H05036 HARDY AND WORDSWORTH - 4/25/05 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES __________________________________________________________________________
From: patrick@prassociates.co.uk
Subject: Hardy & Wordsworth
Date: April 25, 2005 6:33:50 AM PDT
Yesterday I read the poem 'Ruth' by William Wordsworth and was struck by
some of the parallels between it and the writing of TH. I am sure that this
must have been noticed before and I wondered if it had been written about,
or discussed by this group.
Wordsworth's poem is essentially about a lonely country woman who meets a
dashing soldier/adventurer, marries him and goes to North America. The
relationship ends in tears and she spends the rest of her life, after three
years in an asylum, wandering in the Somerset countryside.
I was, perhaps not surprisingly, reminded of Bathsheba (another biblical
name), Tess and parts of The Woodlanders. The soldier with his dramatic,
exotic appearance and wild ways seems quite close to Sargeant Troy and so
on.
A particularly striking parallel is in the lines:
And coming to the banks of Tone,
There did she rest; and dwell alone
Under the greenwood tree.
The river Tone is the one that runs through Taunton (called 'Toneborough' by
TH and in his 'Outer Wessex'). 'Under the greenwood tree' I had always
thought was from Shakespeare's 'As You Like It', but there could be other
sources (it may, as an expression, be older than Shakespeare).
Interestingly in Hardy's eponymous book he seems to use the phrase in a new
way, though he does explain at the end of the novel that he is referring to
a large tree in Yalbury Wood. Previously, as in the Wordsworth, the
greenwood seems to have meant the wilderness; the places to which, like Sir
Patrick Spens in the ballad, one was banished; the places 'beyond the gates
of the world' where people like Robin Hood and those outside conventional
society lived. UTGT, of course, paints a picture of a country village that,
it seems to me, was far from being beyond the conventional society of its
day.
I would be interested in any comments or views on these issues.
Patrick Roper
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From: ericjchristen@bluewin.ch
Subject: Hardy and Wordsworth
Date: April 25, 2005 8:08:12 AM PDT
In the May 1995 issue of the Thomas Hardy Journal there was an excellent
article by F. B. Pinion, HARDY AND WORDSWORTH: MORE KINDRED THAN CONTRARY?
Besides I seem to remember Jim saying, in more than one of his lectures,
that DOMICILIUM was quite Wordsworthian.
Eric Christen
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From: jackfar@mail.utexas.edu
Subject: Hardy and Wordsworth
Date: April 25, 2005 8:32:30 AM PDT
For an absorbing discussion of this topic, see
Casagrande, Peter "Hardy's Wordsworth: A Record and a Commentary," (ELT) English Literature in Transition (1880-1920) 1977; vol. 20: 210-37
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From: schweikr@localnet.com
Subject: Hardy and Wordsworth
Date: April 25, 2005 11:49:48 AM PDT
Patrick Roper's recent query to the Forum on Hardy and Wordsworth
elicited two very helpful replies by Eric Christen and John Farrell who
refer to publications in 1995 by the late F. B. Pinion in the Thomas Hardy
Journal and in 1977 by Peter Casagrande in English Literature in Transition.
Those postings by Christen and Farrell prompted me to search the MLA and
ABELL (MHRA) electronic bibliographies for references to such studies,
using "Hardy" and "Wordsworth" as keyword search terms. The MLA
search returned 18 items, including, of course, the Pinion and Casagrande
publications but many other potentially useful items including two by Dennis
Taylor. The ABELL search, using "Thomas Hardy AND William Wordsworth"
came up with 33 items--but did not catch the Casagrande publication. TTHA's
retrospective Jeanie Smith bibliography (1990-1999) contains 2 additional
items, and TTHA's Checklist (2000-2005) has 4 others.
I didn't search the subject index to the Gerber/Davis bibliography, but, certainly,
there will be some to be found there, too.
In short, Patrick, there is god's plenty out there!
Bob
Robert Schweik
University Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
State University of New York
Fredonia, NY 14063
schweik@fredonia.edu
schweikr@localnet.com
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From: nhardyboy@aol.com
Subject: Re: Hardy and Wordsworth
Date: April 25, 2005 12:00:23 PM PDT
Interesting--not one hour ago I was teaching Hardy's poetry to my sophomore-level lit students, and off the top of my head I commented on the similarity between "Drummer Hodge" and Wordsworth's "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal." The contexts of the two poems are of course radically different, but both have at their cores the image of the dead becoming one with the environment. Dare I think this is an original idea, which I should quickly publish, or is it yet another observation I gleaned during the haze of dissertation work and have only now called to mind?
Paul Niemeyer
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From: Carolyn.McGrath@newham.gov.uk
Subject: Hardy and Wordsworth
Date: April 26, 2005 6:30:05 AM PDT
Two quick dips into the internet brought an article by James K. Chandler's
article 'Turning the Century With Thomas Hardy', discussing the
relationship of Wordsworth and the lyrical ballad to Hardy and 'The Darkling
Thrush' (which is of interest to this electronic forum) and an announcement
of a lunchtime discussion group (in 2002 so we've missed it) with Seamus
Heaney conducting a 'reading in the parlour' where they discussed 'Drummer
Hodge', 'A slumber did my spirit seal' and Emily Dickinson's ' Because I
could not stop for Death' - so, a connection has been noted before, but not
necessarily published.
Carolyn McGrath
EMA Advisory Teacher (KS3)
Ext:: 85024
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From: patrick@prassociates.co.uk
Subject: RE: Hardy and Wordsworth
Date: April 26, 2005 10:00:25 AM PDT
The last two verses of Wordsworth's 'Lucy Gray' also have this element. I expect there are many more examples.
However, is it not a very widespread human feeling that people one knew who are dead are 'out there' somewhere and not at all surprising that poets should frequently pick up this theme?
Patrick Roper
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From: hardycor@owl.csusm.edu
Subject: Re: Hardy and Wordsworth
Date: April 26, 2005 10:21:52 AM PDT
Paul, If I can be crassly immodest, my essay "The Cycle of Regeneration:
Metamorphosis in Hardy's Poems" which appeared in Vol. V (2002) of *The
Hardy Review* deals with the concept of the dead becoming one with the
environment. In my 1993 CUNY dissertation "TH: Death and the Afterlife
in the Poems" I, in fact, identify ten different ways in which Hardy
gives his dead people a secular, or natural, rather than a orthodox
Christian afterlife.
Best Wishes,
Betty Cortus
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From: schweikr@localnet.com
Subject: Wrong Address!
Date: April 26, 2005 11:41:06 AM PDT
Sorry, I addressed my posting to the forum on Hardy and Wordsworth
to Patrick Roper when, of course, it was intended for Paul Niemeyer.
Bob
Robert Schweik
University Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
State University of New York
Fredonia, NY 14063
schweik@fredonia.edu
schweikr@localnet.com
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From: nhardyboy@aol.com
Subject: Re: Wrong Address!
Date: April 26, 2005 12:38:55 PM PDT
Well, I'm not offended, though perhaps Patrick is offended to be mistaken for ME!?
That said, I appreciate the responses to my musing about "Hodge" and "A Slumber." I never actually thought I came up with an original idea. . .since there's now a book out telling us there are only seven basic plots, I'm sure there are even fewer critical perspectives!
Paul Niemeyer
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From: patrick@prassociates.co.uk
Subject: RE: Wrong Address!
Date: April 26, 2005 12:58:09 PM PDT
Well, I think I am quite flattered really, though I must admit I am struggling to reach up to Bob's thought when he says he was talking to me when he meant to be talking to you.
Since it is nearly 9pm I think I'll sleep on it.
But please, Paul, don't abandon your idea - I am but a humble ecologist and not at all qualified to talk on literary matters. Mind you, one does come across a great deal of metamorphosis in the natural world and I am sure that whatever has been said always needs saying again in a different way and from a different perspective.
Patrick Roper
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