HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H01008 "HAUNTING FINGERS QUESTION" ============================================== From: Martin Ray Sender: enl090@abdn.ac.uk Subject: Re: Haunting Fingers Hello everyone I'm puzzled by a phrase in Hardy's poem, 'Haunting Fingers', where he speaks of the 'nebulous light that lingers / In charnel mould' (lines 35-6). 'Charnel' can mean a mortuary, and 'mould' could be the damp growth which one could find there on the walls, but how does light 'linger' in it? Alternatively, 'mould' can mean earth or grave, and 'charnel' can also mean cemetery, or even skeleton. Why should light be especially nebulous in a cemetery, or (even more peculiarly) in a grave? I'd very much appreciate hearing any views about this. Best regards to all, Martin ----- Dr Martin Ray Department of English University of Aberdeen Aberdeen Scotland, UK m.ray@abdn.ac.uk ========== From: erb@segr.demon.co.uk (Roy Buckle) Subject: Re: Haunting Fingers Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 16:12:11 GMT Mould might mean fashion Light might refer to phosphorescence associated with decay- a lingering process All rather horrible! -- Roy Buckle ========-== Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 01:01:09 -0800 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Haunting Fingers I agree, Martin, that it is not easy to explain why a grave or cemetary would be suffused with a nebulous light, unless of course, Hardy is alluding to the vague luminosity we generally associate with ghosts. In the preceding simile the ghostly fingers filming the clavier (keyboard) of the harpsichord are like "tapering flames" albeit "wan" and "cold" rather than having the brightness and heat we usually associate with flame. Interestingly, when I looked up "nebulous" in the OED I found a old architectural form somewhat related to it: "Nebule: a moulding of a wavy or serpentine form." One source describes a "nebuly moulding" as "an ornament in Norman architecture whose edge forms an undulating or wavy line." It would seem quite a stretch to relate this definition to the poem in question. Could Hardy, perhaps, given his architectural background, be relating the words "mould" and "nebulous" either deliberately or unconsciously? Betty Cortus ========== Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 17:59:55 -0600 From: Bill Morgan Subject: Re: Haunting Fingers ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊI can add, perhaps, two bits of data to the discussion: (1) Hardy fussed over line 36 a good deal--Hynes says that in the margin of the holograph he has "tried and erased several alternative phrases, of which only charnel earth and charnel mould are legible."Ê So the nebulosity must have been a feature, in the poet's mind, of the soil itself.Ê (2) T.R.M. Creighton, in his *Poems of Thomas Hardy: A New Selection* (London: Macmillan, 1974), glosses the image as follows: "phosporescent light emitted by decomposing bodies" (p. 348).Ê So far as I can tell, he is the only editor to offer an explanation of the problem phrase.Ê ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊSomewhere, somehow, I have heard before about a strange glow hanging about graveyards, but I can't trace the idea--either in my sieve of a mind or my books.Ê Is there something in *Wuthering Heights* that answers to this description?Ê Anyhow, I'm more or less convinced that "charnel mould" means the soil in a graveyard and that it shines with a "nebulous light" because of some chemical reaction going on below.Ê ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊHope this helps.Ê ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊcheers?ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊBill ========== From: brown@jc.edu Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 15:42:49 -0600 Subject: Re: Haunting Fingers There's Dickens's description of Marley's face, which "had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." Mark Brown ========== From: "Patrick Roper" Subject: RE: Haunting Fingers Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 19:02:03 -0000 Was Hardy talking about bioluminescence? I found the following in a paper called a "History of Bioluminescent Fungi": "The light of luminous wood was first noted in the early writings of Aristotle which occurred in 382 B.C.(Johnson and Yata 1966 and Newton 1952) The next mention of luminous wood in the literature occurred in 1667 by Robert Boyle who noticed glowing earth and noted that heat was absent from the light. Many early scientists such as Conrad Gesner, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Bartolin all observed and made notation of luminous earth(Johnson and Yata 1966 and Newton 1952 ). These early observers thought that the light was due to small insects or animal interactions. The first mention that the light of luminous wood was due to fungi occurred from a study of luminous timbers used as supports in mines by Bishoff in 1823. This opened the way for further study by many other scientists and by 1855 modern experimental work began by Fabre." The rest of the paper can be seen at: http://papercamp.com/sci11.htm I gather that in North America a soft bluish-green light is emitted by fungi found in areas like the Southern Appalachian mountains. This luminescence has the delightful name of 'foxfire'. Patrick Roper ==========