When was natures questioning written

It is as if Hardy were observing his own fate from a distance; the fact that he talks so much about himself in the third person a la J. Coetzee in more recent times lends force to this impression. The major focus of interest in the poem is not the poet himself but the things he used to notice while he lived: there is a beautiful tension between the things so lovingly observed and the idea of death which broods over the poem. And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings. Furthermore, his claim to have been a close observer of nature during his lifetime is validated in the beautiful image of the hawk in lines 5 — This beautiful and powerful simile, combining as it does speed and soundlessness, would occur only to one who had, indeed, looked long and closely at the minutest details of a scene.

The third stanza is both endearing and sad. Hardy was a firm believer, whether in regard to humans or animals, that the chief aim of man should be to strive to keep pain down to a minimum by loving kindness. His lifelong campaign against cruelty to animals and birds, referred to here, in this stanza, will, he suggests, come to nothing once he has passed away:.

But he could do little for them, and now he is gone. I find that it is impossible to read this line in its context without feeling a pang at the absurdity of isolated human effort in the face of the relentless progress of evil in the world.

In the fourth stanza, Hardy moves from the contemplation of every day, local details to glance momentarily at the mysteries of creation and record his interest in such matters.

He is content to contemplate them with due wonder and to reserve his comment for the more homely things he does understand. The very modesty of his hopes and claims make them all the more moving and impressive. In three short stanzas, Hardy makes a profound comment on war, and on the basic permanence of simple, everyday things. He was in Cornwall when he wrote:. On the day that the bloody battle of Gravelotte was fought they were reading Tennyson in the grounds of the rectory. It was at this time and spot that Hardy was struck by the incident of the old horse harrowing the arable field in the valley below, which, when in later years it was recalled to him by a still bloodier war, he made into the little poem of three verses p.

The poem makes its powerful, telling and timely point by sharply juxtaposing the momentary aberration of war against a background of centuries of human history. Hardy asserts the pre-eminence of simple human values in the face of the misuse of power and the disintegration brought about by war.

As Bailes argues, the natural sciences allowed women to exert cultural authority through a radical revisioning of contemporary science This much-needed contribution to the history of woman in the Romantic culture of literature and science will be beneficial to many scholars of literature and the history of science.

University of Virginia Press P. Skip to main content. Melissa Bailes. Eighteenth-Century Studies. Judith W. About the Author s :. Interested in this topic? Stay updated with our newsletters: Literary and Cultural Studies. Email alerts Latest Issue. Related Articles Question and Answer Three.

Question and Answer Two. Question and Answer One. Related Topics baile. Related Book Chapters Questions Answered. The Answer Is Not Coming. What I Learned. Introduction Different Questions, Different Answers. Duke University Press W. Main St. All Rights Reserved. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our privacy policy.