hardy is most widely known for his novels but in his poetry is a brooding, thoughtful voice that captures nuances and details of the human condition and lays bare his own joys, misgivings, and troubles as he passed through his own waxing and waning. his writing is dense and asks of the reader time to savour its flow as much as the colour and intent of the individual words and phrases. i think that you'll find that the effort is worthwhile.
this particular poem is from a collection of poems entitled wessex poems. wessex poems can be read in its entirety online if you go here.
entitled "the temporary, the all", it draws an arc across the whole of a life as characterized by relationships - of all sorts both inner and outer.
the temporary, the all
change and chancefulness in my flowering youthtime,
set me sun by sun near to one unchosen;
wrought us fellow-like, and despite divergence,
friends interlinked us.
"cherish him can i while the true one forthcome -
come the rich fulfiller of my prevision;
life is roomy yet, and the odds unbounded."
so self-communed i.
thwart my wistful way did a damsel saunter,
fair, the while unformed to be all-eclipsing;
"maiden meet," held i, "till arise my forefelt
wonder of women."
long a visioned hermitage deep desiring,
tenements uncouth I was fain to house in;
"let such lodging be for a breath-while," thought i,
"soon a more seemly.
"then, high handiwork will i make my life-deed,
truth and light outshow; but the ripe time pending,
intermissive aim at the thing sufficeth."
thus i . . . but lo, me!
mistress, friend, place, aims to be bettered straightway,
bettered not has fate or my hand's achieving;
sole the showance those of my onward earth-track -
never transcended!
4 comments:
One more thing we have in common.
I actually became a literature major because I discovered Hardy in high school, reading all his novels and a short book of poetry for a high school class.
I suspect all my other studies suffered as I devoured his novels in the order they were written, but it helped me ace the toughest English class in my high school.
He helped me to see the world in ways I had never seen before, particularly in Jude the Obscure.
hi loren,
i think that jude was the first title i read and it was in high school. it was the only novel that didn't die under the analysis and led me in turn to pick up and read everything hardy wrote that i could find. i'd be hardpressed to identify a single title that i admire more any other but certainly "the woodlanders" would be my desert island choice (today!)
steven
Ooops, I guess I overstated the extent of my reading. A little browsing on Amazon reveals I only read Hardy's novels covered in The Modern Library.
Looks like I have some others to look forward to reading.
well loren, i'd say that you're a lucky man! if you've got more hardy to read, the time and will to enjoy it then go for it!!! a reasonably comprhensive bibliography can be found here . . . http://www.classicreader.com/author.php/aut.23/
steven
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