tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post7539968660609843453..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: "An Honest Man Who Will Never Lie To Me"Stephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-58312754975120073412014-10-20T16:47:29.152-07:002014-10-20T16:47:29.152-07:00Anonymous: Thank you very much for your thoughts,...Anonymous: Thank you very much for your thoughts, and for sharing "A Leaving."<br /><br />I think that Gunn's remarks are some of the acutest that have ever been written about Hardy. When it comes to Hardy's poetry (like, say, Larkin's and Edward Thomas's), it pretty much is what it is in terms of what he is saying. Thus, modern critics cannot play their usual explicating games with him (which one senses is frustrating to them). Gunn gets to the heart of what makes Hardy timeless. (And Larkin, as you suggest, made similar observations, particularly when contrasting, as Gunn does as well, Hardy with Yeats.)<br /><br />Your sharing "A Leaving" is a perfect example. There is no "rhetoric" (to use Gunn's word), but the emotion is searing. (I shouldn't pick on Yeats so much, but think of all the histrionic, self-dramatizing poems that he wrote about Maud Gonne, Lady Gregory, and his friends.) <br /><br />Thank you for pointing out the unobtrusive craft in the poem -- i.e., the repetition of "knowing what it bore." This, as you know, happens again and again in Hardy. Which is one reason why revisiting his poetry offers such great rewards. I am always noticing new things in poems I thought I knew. (I am also fond of the accompanying repetition of "rain-smitten" in the second line of the first stanza and the penultimate line of the second stanza.)<br /><br />Again, thank you for visiting, and for your comments.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-6231882133352010652014-10-20T16:21:15.588-07:002014-10-20T16:21:15.588-07:00Mr Ashton: Yes, I've used that method of read...Mr Ashton: Yes, I've used that method of reading Hardy's poetry as well. And, as you suggest, it is always rewarding, whether you discover something new, or encounter something you may have read before, but haven't read in a while. I have James Gibson's 1976 edition in front of me, in which the poems are numbered. There are 947 of them. Hence, as you say, there is a wealth there that will never be exhausted.<br /><br />I have been reading Hardy the past month, and the phrase you use applies quite strongly to my feelings about him this time around: "I find increasingly with the years Hardy has come to mean more and more to me." For instance, poems that I may not have noticed as much when I was younger now take on an entirely different cast.<br /><br />As always, thank you very much for your thoughts, and for visiting.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-57770786724027834602014-10-20T14:49:10.625-07:002014-10-20T14:49:10.625-07:00Your point about Hardy's never resorting to hi...Your point about Hardy's never resorting to histrionics or soaring rhetoric in his poetry, unlike some of the poetry of Yeats, is well made--and it's true. (Larkin could put Yeats and Hardy on the scale and find Hardy "heavier.") It's true, as you note fairly, without equivocation, that Hardy wrote some bad poems, but he never wrote a pretentious one, a phony one. He is, no matter the rhyme or meter, always simple and direct and sincere. Take this poem about the hearse carrying away Emma's body from Max Gate:<br /><br /> Knowing what it bore<br />I watched the rain-smitten back of the car-<br />(Brown-curtained, such as old ones were)--<br />When it started forth for a journey afar<br />Into the sullen November air,<br />And passed the glistening laurels and round the bend.<br /><br />I have seen many gayer vehicles turn that bend<br />In autumn, winter, and summer air,<br />Bearing for journeys near or afar<br />Many who now or not, but were,<br />But I don't forget that rain-smitten car.<br />Knowing what it bore.<br /><br />The poem is devoid of sentimentality, meaning we can respond to it honestly, without Hardy holding our arm behind us. Not a maudlin tone does the poem contain.<br /><br />If one doesn't play close attention, one fails to notice that the end words for the second stanza are those of the first stanza, only in reverse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-30854818957786586552014-10-20T01:58:41.509-07:002014-10-20T01:58:41.509-07:00Mr Pentz, I have been reading a Hardy poem each mo...Mr Pentz, I have been reading a Hardy poem each morning before I leave for work over the past few weeks. Randomly opening the volume of Collected Poems and reading one of the poems on the pages open before me, and yet as others have commented, I had'nt come across any of the poems you've posted before either. There is such a wealth of poetry contained in that one book.<br />This morning, appropriately it was Autumn in King's Hintock Park.<br />Thank you for your own observations of Hardy and for the insightful comments of Thom Gunn<br />I find increasingly with the years Hardy has come to mean more and more to me.<br />Thank you.John Ashtonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-91077387385888126842014-10-19T18:59:07.332-07:002014-10-19T18:59:07.332-07:00Anonymous: Thank you very much for sharing "...Anonymous: Thank you very much for sharing "A Death-Day Recalled": it is, I think, one of Hardy's most moving poems in the aftermath of his wife's death, and it fits perfectly here. It also brings to mind the line from "Autumn in King's Hintock Park" that I singled out in a recent post: "Earth never grieves."<br /><br />I apologize for having brought to mind a sad memory for you. But I appreciate your sharing it in such a thoughtful manner.<br /><br />Thank you very much.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-57470112029001715722014-10-19T14:20:33.042-07:002014-10-19T14:20:33.042-07:00You asked,"[H]ave you ever walked out from a ...You asked,"[H]ave you ever walked out from a hospital into the sunlight after someone you love has died?"<br /><br />Yes, I have. My mother died one bright July morning. I had followed the ambulance to the ER. I paced in the cheerless waiting room. After the doctor came to me, told me the sad news, I walked out into sheets of light falling prodigally from a cloudless sky. The heavens were afire. The world had not changed at all. I rode home through a world going about its business. I had business to do: grandchildren to inform, siblings to call, relative to notify, and in a short time a funeral to prepare. And I had to do these things in summer world full of sunlight and birdsong and trees rioting with greenery. Why couldn't the world apprehend? That's one of those questions we hurl into eternal darkness, from which no answer ever returns. <br /><br />In his poem "A Death-Day Recalled," Hardy wonders, though of course he knows better, why the natural world does not lament that one who loved this world has died. His asking the question makes his point better than if he had said, "We die and the world does not notice our going, does not care, is indifferent to the love and hopes of humanity."<br /><br />Beeny did not quiver,<br />Juliot grew not gray,<br />Thin Valency's river<br />Held its wonted way.<br />Bos seemed not to utter<br />Dimmest note of dirge,<br />Targan mouth a mutter<br />To its creamy surge.<br /><br /><br />Yet though these, unheeding,<br />Listless, passed the hour<br />Of her spirit's speeding,<br />She had, in her flower,<br />Sought and loved the places -<br />Much and often pined<br />For their lonely faces<br />When in towns confined.<br /><br /><br />Why did not Valency<br />In his purl deplore<br />One whose haunts were whence he<br />Drew his limpid store?<br />Why did Bos not thunder<br />Targan apprehend<br />Body and breath were sunder<br />Of their former friend?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-2852454793140420712014-10-17T18:46:01.781-07:002014-10-17T18:46:01.781-07:00Sam Vega: As ever, thank you for visiting, and fo...Sam Vega: As ever, thank you for visiting, and for your observations.<br /><br />I agree with you about "frisked" and "whangs." I recall someone commenting (at the moment, I can't remember who -- it may have been Philip Larkin or C. Day Lewis) that these words chosen by Hardy that may seem odd at first blush usually turn out to be perfect, and often make the entire poem come together. <br /><br />By the way, with respect to "frisked," you may recall that Hardy uses it in another poem, which is why the word has always stuck in my mind: "I was the midmost of my world/When first I frisked me free." Both poems appear in Late Lyrics and Earlier. I don't have a concordance of Hardy's poetry (or his fiction), so I don't know if he uses it anywhere else.<br /><br />Your observations on "Nobody Comes" are excellent and thought-provoking. I, like you, tend to think that most of Hardy's poems come from direct personal experience. And I think that this is in fact the case. But I also agree with you that in "Nobody Comes" (and there are other poems of this sort) there is a more general philosophizing (although I am not sure that that is the correct word) present as well.<br /><br />As for "finding" the poems: as I suggested in my post, they "found" me by happy accident. No "work" was required. They have long been favorites of mine.<br /><br />Thanks again. I always appreciate hearing from you.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-3262702251399861162014-10-17T12:46:43.402-07:002014-10-17T12:46:43.402-07:00Just like Fred, I hadn't read any of these bef...Just like Fred, I hadn't read any of these before. Thank you for taking the trouble to find and present them - although I suspect such work is not too onerous!<br /><br />Just a couple of little points. In "Just the Same", the term "frisked" is interesting. Nobody would believe that it would work in that context, but it does. The same applies to "whangs along" in "Nobody Comes". Edwardian slang, I suppose. But it sits nicely with the lamps and the telegraph wire. Things which suggest modernity and raciness are no shield against this type of sadness.<br /><br />I have fallen into a habit (or trap) of seeing a lot of Hardy's poems as being about missing one particular person. Someone who rejects him, or is lost because of illness or death. "Nobody Comes" can be read in this way: the promised or imagined visit which did not materialise. But it is possible that this is about a more diffuse and subtly existential pain. That of ageing, and loneliness in general. The comfortably well-off elderly man who walks to the end of his drive and briefly waits, because of the emptiness of his domestic life. Again, almost unbearable.<br />Sam Vegahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05978971199859845931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-6942525692183000482014-10-17T10:56:25.307-07:002014-10-17T10:56:25.307-07:00Fred: Thanks for the follow-up comment. It shoul...Fred: Thanks for the follow-up comment. It should be nice up there this time of year. I had hoped to make a trip to the Midwest (Minnesota) this year to enjoy the autumn color, but I won't be able to do so.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-84405658071091535222014-10-17T10:52:49.947-07:002014-10-17T10:52:49.947-07:00Mr. Bauer: I'm happy to hear from you again. ...Mr. Bauer: I'm happy to hear from you again. Thank you very much for the kind words. Please don't worry about not commenting! I fully understand. The fact that you are stopping by -- with or with out commenting -- is greatly appreciated.<br /><br />I hope that all is well. Thank you again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-22937910304426507502014-10-17T09:54:34.239-07:002014-10-17T09:54:34.239-07:00Stephen,
I haven't been up there yet, as I...Stephen,<br /><br />I haven't been up there yet, as I've just returned from a visit to the Chicago area to visit a brother. The leaves were just beginning to turn at that time. I plan on going to the Catalinas next week to see what's happening there.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-24405882078225838182014-10-17T09:44:27.902-07:002014-10-17T09:44:27.902-07:00Dear Mr. Pentz. I haven't commented in many mo...Dear Mr. Pentz. I haven't commented in many months, but continue to visit here several times a week, always finding a few moments of peace, good pictures, and poetry. It has been a crazy couple of years, and that will continue for a few more. So please keep up the good work. It is appreciated more than you know. Thank you. Edward BauerEdward Bauerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14234329254784727525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-54435028086221497762014-10-17T09:33:18.622-07:002014-10-17T09:33:18.622-07:00Fred: You're very welcome. My pleasure. As ...Fred: You're very welcome. My pleasure. As I suggest in the post, there are many more like this hidden away in his Collected Poems, and they are easy to miss. One of the delights in reading Hardy is that you always have the feeling that something may be just around the corner.<br /><br />It's good to hear from you again. As ever, thank you very much for visiting. I hope that you have gotten up into the mountains to see some autumn leaves.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-57891505515401551602014-10-17T08:11:18.225-07:002014-10-17T08:11:18.225-07:00Stephen,
Thanks for posting these hidden gems, no...Stephen,<br /><br />Thanks for posting these hidden gems, none of which I had encountered in my brief browsings through Hardy's poems.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233846613173866140noreply@blogger.com