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Generally speaking, Hardy always wrote with a
kind of hopeless pessimism. He wrote much on human sufferings, and their
philosophical root was what he called “chance”, which brought misfortune
into human life. In a short poem, “Hap”, he expressed:
How arrives it joy lies slain
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
Crass casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing time for gladness casts a moan….
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.
And in “Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?” it was not
her former lover or her nearest dearest kin or her enemy but a little dog
was digging the dead woman’s grave in order to bury a bone there. The
bitterness Hardy put into the poem as well as his ironies on “Chance” or
“Hap” was certainly the most dominant emotions that prevailed everywhere in
his verse.
Also, along with his consistent pessimism, Hardy was well
known for his sternness in poetic creation. On one hand, what Hardy wrote
was generally traditional poetry traditional particularly in his use of
rhyme and meter and also in his normal treatment of daily life and his plain
style. On the other hand, as a twentieth century poet, he was also
untraditional. His belief in “Hap” bore many similarities with the theory of
“the Fall of Man”, which was so deeply rooted among western intellectual
world through the century that even T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden in their
later life also so fervently believed in.
Besides short poems, between 1904 and 1908, Hardy also
published The Dynasts of the Napoleonic Wars from 1805 to 1815 all
over Europe. The verse drama, which consists of 3 parts, 19 acts and 130
scenes, finally established Hardy as one of the most famous poets in
England. The Dynasts is considered as a magnificent and comprehensive
work of history, poetry, prose, drama and philosophy.
Napoleon in The Dynasts was much like Satan in The
Paradise Lost. Hardy adopted a special technique of expression in The
Dynasts, that is, besides the conversations and actions of people on the
earth, there were also angels in the sky introducing background knowledge
and giving criticism on human actions. This technique widened and deepened
the theme of the epigram.
The themes of The Dynasts touched many areas as war,
politics and philosophy. While condemning the dynasts of European countries,
Hardy put great sympathy on soldiers and common people. He had highly
praised
General Wellington, who had defeated Napoleon in
Waterloo.
Influenced by Schopenhauer, Hardy also discussed the
inner will of man in The Dynasts. Napoleon was driven by this inner
will and thus caused many tragedies in human world. This inner will is
“Fate” in Hardy’s novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and “Hap” in his
poem.
The Dynasts was written in both prose and verse;
the former for angels and the later including blank verses, hymns and
ballads for human beings.
Hardy was highly adored by the later Modernist
poets and the Auden Group. His poetry served as an important link between
the great Victorian age and the modernist tradition in the 1920s.
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