Thomas Hardy’s "A Woman's Fancy": Pathetic Intimacy Between a Women and a Dead Man

Thomas Hardy’s  A Woman's Fancy narrates the progress of a curiously pathetic intimacy between a women and a dead man, initiated by critically mistaken assumptions that both were once man and wife. As is general with narrative verse, it is the broad outlines of the story which give the poem its emotional charge, and encourage the reader’s involvement in two complementary ways.

Thomas Hardy’s A Woman's Fancy is made accessible through the use of traditional verse patterns and direct vocabulary.

A strong rhythmic pattern dominates throughout the regular rhyming of lines two and four, while the repetition of irregular line lengths in each stanza culminates in a dramatic emphasis on the short six-syllable fourth. It is as though we are reading a ballad, where the forms of poetry --- or verse ---- stamp themselves on material often drawn from the lives and language of ordinary people in order to furnish it with broad importance, broad significance. The inversions required at lines 21 and 34, ‘exclaim she’ and ‘uprises he’, add to this effect – the quaintness of the latter, together with ‘thuswise’ , suggestive of a sense of folk tradition.

Thomas Hardy

 Particulars are edited out – ‘She came; she lodged’ – which might otherwise detract from the central focus of the narrative. What stories within stories, for example. Are to be glimpsed at in the severe politeness of the exchange between the two women which comprises the first two stanzas? The friendless woman – never named, although the taking-on of another’s name is a main feature in the very man for whose death she is blamed. Not only is the unable to absolve herself from stories and social prejudices, but the actually succumbs to them to the extent that they progressively determine her own sense of identity. And of course the more she finds herself involved in stories about this dead spectre the more, ironically, she confirms the community’s assumptions.

 The central focus of Thomas Hardy’s  A Woman's Fancy is the strength of tender whim recalled at “As I were, first to last, his dearest,”. In appreciating the antithesis of strength and tender within the context of the whole, we recognize the paradox of fragile fiction assuming the strength of reality. This of course, underlines the raison d’être of the entire poem. Through the art of the ballad the world is shown to consist of narrative within narrative in which humane assertions, doomed from the start, take on a universally tragic dimension.

Lets Remember:

The Story Structure:

👀Thomas Hardy's poem "A Woman's Fancy" is a short, but powerful exploration of the pathetic intimacy between a woman and a dead man. The poem is set in a graveyard, where the woman visits the grave of her lover, who has been dead for many years.

👀The poem begins with the woman describing the graveyard as a "lonely place" where "no footfall stirs." She then goes on to describe the grave of her lover, which is "heaped with moss and weeds." The woman's language is full of pathos, and she clearly still feels a deep connection to her dead lover.

👀The poem then shifts to the woman's thoughts about her lover. She imagines him lying in his grave, "cold and still." She also imagines him "dreaming" of her. The woman's thoughts are full of longing and regret, and she clearly wishes that her lover were still alive.

👀The poem ends with the woman returning to the present moment. She realizes that her lover is dead, and she must accept his death. However, she also realizes that she will never forget him, and that he will always be a part of her.

The pathetic intimacy between the woman and the dead man is created through the use of a number of literary devices, including:

👉Setting: The poem is set in a graveyard, which is a place of death and mourning. This setting creates a sense of sadness and loss, which is appropriate for the poem's theme of pathetic intimacy.

👉Imagery: The poem is full of images of death and decay, such as "moss," "weeds," and "cold." These images reinforce the sense of sadness and loss in the poem.

👉Symbolism: The grave of the dead lover is a symbol of his death and absence. The woman's visits to the grave are a way for her to stay connected to him, even though he is gone.

👉Repetition: The poem repeats the phrase "he lies" several times. This repetition emphasizes the fact that the lover is dead, and that he will never return.

Ardhendu De

Reference

1. A Woman’s Fancy by Thomas Hardy. (n.d.). A Woman’s Fancy by Thomas Hardy - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. - All Poetry. https://allpoetry.com/A-Woman’s-Fancy