"Woman much missed, how you
call to me, call to me, saying that
now you are not as you were." -S1
"Woman much missed" - harsh and dismissive.
Repetition shows the action is continuous and important to Hardy.
"When you had
changed from the one
who was all to me." -S1
The ending seems to blame Emma for
changing (possibly for becoming ill).
"Can it be you I hear? Let me view you, then." -S2
Hardy is questioning whether it is possible for Emma
to be communicating with him and wishes for proof.
"Where you would wait for me: yes,
as I knew you then, even to the
original air-blue gown!" -S2
The colour sounds other-worldly.
"Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness,
travelling across the wet mead to me here, you
being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness,
heard no more again far or near?" -S3
'Wistlessness' - neologism.
'Listlessness' and
'Wistlessness' - sibilance
makes the poem sound
ghostly (indicating the
haunting of Emma's
memories) but also like
the wind.
Hardy is questioning whether
nature is fooling him.
"Thus I; faltering forward, leaves
around me falling, wind oozing thin
through the thorn from noward, and
the woman calling." -S4
Break-down in rhythm
shows how Hardy's world
is falling apart.
Emma's voice will always haunt
Hardy - there is no escape from it.
Alliteration emphasises Hardy's struggle.
The Voice: A form of communication
with Emma after her passing.
Anapaestic metre - 2 unstressed
syllables, 1 unstressed.
This poem
seems to show
Hardy at his
lowest point in
his berevement
and sadness.