A Lament and a Sigh: Voicing Disillusionment in Thomas Hardy's Verse

Abstract Hardy's work is very much about experiencing the loss of illusions, and in his verse, disillusionment often appears in two phases. The shift from one mode to the other is directly imparted to the language of his poetry, to the voice that communicates the experience of disenchantment: the poetic voice first laments the loss of illusions ('Lament,' 'During Wind and Rain'), then sighs in utter disenchantment ('The Pine-Planters,' 'A Two-Years' Idyll'). From indignation to resignation, from lament to sigh, Hardy's verse builds, through such vocal discipline, an extremely modern type of poetic rhythm which relies on the alternation between sound and silence, and on the continuity between poetic language and personal experience.