The Voice - Hardy Flashcards
What is the voice about?
The poem “The Voice” by Thomas Hardy is a haunting meditation on grief, loss, and memory. The voice in question is that of Hardy’s deceased wife, Emma, who appears to him in a dream or vision, speaking to him in her familiar tones and urging him to join her in death. The poem is marked by a sense of deep longing and melancholy, as Hardy struggles to come to terms with his loss and grapples with the possibility of reuniting with his beloved in the afterlife. The voice itself is portrayed as ethereal and elusive, at once a source of comfort and a reminder of what has been lost.
Themes of Universality
The poem is deeply personal, but also universal in its themes of loss and grief. It speaks to the human experience of longing for something that is gone, and the desire to connect with the past.
The energy and momentum generated by his passionate desire to see Emma have given way to a lifeless list of words drained of vitality: ‘listlessness’, ‘dissolved to wan wistlessness’, ‘no more’.
Relationship between memory and reality
The poem explores the tension between memory and reality. The speaker is aware that the voice is not real, yet it still has the power to affect him deeply. He wonders if the voice is a figment of his imagination or if it is a real echo from the past.
Introduces a motif in the first line with the repetition “how you call to me, call to me” —> Poem suggests a kind of echo
“Can it be you that I hear?” + “Or is it only the breeze” —> The repetition of questioning are indicative of his unsettled state of mind
The tension between memory and reality in “The Voice” highlights the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of human experience. The speaker’s struggle to reconcile memory with reality underscores the powerful emotional impact that memory can have, even when it is not rooted in physical reality.
‘Woman Much Missed”
emphasises distance between man and woman
“how call to me, call to me”
The repetition of “call to me” creates a sense of urgency and longing, suggesting that the speaker is desperate to hear the voice again.
“leaves..falling”, Wind from norward
Pathetic fallacy of winter
“Can it be you that I hear?, or is it only just the breeze?”
The repetition of questioning are indicative of his unsettled state of mind
