Hardy's Love for Nature:
Thomas Hardy's love of nature is evident in his keen and accurate observation of natural scenery and natural phenomena. He was born and bred in the natural surroundings of Dorset, so he was fully conversant with the sprawling Egdon Heath, the changing season, the spacious field's and farms . But he does not cherish a romantic or ideal view of nature, and his view is totally contrasted to that of the romantic poets like Wordsworth and Shelley. In his works —both novels and poems— nature is depicted as a manifestation of the blind and relentless Immanent Will. It is totally governed and guided by the powerful Will. Hardy Waxes lyrical in the face of natural objects, and exhaustively describes trees and plains, the river and the heath, the cuckoo and the thrush, the farm - houses and the dairies. At times he points human characters as integral parts of nature and in the face of that cruel and callous power called Immanent Will both are found to be helpless and miserable.
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| Thomas Hardy’s Observing Relationship between Nature and Man |
Demonstrating Natural Beauty Realistically:
Hardy demonstrates his deep sense of appreciation of natural beauty, though he is always conscious of the crooked designs of the Immanent Will. Shelley wrote the poem To A Skylark in a mood of great joy and called the bird the ‘blithe spirit’ singing songs of ‘unpremeditated art’ , while Hardy treats the bird as a small , suffering and wasted thing . Writes the latter poet thus:
“Lived its meek life; then, one day, fell
A little ball of feather and bone:
And how it perished when piped farewell,
And where it wastes, all alike unknown.”
Hardy does not idealise the bird, and treats it in a realistic manner. But the picture of the thrush in the poem The Darkling Thrush is somewhat different.
Nature's Brooding Over the Real Purpose of Life:
More often than not, the poet's attitude towards life - that it is meaningless and fall of suffering - colours his portrayal of nature. He sometimes makes the objects of nature brooding over the real purpose of life. For instance, in the poem Yell'ham - Wood's Story, the fir trees proclaim that ‘Life is moan’ through whistling wind, and other objects of nature agree with this view. To this the yell'ham forest adds its own version of life:
“It says that life would signify
A thwarted purposing:
That we come to live and are called to die.”
Human Transformation into Natural Objects:
Thomas Hardy adopts a peculiar theory of human transformation into natural objects - like trees and plants - in some of his poems. While describing the poor Drummer Hodge, he writes:
“Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange - eyed constellation reign
His starts eternally.”
The similar philosophy of Hardy in regard to ‘transformations’ after death also finds expression in the poems Voices from Things Growing in a Churchyard and Transformations .
Nature's State of Helplessness:
Nature is a helpless as man is - both being the silent victims of the whims of the relentless Will is the theme of the poem Nature's Questioning. To the poet it appears that the pool, field, flock and lonely tree are gazing at him ‘like chastened children sitting silent in the school’. It seems that their early joys have been snatched away from them by the Immanent Will, and that now they have been subdued, rendered helpless. The poet finds the faces of the natural objects ‘dulled, constrained and wan’ and they whisper in amazement ‘We wonder, even wonder, why we find us here’.
It is unwittingly, almost helplessly, that nature inflicts pain on human beings. Human beings, with similar helplessness, just as puppet in the hands of Destiny, inflict ruin on nature. In the poem A Backward Spring written in 1917 during the World War I, Hardy expressed at one level the anxiety felt by the trees, grass, bushes and flowers about the weather. The trees are described as being ‘afraid’, the grass ‘timid ', the barberry ‘fretful ', not because of any lesson learnt from the previous winter, but because of the unfavourable aspect of nature in winter's hindering of spring.
Hardy's Sympathy for Innocent Creatures:
Hardy's loving kindness is reflected in the very way he notices them, without adding any comment on them, without making them illustrations of a pre - conceived pattern of ideas: How man's frenzy comes as a blight to the floral - world is noticed by the poet:
“Trodden and bruised to a miry tomb
Are ears that have greened but will never be gold,
And flowers in the bud that will never bloom. "
How the humble creations in nature, a mole, a snail, a worm and a butterfly - have to succumb to man's unintended wrath is movingly expressed by the poet. Hardy's reverence for all forms of life is also shown by his loving care for the animals, and by his concern for treating them with the respect due to human beings, Hardy's imaginative apprehension of the Kinship of man to the lower animals is a contribution to the growth of sensibility, comparable with the concept of the brotherhood of man.
Hardy's Providing A Natural Background to Human Feelings:
Hardy provides a natural background for the representation of human feelings and emotions. In an early poem entitled Neutral Tones, the main idea in the rift which occurred between hardy and a beloved of his, most probably his cousin Tryphena Sparks. But the poem begins with a brief picture of nature. The lovers stood by a pond on a day in winter when the Sun was white as if chidden by God. A few leaves lay on the starving sod. These leaves had fallen from an ash - tree, and were gray in colour. The poem then ends with an abridged repetition of this picture: The God - curst sun, a tree, and a pond edged with grayish leaves.
Hardy's Wide - ranging and Interest in Nature and Its Activities:
Hardy establishes a close link between himself and nature. After giving a brief nature - picture in each stanza, he affirms his interest in every activity and every phenomenon of Nature. There is the picture of the month of May flapping its glad green leaves. There is the picture of a moth descending upon the wind - wrapped thorn. There is the picture of the dark night, mothy and warm, and also of the hedgehog travelling secretly across the grassy lawn. There is the picture of the ‘full-starred’ sky. In I am the One, Hardy, again , establishes a link between himself and the objects of nature such as the ringdoves cooing , the up-eared hares munching grains of wheat, and the stars which declare that the poet is one with them and they must not therefore look unkindly at him. The poem Last Week in October contains an almost fanciful and yet realistic description of the trees shedding their leaves. The poet imagines that the trees are undressing themselves and flinging away their bright robes, ribbons and laces.
