During Wind and Rain Flashcards
Context of poem
Hardy wrote “During the wind and rain” in 1917, five years after his wife Emma Hardy’s death in 1912. Like lots of his poetry after her death, Thomas Hardy’s poem reminisces Emma’s life. In this poem Hardy focuses on her family and the inevitability of death.
“During the Wind And Rain” has three main themes: the inevitability of time and how death comes with that hand in hand, how no one is special enough to be exempt from death, and finally how material possessions are worthless while overshadowed by oncoming storm. Winter is coming.
“They sing their dearest songs –
He, she, all of them – yea,
Treble, tenor and bass,
And one to play
“They” - contrasts with Hardy making himself the subject in other poems, yet he is still an outsider
“their dearest songs” - warmth of feeling, they carry the implication that this is an activity which is regularly enjoyed
“treble and tenor and bass”, “he, she, all of them” - unity, singing together
“yea” “play” “bass” “face” - rhymes are full and lead to a sense of warmth and swinging joviality
“With the candles mooning each face….
Ah, no; the years O!
How the sick leaves reel down in throngs”
“candles” - faces lit by candlelight should be comforting domestic image
“mooning” - faces distorted or blanked out in the candlelight
“moon” - symbol of mutability and this is perhaps the first omen or harbinger of death in the poem - makes the hearty singing futile
“Ah, no; the years O!” - slight volta in stanza, still like a song though, makes it sounds slightly ironic, caesuras, breaks of realisation but also for musical purposes
“sick leaves” - first powerful momento mori, conventional image of death and decay,
“reel” - connotations of illness as a person might reel when feeling faint or ill, but also means a Scottish or Irish dance, contrast, link to singing
“throngs” - a throng is a densely packed crowd, multitude of falling leaves, uncontrollable death or passing time
“They clear the creeping moss –
Elders and juniors – aye,
Making the pathways neat
And the garden gay”
“clear the creeping moss” - trying to clear nature, maybe trying to avoid the bad in life, neglect it and ignore it so that the inevitable bad won’t happen
“creeping” - subtle undertones of unstoppable power of the time, connotations of sneaking up on you unaware
“Elders and juniors” - everyone is affected by time
“pathways neat” “gardens gay” - happiness, illustrates cleaning and decorating, activities usually reserved for happy times, yet also implying it is futile
“And they build a shady seat….
Ah, no; the years, the years;
See, the white storm-birds wing across!”
“shady” - almost dark, not quite dark, premonition of darkness (death) to come
“….” - time passing, suspense, build up the next line
“Ah, no; the years, the years” - shows the speed of how time passes and how the speak can’t keep up with it
“white storm-birds” - animal sensing danger, ominously foreshadows the coming of a storm, or ‘Wind and Rain’ that the birds are flying from
“They are blithely breakfasting all –
Men and maidens – yea,
Under the summer tree,
With a glimpse of the bay,”
Echoes first stanza, happy, normal scenes
“blithely breakfasting” - naive, happy, unaware of fate, basic yet also utopian, captures a far away world, paradise that Hardy is out of touch with
“Men and maidens” - links to elders and juniors, how no one can avoid fate of time
“under the summer tree” - the family is encased in this utopian world, unaware of the future, ignorant bliss
“While pet fowl come to the knee….
Ah, no; the years O!
And the rotten rose is ript from the wall.”
“pet fowl” - controlling nature
“rotten rose is ript from the wall.” - alliteration illustrates the violence and unexpectedness of the attack, forced action, not natural, cruelty of life, links to “sick leaves” that time is a force of decay
“rotten” - connotations of ruined beauty, mixed with the stench of death
“rose” - thing of beauty, juxtaposition
“ript” - fury, conveys feelings of suddenness that is reinforced by how close this is to when they had “a glimpse of the bay while pet fowl come to knee
“They change to a high new house,
He, she, all of them – aye,
Clocks and carpets and chairs
On the lawn all day,”
The final stanza is the saddest as it mixes the arrival of death with the uselessness of materialism after we are all dead and gone.
“change into a high new house” - seems to be happy, but euphemism for heaven
“He, she, all of them – aye” - repeated line from stanza one, shows us how none of the happy family we met in the first stanza were spared the wrath of the storm.
“Clocks” - subtly refers to theme of time
“Clocks and carpets and chairs” - alliteration, steady rhythm, like clock ticking
“Clocks and carpets and chairs On the lawn all day,” - the hope and prosperity becomes an image of exposure - time decays material and renders them useless
“And the brightest things that are theirs….
Ah, no, the years, the years;
Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs”
“the brightest things that are theirs….” - even their favourite items are not going to reminisce about their old owners but rather settle down to a new family
“brightest” - gives the impression that everything that is worthwhile or valuable to the family is sold and almost forgotten when they die, it also links our thoughts to heaven, where everything is bright , everything this family might of valued themselves by is worthless to them in their “high new house”
“Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs” - the weather is used to subtly affect feeling as the stereotypically sad rain “ploughs” “down their carved names”. The tombstone reference completes the poem with a final stroke that ends the play as we realise the family’s lives too have ended.
“ploughs” - repetitive action, shows how time goes on despite their death
Structural points
All four stanzas have a repeating format. There are five lines painting a happy scene followed by two lines full of sadness and grief in juxtaposition to the first half to starkly contrast the two emotions. An ellipses that illustrates the passage of time separates the two halves of the poem. The rhyme scheme repeats itself between the stanzas as opposed to the lines, which reinforces the feeling of inevitability. The penultimate line is repeated through the stanzas as well as an exclamation of sadness: “Ah, no; the years”
Final points
At the same time the main lively business of each stanza, the first five lines, refers to times of bright happiness - times, almost always, which are spent outdoors - indicating the seasons of spring or summer. Whereas the final line invariably evokes the colder seasons of autumn and winter. Hardy uses the annual, seasonal changes as a metaphor for the changes in the human condition which, in reality, take a number of years; but the inevitability of each stanza’s final two lines is like the inevitability of death.
