Thomas Hardy CURRENTLY AVAILABLE BLOOM’S MAJOR POETS Maya Angelou John Ashbery Elizabeth Bishop William Blake Gwendolyn Brooks Robert Browning Geoffrey Chaucer Sameul Taylor Coleridge Hart Crane E.E. Cummings Dante Emily Dickinson John Donne H.D. Thomas Hardy Seamus Heaney A.E. Housman T. S. Eliot Robert Frost Seamus Heaney Homer Langston Hughes John Keats W.S. Merwin John Milton Marianne Moore Sylvia Plath Edgar Allan Poe Poets of World War I Christina Rossetti Wallace Stevens Mark Strand Shakespeare’s Poems & Sonnets Percy Shelley Allen Tate Alfred, Lord Tennyson Walt Whitman William Carlos Williams William Wordsworth William Butler Yeats Thomas Hardy © 2004 by Chelsea House Publishers, a subsidiary of Haights Cross Communications. Introduction © 2004 by Harold Bloom. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Printed and bound in the United States of America. First Printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thomas Hardy / [edited by] Harold Bloom. p. cm. — (Bloom’s major poets) Includes index. ISBN 0-7910-7891-4 1. Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928—Poetic works. I. Bloom, Harold. II. Series. PR4757.P58T48 2004 821’.8—dc22 2004003702 Contributing Editor: Janyce Marson Cover design by Keith Trego Layout by EJB Publishing Services CONTENTS User’s Guide 7 About the Editor 8 Editor’s Note 9 Introduction 10 Biography of Thomas Hardy 16 Critical Analysis of “Hap” 25 Critical Views on “Hap” 28 Joanna Cullen Brown on the Rhetoric of the Mechanical Universe 28 Dennis Taylor on the Language of Personification 31 Robert Langbaum on Hardy’s Late Romanticism 33 Paul Zeitlow on the Dramatic Posturing of the Speaker 35 Critical Analysis of “Neutral Tones” 37 Critical Views on “Neutral Tones” 39 Samuel Hynes on the Characteristics of Hardy’s Mature Style 39 J.O. Bailey on “Neutral Tones” as a Poem about Ruins 40 Trevor Johnson on Hopelessness and Disillusion 42 Dennis Taylor on Hardy’s Word Game 44 Robert Langbaum on Hardy’s Modernism 46 Critical Analysis of “During Wind and Rain” 48 Critical Views on “During Wind and Rain” 51 Samuel Hynes on the Imagery of Tone 51 Geoffrey Harvey on the Universality of Lived Experience 53 Joanna Cullen Brown on Journey through the Stages of Life 56 U.C. Knoepflmacher on Autobiographical Details 59 John Paul Riquelme on the Influence of Shelley 63 John Hughes on Music as a Link to the Transcendent 66 Critical Analysis of “The Convergence of the Twain” 68 Critical Views on “The Convergence of the Twain” 71 Samuel Hynes on Elements of Contradiction 71 William H. Pritchard on Hardy’s Inventiveness 74 Patricia Clements on the Exclusion of Consciousness 77 Joanna Cullen Brown on the Sensuality of “Convergence of the Twain” 80 Tim Armstrong on Fate and Human Error 83 Critical Analysis of “The Darkling Thrush” 89 Critical Views on “The Darkling Thrush” 92 Merryn Williams on the Influence of Keats and Shelley 92 John Bayley on Hardy’s Treatment of Birds 95 Geoffrey Harvey on “The Darkling Thrush” as a Modern Lament 98 Robert Langbaum on Hardy’s Response to Keats and Shelley 101 Brian Green on the Speaker’s Emotional State 104 Peter Widdowson on the Status of Despair 108 Barbara Hardy on “The Darkling Thrush” as a Threshold Poem 112 John Hughes on Hardy’s Ambivalent Attitude Towards Music 114 Critical Analysis of “Afterwards” 119 Critical Views on “Afterwards” 122 Merryn Williams on Curious Optimism 122 Trevor Johnson on Hardy’s Family History 124 Barbara Hardy on Hardy’s Modest Self-elegy 128 Works by Thomas Hardy 131 Works about Thomas Hardy 133 Acknowledgments 138 Index of Themes and Ideas 140 USER’S GUIDE This volume is designed to present biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on the author and the author’s best- known or most important poems. Following Harold Bloom’s editor’s note and introduction is a concise biography of the author that discusses major life events and important literary accomplishments. A critical analysis of each poem follows, tracing significant themes, patterns, and motifs in the work. As with any study guide, it is recommended that the reader read the poem beforehand and have a copy of the poem being discussed available for quick reference. A selection of critical extracts, derived from previously published material, follows each thematic analysis. In most cases, these extracts represent the best analysis available from a number of leading critics. Because these extracts are derived from previously published material, they will include the original notations and references when available. Each extract is cited, and readers are encouraged to check the original publication as they continue their research. A bibliography of the author’s writings, a list of additional books and articles on the author and their work, and an index of themes and ideas conclude the volume. ABOUT THE EDITOR Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. He is the author of over 20 books, and the editor of more than 30 anthologies of literary criticism. Professor Bloom’s works include Shelley’s Mythmaking (1959), The Visionary Company (1961), Blake’s Apocalypse (1963), Yeats (1970), A Map of Misreading (1975), Kabbalah and Criticism (1975), Agon: Toward a Theory of Revisionism (1982), The American Religion (1992), The Western Canon (1994), and Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection (1996). The Anxiety of Influence (1973) sets forth Professor Bloom’s provocative theory of the literary relationships between the great writers and their predecessors. His most recent books include Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, a 1998 National Book Award finalist, How to Read and Why(2000), Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages (2001), Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002), and Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (2003). Professor Bloom earned his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1955 and has served on the Yale faculty since then. He is a 1985 MacArthur Foundation Award recipient and served as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University in 1987–88. In 1999 he was awarded the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Criticism. Professor Bloom is the editor of several other Chelsea House series in literary criticism, including BLOOM’S MAJOR SHORT STORY WRITERS, BLOOM’S MAJOR NOVELISTS, BLOOM’S MAJOR DRAMATISTS, BLOOM’S MODERN CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS, BLOOM’S MODERN CRITICAL VIEWS, BLOOM’S BIOCRITIQUES, BLOOM’S GUIDES, BLOOM’S MAJOR LITERARY CHARACTERS, and BLOOM’SPERIODSTUDIES. 8 EDITOR’S NOTE My Introduction centers upon Thomas Hardy’s last book of poems, Winter Words, and upon its exemplification of Shelley’s lifelong influence upon Hardy. As this little volume gives more than thirty critical extracts dealing with six of Hardy’s strongest poems, I can indicate here only a few that are of particular interest to me. These include Robert Langbaum upon “Hap,” Samuel Hynes on “Neutral Tones,” and John Paul Riquelme on “During Wind and Rain.” “The Convergence of the Twain” is commended for its inventiveness by William H. Pritchard, while John Bayley and Barbara Hardy equally are eloquent upon “The Darkling Thrush.” Hardy’s personal history is related by Trevor Johnson to the elegiac “Afterwards.” 9