelling across the wet mead to me here,
You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness,
Heard no more again far or near?
Thus I; faltering forward,
Leaves around me falling,
Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward,
And the woman calling.
I first read Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd and the Mayor of Casterbridge when I was studying Victorian Fiction. I found the stories tedious and I had little sympathy for his characters. I wasn’t very hopeful when we moved onto Hardy’s poetry, but his poetry beautiful.
The Voice is my favourite Hardy poem. It is about the idea of love in the beginning of a relationship, how it fades, and realising the value of loved one after they are gone.
Most analysis of this poem discusses Hardy’s state of mind and his remorse when he wrote this poem. Emma and Hardy were estranged in the latter part of their marriage, and he had an affair with his secretary while Emma was dying. After she dies, Hardy longs for Emma the way she was when they first married.
Emma’s ghost haunts the poem through the soft sounds in words like dissolved, breeze, and listlessness. As the poem reaches the final stanza, these sounds are replaced with fs and ths that mimic the faltering and stumbling of Hardy as time moves him away from Emma.
Hardy had already married his second wife when he wrote this poem. The Voice is the regret of letting love fade over time.
Remember, if you'd like to be in the draw to win a copy of 2016 Poetry d'Amour, please subscribe to my blog. The winner will be announced on Valentine's Day.