Loss Flashcards
Introduction to Loss in Hardy and Eliot
Romantic Loss In Hardy and Eliots poetry depicts a pattern of disconnection and complete disparity.
Spiritual Loss shows similar themes but reveals connotations of a silver lining, even though it is a weak one.
Hardy and Eliot on ROMANTIC LOSS
The Haunter and The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock.
Both are monologues - The Haunter is a dramatic Monologue while Prufrock is an internal monologue. However, both monologue techniques come to represent a sense of disconnection
Haunter quote for disconnection (motif of the ghost):
“Hover and hover a few feet from him”
Repetition of “thereto!” shows a false sense of agency
The repetition rhyme with ‘do’ and ‘thereto’ ends each stanza with a strong sense of underlying entrapment.
But the exclamation mark shows a strong desire for motion and closeness
Hardy’s manifestation of the ghost shows for a strong sense of longing for connection, but even this ghostly version of Emma that is a figment of his imagination is unable to reach him.
Widdowson
Hardy’s remorseful lyrical elegies on Emma… depend on the silencing of her voice
Widdowson suggests that the Emma’s apparent longing for Hardy could be a fiction, as one must remember that it is Hardy taking on Emma’s voice and may bend the story. Therefore, in Hardy’s imagination, the contents of the poem become unreliable and Hardy himself becomes a unreliable narrator
Quote: however truth does show up in description of the past which is reliable
There is a shift to past tense in the second Stanza. The repetition of ‘when’ connotes a haunting past.
“When I could say them he did not say them”
The ‘When’ almost becomes a Euphemism to signal to the reader this is when Emma was alive. This is a point of reflection For Hardy, but also blame on himself.
“Never he sees my faithful phantom”
The absolute shows that shows even when living he did not see it. Hardy calls her a ‘faithful phantom’ as a recognition of her loyalty which he did not even ‘see’ when she was alive and not can never see again.
Quote: The nature of Hardy’s fiction however makes it an even stronger longing for connection
“I companion him to places only dreamers know”
This is a recognition from Hardy that this is a fiction which he inhabits. While ‘places only dreamers know’ seems to paint a mystical and magical connection which the haunter and poet share, the truth is that Emma is limited to only appearing in dreams due to her passing. Therefore this becomes a bitter reminder of their limited or rather non-existent connection
Shelston
The consciousness of loss cannot be compensated by the artifice of memory
Quote: Emma is only a memory but a fading one
Hardy depicts the dreams as where “shy hares print long paces” - the atmosphere is a timid and fleeting one.
“Into old aisles where the past is all to him”
Hardy sees his memory as a destination where Emma exists. The old aisles can be a manifestation of some old memory such as wedding aisles or perhaps aisles is symbolic of rows of memories.
“all to him” shows loneliness and isolation.
There is no hope in the end
“What a good haunter I am, O tell him’
- Mixed with pride and pain. O tell him seems to be a desperate plea to the reader, but it is ironic as Hardy knows how good she is due to her continued absence.
“Faithful one is doing all that love can do”
- Over optimistic about unwavering loyalty. Contextually, their marriage was consumed by separation, so it is as critic widdowson says - the silencing of her voice allows for him to create a new version of her.
“Still that his path is worth pursuing, / And to bring peace thereto”
- this is a selfless hope from a ghostly figure that is not real. Hardy has fabricated a forgiveness as he longs for absoluteness that will bring him ‘peace’
- the loss remains unresolved. He tries to solve it by trying to perhaps understand Emma’s point of view by taking on her voice.
The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock
The love Song of J Afred Profrock is an internal monologue where the poet takes on the voice of Prufrock an anxious and lonely urban inhibitor. Like The Haunter, there is a strong desire for connection that ever comes to fruition
Quote: starts with a false sense of agency just like The Haunter
Let us go then, you and I
the repetition once again shows entrapment
false sense of agency and false sense of togetherness
Perry
occupying a consciousness that is destined to go nowhere
For Hardy, this was due to the death of Emma, BUT for prufrock it is an internal emotional paralysis that causes this.
Quote: paralysis
“When the evening is spread out against the sky/ Like a patient etherised upon a table”
- WHILE Hardy in his imagination depicts scenes that are often associated with romantic poetry, Eliot uses a jarring simile to disrupt it
- ‘spread out’ connotes possibility, while etherised suggests immobility and unconsciousness - showing the numbness of feeling
- Therefore, the pathetic fallacy shows Prufrock’s own trapped nature through an absurd simile, while Emma’s is a softer metaphor of a ghostly figure
Quote: Perry mentions destiny: while Hardy’s romantic loss stems from a lost time - Eliot’s comes from time that is running out
Emmas death spurs Hardy into Romantic action - for prufrock the fear of death makes him retreat further into solitude
repetion of ‘there will be time’
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”
- Prufrock seems to be increasingly concerned with time as he measures it out to a ridiculous amount. But the mention of teas spoons seems like his life is made up of minuscule and forgettable moments
- the motif of having tea is repeated throughout
“And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker”
- capitalised Footman shows that it is a metaphor for death. But here it is portrayed as a servant, Prufrock doesn’t imagine his death as some dramatic event, but an ushering out.
- eternal is contrasted with his mortality
- he is self conscious and fears judgement
- the image of death doesn’t make Prufrock spring into romantic action (as EMMAS DEATH did for Hardy), but it makes him retreat further.
Ending
The imagery of the Mermaids seem to at first offer some kind of romantic connection (a fantasy). “combing the white hair of the waves” is romantic imagery - but it is also a futile image.
Prufrock sees love as a threat: Contextually Sirens lead men to their death
“till human voices wake up us, and we drown”
his imagination is bad, but it is reality that is his true living hell. His imagination is simply a further manifestation of his insecurities but just in a fantasy context.
Even in his imagination “I do not think they will sing to me” - his imagination is not a refuge like it is for Hardy.
The ending is foreshadowed in the epigraph
Dante’s Inferno:
Count Guido is speaking of a personal confession and regret for his sins while trapped in hell.
Prufrock is in an emotional Hell and confesses this to the reader.
This is much like how Hardy himself confesses his lost love to the reader
Count Guido is plagued with regret of not acting honourably - Prufrock is plagued with not acting on love just like Hardy.
Guido only speaks because he thinks there is no hope of his story getting out - Prufrocks confession also stems from a lack of hope of anything changing from here on
Religious and Societal Loss
The Darkling Thrush and The Hollow Men
Context on the Darkling Thrush
Written on December 12, 1990, is a reflection on the turn of the century
Quote: Decline of western civilisation shown through landscape
“Spectre-grey” and “weakening eye of the day”
Rather than taking the landscape as a sign of Christmas cheer as suggested by the timing, Hardy sees nothing but death. The Frost is associated with death, emphasising the harsh winter. The sun is weakening with no sign of renewal
Hynes
Sense of a tragic nature of all human existence
- yes but he puts the blame on humans too
QuoteL Decline of western civilisation shown through simile
“The tangled bine stems scored the sky/ like string of broken lyres”
- The CONTEXT on “coppice” is a forest that is cut back to stimulate growth - here it is left unkept. This shows the laziness of mankind. the adjective ‘scored’ demonstrates the violent and destructive consequences of this.
- SCORED ADDS AN EXTRA SYLLABLE OF STRESS
- Lyres (Ancient Greek instrument often accompanying poetry) a symbol of western culture, and music as a symbol of harmony and joy. The fact that it is ‘broken’ further emphasises decline - with no connotation of fixing or healing.
- more CONTEXT: This can also be seen as a commentary on urbanisation. industrialisation marked people leaving rural areas and moving to cities - leaving these places unkept.
FORM: Hardy develops a ballad form, one of the oldest poetic forms. This is link to western culture and a memory or a better civilisation for Hardy. But the form is also used for religious hymns - perhaps foreshadowing the appearance of the Thrush and religious hope.
Sought their household fires - becomes judgmental and regards it as a retreat. Fire becomes a destructive force rather than life-giving.
Quote: Western civilisation is dead and hopeless (becomes and elegy) - the writer offers no hope
“centurys corpse outleant”
- The metaphor turns the poem into an elegy. The metaphor links nature to death directly
- outleant - he is the only one our here reflecting and examining the failed century - as if alone at its funeral
“the ancient pulse of germ and birth/ Was shrunken hard and dry”
- Something ancient and long-lasting is disrupted.
- germ and birth refers to religious renewal of life - he finds this hopeless
- hard and dry lack images of rain and water - showing a lack of regeneration
- this is final
Quote: Religious Hope
“At once voice rose”
- breaking of the silience
- personification of the thrush suggests it is the Holy Spirit
“Full-hearted Evensong”
- these are evening prayers and songs
- this is a stark contrast to the dying and desolate landscape
Frail hope
“aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small”
list of fragility that diminishes the bird. But it also makes it seem even more like a miracle due to the amount of jo it shows is not proportional to its body
FORM: “small” and “soul” are half-rhymes, showing their disproportionate.
“fling its soul…upon the growing gloom”
- and image of dark versus light
- the thrush is portrayed as a hero but also desperate
Perkins
No hope is closing the gap between the speaker and bird
the hope is justified
noting how little reason there is for the bird to be “caroling”—singing religious songs—with such joy and ecstasy. The bird’s hope and joy seems frankly unreasonable to the speaker.
However, although there is cause for such hope written on a ‘terrestrial thing’, Hardy suggests the Thrush is something divine and from heaven that justifies its hope.
Ending
“Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.”
“blessed Hope” - more connotations of divine intervention
The caesura emphasises a difference between him and the bird.
“I was unaware” - can make the hope unwarranted - or shows a sense of a divine plan of hope which he is not yet aware of.
The structure of the rhyme scheme stays the same in the end and so does the setting. But its seems like the thrush has changed the mood - there is now an uncertainty in the poet
The Hollow Men
