The Second of a Hundred Reasons to Love Thomas Hardy as a Poet

The Second of a Hundred Reasons to Love Thomas Hardy as a Poet.

So I have already explored my first reason for loving Thomas Hardy as a poet, now it’s time for the second. A large quantity of his poetry revolved around life’s one certainty, death. The poem below, Friends Beyond, is no different.

Friends Beyond.

WILLIAM DEWY, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at plough,
Robert’s kin, and John’s, and Ned’s,
And the Squire, and Lady Susan, lie in Mellstock churchyard now!
“Gone,” I call them, gone for good, that group of local hearts and heads;
Yet at mothy curfew-tide,	5
And at midnight when the noon-heat breathes it back from walls and leads,
They’ve a way of whispering to me—fellow-wight who yet abide—
In the muted, measured note
Of a ripple under archways, or a lone cave’s stillicide:
“We have triumphed: this achievement turns the bane to antidote,	10
Unsuccesses to success,
Many thought-worn eves and morrows to a morrow free of thought.
“No more need we corn and clothing, feel of old terrestrial stress;
Chill detraction stirs no sigh;
Fear of death has even bygone us: death gave all that we possess.”	15
W. D.—“Ye mid burn the wold bass-viol that I set such vallie by.”
Squire.—“You may hold the manse in fee,
You may wed my spouse, my children’s memory of me may decry.”
Lady.—“You may have my rich brocades, my laces; take each household key;
Ransack coffer, desk, bureau;	20
Quiz the few poor treasures hid there, con the letters kept by me.”
Far.—“Ye mid zell my favorite heifer, ye mid let the charlock grow,
Foul the grinterns, give up thrift.”
Wife.—“If ye break my best blue china, children, I sha’n’t care or ho.”
All—“We’ve no wish to hear the tidings, how the people’s fortunes shift;	25
What your daily doings are;
Who are wedded, born, divided; if your lives beat slow or swift.
“Curious not the least are we if our intents you make or mar,
If you quire to our old tune,
If the City stage still passes, if the weirs still roar afar.”	30
Thus, with very gods’ composure, freed those crosses late and soon
Which, in life, the Trine allow
(Why, none witteth), and ignoring all that haps beneath the moon,
William Dewy, Tranter Reuben, Farmer Ledlow late at plough,
Robert’s kin, and John’s, and Ned’s,	35
And the Squire, and Lady Susan, murmur mildly to me now.

The beauty of this poem is its ability to represent all the levels of social hierarchy that once existed. He uses the poem to allow the characters to speak from the grave and alter the audiences opinion of what should be done to ones possessions after death. Hardy looks at the views of farmers, nobility, and squires within this poem, showing the difference in their station by the way they speak and the issues they address. The juxtaposition of the characters concerns, or lack of concerns as it is in the case of this poem, give an interesting insight into their material wealth and daily decision making.

The main theme of the poem, aside from death, is the lack of feeling that the deceased express. Friends Beyond suggests that those left alive believe that they should honour the dead by fulfilling their wishes, preserving their property and contributing to the upkeep of their graves. However, the sentences from the dead contradict this contemporary social expectation. Lady Susan for example, states,

“You may have my rich brocades, my laces; take each household key;

Ransack coffer, desk, bureau;

Quiz the few poor treasures hid there, con the letters kept by me.”

This shows that Lady Susan has no need of these things in the afterlife. Nor does she have any knowledge as to their treatment, therefore, she believes that there is no reason for her items to be preserved and remain unused when they still have many years of life in them. It would make no difference to her in death if these items were stolen, sold or thrown away and this attitude is shown very clearly within this poem.

The squire even states that someone ‘may wed his spouse’ thus showing that he understands that once he is dead she will be alone. In a practical sense his allowance of this action would ensure that his widow could marry again, produce more children and continue living in comfort with a man to protect her. In this way the poem shows the patriarchal nature of the society that Hardy is representing.

The poem interests me as it deals with one of the key concerns of all societies in a semi-light-hearted way. The characters explore death and their legacy with a casual acceptance of their fate, seemingly accepting and unfazed by their departure from this world.  The regular rhyme and rhyme of this piece reflects the inevitably of death, reinforcing the idea that it is the one certainty in our lives. To die is simply to prove that we were alive. Amyx.