Isolation in Hardy’s poems ‘Nobody Comes’ and ‘The Darkling Thrush’ Essay

In the poems The Darkling Thrush ephemeris time and Nobody Comes NC, Hardy exemplifys two similar images of isolation. In both poems, the lineamente are detached from human community, whilst Hardy explores this using imagery of ghosts and the supernatural in both also. However, individually there are differences in tone although NC ends upon as dire a note as it begins, Hardy engineers an optimistic outlook in terrestrial dynamical time and suggests that the graphemes isolation may notHardy ensures that the figure of speech of TDT is isolated from any other human presence or, until the poems third stanza, any living organism. Whilst leaning against a coppice gate, he notes that all reality had sought their household fires. Although this is an indication of the low temperature, it is noticeable that the rest of humanity are seeking light in an otherwise sorry environment reciprocally, the persona is deprived of both warmth and living company. To further this point, Hardy pers onifies non-human entities, such as frost and winter Winters settlings, for example. In this way, Hardy makes the reader personal not with living creatures but with inanimate entities, isolating the animate persona even more.Indeed, Hardy makes such a division more striking by picturing the personas surroundings as very extreme. Surrounded by deathly imagery, the persona imagines the grace as the Centurys corpse/ His crypt the canopy,/ The wind his death lament. Even Hardys animate entities seem ghostly Frost was spectre-gray and mankind haunted nigh. Such is the state of decay that even the ancient pulse of germ and birth was shrunken the regenerative power of life has itself died, leaving the persona as the repair animate existence.A similar loneliness can be seen in NC, especially towards the end of the poem. In the aftermath of the railroad car passing, the persona observes, mute by the gate, that he stands again alone. The sudden silence and soft, finite t sound of mute in contrast to the onomatopoeic whangs amplifies the personas loneliness as does the empty assonance in the repeated a sound, in alone and again. Equally, the present tense verb stands and again emphasizes that this is an ongoing and repeated state of isolation.However, the persona in Nobody Comes is not simply isolated in terms of being physically alone or the sole living creature he is also isolated from modernity. Hardy again uses supernatural imagery to explore this. The persona notes that The telegraph wire intones like a spectral lyre/ Swept by a spectral hand. Rather than see the telegraph wire as a means of communication, the persona rejects it in presenting an image of disassociation the vagueness of the verb intones summons an image of faceless voices.He also creates negative supernatural connotations there is an innate ghostliness about the archaic lyre set to contrast with the innate modernity of the telegraph wire which is reinforced by the wraithlike spectral. Har dy repeats this for emphasis in spectral hand. In this phrase, he also creates an incongruity between the concrete verb swept and noun hand and the abstract concept of ghostliness the hand does not exist. Its in seeable presence and visible effects are unnerving, making the modern telegraph wire an unpleasant image.The personas rejection of modernity can be seen also in the portrayal of a car coming up. Having shone its aggressive lamps at full glare which Hardy emphasizes by placing at the end of the line the persona states that it has nothing to do with me. This maxim, in being so blunt, is very powerful. It operates to present a rift between the persona and the modern world and, given the unusually colloquial verb whangs, it indicates that the car is viewed as a callous representation of modern life from which the persona wishes to isolate himself. It leaves leaving a blacker air, which may indicate either a corruption of nature (in terms of polluting the otherwise fresh air) or a darkening in the personas emotions. Indeed, the poem concludes with the same negativity, with the word zippo in both the title and the last line. The persona is left again alone and isolated, prompting a large amount of sympathy from the reader.By contrast, TDT concludes with a hopeful note. At the appearance of the thrush, in the third stanza, the reader notes that the bird is similarly isolated and surrounded by death. In truth, the readers initial reaction to the aged frail, gaunt and small thrush is to question whether the creature will survive the bleak conditions. There is a sense of desperation present flinging its soul/ Upon the growing gloom. However, the persona notices some blessed Hope in the birds happy good-night air. Although unaware of why this may be such joy illimited is unintelligible to the persona this leads the poem to end in an optimistic fashion. Although both the persona and the thrush remain isolated from any other company (the persona fails to deep ly associate with the bird) and the anxiety about the future lingers, Hardy does much to suggest that such deep rooted fervourlessness may change in TDTs persona, as opposed to the ongoing isolation present in NC.