Hardy Overviews

Question 1

Neutral tones

Answer 1

1. Recalling a romance that ended by a pond in winter
2. From this he gets a disappointment in love which he has carried with him
3. Overriding tone is bitter and depressed

Question 2

I look into my glass

Answer 2

1. Speaker reflects that even though his body has aged it does not reflect his spirit
2. Wishes his emotions have been affected as well
3. Can’t wait peacefully for death

Question 3

Drummer Hodge

Answer 3

1. Hodge starts as an unimportant figure of war
2. By the end he becomes a vital part of something that lasts longer than any conflict
3. Central irony is that a simple country boy from Wessex has been permanently transplanted into a foreign land
4. Ironically he dies for something he doesn’t understand

Question 4

Darkling thrush

Answer 4

1. Man is leaning on a gate as night falls
2. Apprehensive feelings going into the new century- abundance of luminal spaces
3. He hears a thrush sing
4. Bird seems to bring a glimmer of hope

Question 5

On the departure platform

Answer 5

2. Starts with a moment of farewell
3. He is left alone but she goes off on a journey
4. Shift towards the end- they will meet again but it won’t be the same

Question 6

The going

Answer 6

1. Speaker is distraught at the sudden death of his partner
2. Remembers idyllic courtship and contrasts it with estrangement
3. Shifts from questioning to acceptance

Question 7

The voice

Answer 7

1. Speaker suspects that he hears the voice of his dead lover
2. He distrusts his own senses

Question 8

At the word farewell

Answer 8

1. Man who is leaving a woman and he does not think they will meet again
2. With hindsight he realises that fate was going to bring them together

Question 9

During wind and rain

Answer 9

1. Succession of vignettes of happy moments
2. Don’t last long
3. Conveys Hardy’s negative feelings about the passing of time
4. Everything will end in death

Question 10

In the time of breaking nations

Answer 10

1. 3 rural vignettes in times of war
2. Endless cycle of work will continue even while political arrangements of Europe change
3. Contrasts peaceful actions of ordinary people with the significance of war but subverts expectations by making humanity move forward whilst the consequences of war fade

Question 11

No buyers a street scene

Answer 11

1. Husband and wife trying to sell their wares

2. Woman longs for a more fulfilling life but is unable to escape her current circumstances

Question 12

Nobody comes

Answer 12

1. Night falls and speaker is left at a gate alone waiting for someone
2. A car passes as he thinks it may be for him but it doesn’t stop
3. Explores romantic isolationism and the speakers loneliness and sense of discomfort with weariness
4. Anticlimactic ending