Sadiq Azad
Mrs. Brady
AP Lit and Comp
29 January 2016 Examining Thomas Hardy’s poetic philosophy and style by analyzing his poems profusely is similar to finding a needle in a haystack. The reasoning behind the hardship is attributed to Hardy’s unconventional style of poetry which is influenced by events in his life. Consequently by researching into Hardy’s life, there were connections to his poetic style and its’ inspiration. By making use of eccentric syntax and melancholic tone, Thomas Hardy creates a sense of nostalgia, which is influenced by his personal life and especially the death of his wife, Emma. Thomas Hardy was born in Stinsford, United Kingdom in 1840. He was born in a country where poetry dominated literature and where arguably some of the greatest poets lived including William Shakespeare. Most of his poetry got published in the later part of his life. He also wrote many famous novels to support himself financially. Some of his poetry was inspired by his first wife Emma, to whom he paid little attention to while she was alive. His works include regretful elegies inspired by his late wife. His poems have the effect of longing and nostalgia, solidified by odd syntax and diction. His other works are mostly about uncertainty of fate, time and change, and the relationship between man and nature. Hardy was a Victorian realist and he was also inspired by William Wordsworth poetry style of Romanticism. Hardy was a hardcore idealist and realist as he represented things in life as they really are and not making them out to be paradises as some poets do. He remarried to Florence Dugdale, but could never get over Emma partly because Florence was never able to give him affection that he desired. In his late age Hardy became ill and died, but most importantly, he composed his final poem for his wife Emma on his deathbed. Hardy was always “a time torn man”.