Valeria Arón
The Voice

The Voice is a very private poem, written when the author was feeling very lonely because of his wife´s death. His desperation over her death is evident in this poem, through every line he is begging her to return.

As we said before he is tormenting himself, he misses his wife. “How you call to me, call to me”, the echoing on those phrases give us a feeling that he is crying for help, in order to be together again, to join her. The author uses the technique of repeating the same phrase several times in order to make it more painful. Therefore we can see how lonely he feels.

We can say that he is completely alone because he refers to she as “the one who was all to me”, the author is telling us that she was everything for him. It could be due to Hardy´s treatment towards his wife during the last months of their marriage. Maybe he regrets of something or his behavior towards her. He is filled with guilt inside him, now he implores Emma to appear to him. The author even takes a risks as describes the exactly way in which he would like so her “Let me view you then, standing as when I drew near to the town”.

As a conclusion of the first verse we can say that the author is trying to express how his wife changed. He hears her saying that she has changed from who she was before, “you are not as you were “, “when you had changed” the second quote is even more clear because he specific uses the word itself.

The author writes the poem using the second person and she address the woman directly, “when you”, by using the word you it give us a more personal and direct feeling. He is talking specifically to her, even though he knows she is dead. She is gone. The author also express a feeling of nostalgia when he says how the things use to be “where you would”, not now but in the past it would. Perhaps he misses the past times because they were young, and the whole world was new and fresh to them “our day was fair”, everything was perfect, with no problems. Also the “air-blue”, convey us a picture of a perfect day, when they were courting, when they were young.

On the last lines it is seen that the poet is confused whether it was only the wind that he heard, “Or is it only the breeze (…) travelling across the wet mead to me here”. The author warns about his wife death, “listlessness” he is confirming us that she is without strength. She is no longer able to survive. When Hardy talks about the death he didn’t not address it directly, he uses words such as “dissolved” or expression like “Heard no more again”. That’s when the author is able to testify that his wife is gone, in a more poetic way.

Finally, in the last verse we get to understand that a fear that “the voice” is imaginary replaced the entire hope that he showed on the first paragraphs. We can find and empathy while on the first verse he uses the phrase “call to me” as an echo on the last verse he uses the phrase “heard no more”. Confirming us that the voice that the was hearing the whole time was only an illusion. The feeling of nostalgia and loneliness create it.