Hardy's morbid fascination with death

Ok, so the title for this post may not be everyone's (or anyone's) idea of some light Saturday reading, but I promise my next post will be more light-hearted! Well, not based on death anyway. But, although I can't claim to have read a huge amount of his work, the geekier side of me finds Hardy's poetry profoundly fascinating and interrogative. Death is a key theme in many of Hardy’s poems- undoubtedly a reflection of his personal life, emotions and experiences, and reveals a lot to the reader about Hardy himself. However, in each poem that deals with the idea of death, it is presented in different ways depending on the subject matter of each specific poem.

Hardy’s poem ‘Afterwards’ is a clear exposure to the poet’s own thoughts on death; he presents his thoughts on his own death through euphemisms, referring to death as ‘the Present latching its postern behind my tremulous stay’ to introduce the theme in the opening stanza, and continues the utilisation of these euphemisms through the poem, postulating death as being ‘like an eyelid’s soundless blink’. Such expressions evoke Hardy’s thoughts on dying in a soft, gentle way, resulting in a somewhat optimistic perspective on death. The tone of ‘Afterwards’ is not fearful and threatening, but rather calm and pensive, as a result of imagery in the form of euphemisms. To me this suggests the poem is a representation of his fascination with, rather than fear of, his own death.

Also, it has been suggested that ‘Afterwards’ reads like an obituary and has epitaphic resonances, as it is clearly a very personal poem, shown by the use of personal pronouns when talking about ‘my tremulous stay’ and ‘if I have been stilled at last’. The use of this first person on many occasions reveals Hardy’s own emotions and musings on the concept of death.

In contrast to speaking about his own forthcoming death, Hardy's poem ‘The Going’ is about his late wife Emma’s death and his emotions since her passing. Clearly the very name hints Hardy's curiosity with death in the poem. The final stanza of this poem, in particular, echoes the recurring theme of dying, as Hardy refers to himself as ‘a dead man held on end’; this blunt and forceful line suggests Hardy’s anticipation of his own death. In a similar manner, Hardy conveys the absoluteness of death in the last stanza, describing it as ‘unchangeable’. The use of this polysyllabic adjective, followed by an unexpected full stop in the middle of the line, implies a resignation to the inevitability of his own death. Following this, he merely states ‘it must go’; this simple sentence emphasises the sense of finality in Hardy's own life.

In ‘The Voice’, Hardy’s choice of diction once again helps to put across his powerful feelings on death with the use of phrases such as ‘wan wistlessness’, which suggest a sense of regret and remorse following the death of Hardy’s ‘much missed’ first wife Emma. The sibilance of these soft-sounding words juxtaposed together reflect Hardy’s melancholy mood on the loss of this key figure in his life; indeed the poem might lead us to consider that Emma’s death was the reason for his morbid fascination with death. The reminiscent and sensuous tone, created by the words ‘call to me, call to me’ and the use of a rhetorical question of ‘can it be you that I hear?’, again convey Hardy’s morbid fascination with death in a remarkable and lyrical way.