The Voice Analysis

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,

Saying that now you are not as you were

When you had changed from the one who was all to me,

But as at first, when our day was fair.Can it be you that I hear?Let me view you, then,

Standing as when I drew near to the town

Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,

Even to the original air-blue gown!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?Thus I; faltering forward,Leaves around me falling,

Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward,And the woman calling.

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would anyone likes to help me with the poetic devices

| Posted on 2010-05-19 | by a guest

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would anyone likes to help me with the poetic devices

| Posted on 2010-05-19 | by a guest

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This poem reflects the sorrow and regret that thomas hardy feels, due to the fact that he neglected his wife during her last years when she truly needed him by her side

| Posted on 2010-04-19 | by a guest

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The voice by thomas hardy is on of the extra odinary and brilliant poems writhhen between 1912 and 1913.i think poet was a real nemphomaniac and always thought about his wife emma.i think she was really beutifull and could not stop himself from thinking about her.he imagines her in blue gown and i think she was awsome in her looks and thatswhy poet missed her much and he is saying that plz call to me .

| Posted on 2010-04-13 | by a guest

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THE VOICE – THOMAS HARDY
The poem begins with a lyrical, effervescent flowing rhythm, “Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me/saying that now you are not as you were”, as the enjambment and personal pronouns reflect the flowing, passionate romanticism that Hardy is trying to convey. However the structure of the poem is a diminuendo- as the happiness and love of the relationship is lost to “ wan wistleness” and the “wet mead”, to the point that Hardy regresses into the elegiac reference to he “wanderer” with “Thus I”, and the final bitter indictment of “the woman calling “ reveals how their relationship regressed from one flowing love and “air blue gowns” to “listleness” and the stumbling rhythm of the “leaves around me falling”
It’s about his refusal to accept the death of his wife. He is so caught up in his desire or her still that he almost thinks he can hear her voice talking to him.
Hardy’s last stanza is much shorter in its composition to the previous three stanzas and is his attempt to regain order in his life by moving on “faltering forward”. The difficulty Hardy feels in doing so is mirrored in the arrangement of punctuation- by placing a semi colon immediately after “Thus I” the phrase “faltering forward” is stressed. This combined with its use of alliteration alerts the reader to how significant the phrase is. It is Hardy’s attempt to accept the inevitability of death and move on with life.
This poem is in the form of a 1st person narrative as Hardy contemplates whether he can hear his dead wife’s voice or not. The poem has 4 stanzas; first 3 are in the form of anapestic metre. This conveys his initial hope, as he believes he can hear Emma’s voice. However Hardy soon comes to term with her death. The most poignant line of the poem is “ even in the original air blue gown” i.e. hardy has powerful dillusions of Emma when she was youthful and full of radiance and beauty. This could also be seen as hardy seeing a phantom or specter who he believes to be his wife.
The last line “and the woman calling” relates how hardy still reminisces Emma when he first met her and how these memories are still following him despite the shift in time. The memory of her is haunting him …and that he is totally falling apart.
The last stanza however is less fluent and almost chaotic in terms of the use of pathetic fallacy, “leaves faltering forward”. This reflects on Hardy’s mood and decision that he must move forward and Emma’s voice is imaginary. Subsequently conveying his desolation at the end of the poem. This contrasts to the beginning of the poem which is optimistic.
Hardy wrote this poem due to the guilt of not taking care of Emma when she was sick. They both had an estranged relationship. In the poem he uses different poetry techniques to help the reader understand things easily, like alliteration, sibilance, repetition etc.
Hardy is coming to terms with Emma’s death. He is obviously somewhat lost without her and his grieving has left him with memories that appear to play tricks on his mind. They loved each other but it was a destructive love; perhaps the most powerful kind. Maybe the wind was to blow that pain away or was it a part of the force of destructive that was their relationship.
The last stanza is chaotic. The wind has blown it all apart. The repetitive vowel sounds, however, create some unity as the link each word together. The words merge. They become the wind; they become the echoing voice.
Hardy and Emma were separated at the time of her sudden unexpected death. He wrote several poems which reflect the stages of grief he is experiencing and this is largely believed to be the poem he wrote at the point of recovery.
Critics have suggested that the voice could be calling him to death and hardy is contemplating suicide, before recovering.
In the last stanza he realizes that he can’t go on seeing his wife in places she doesn’t exist. She is dead and although he will always think of her he can’t change the terms on which they parted and he feels alone and depressed.
As conclusion i would like to add dat hardy ws a sad person wid no ambitions and aspirations
he should die in a bucket of water
he cnt fc 1 loss
learn frm a high skul kid
he faces breakups everyday
DIEDIE MOVE ON !!!!
By the gr8 yash

| Posted on 2010-04-13 | by a guest

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i think that hardy was in a deep relationship with emma. When Emma Died, the pain in Hardy's heart was unrestable.
His love for Emma was forever dissolved. And he could not do anything. He was blaming Emma for all this. The words "wistlesness and listlesness" as add to the ethereal atmosphere of the poem. The line' even to the original air blue gown' makes hardy think the radiance and the beauty of Emma wearing blue clothes in the night.
thankyou BY - KARTIKEYA

| Posted on 2010-04-13 | by a guest

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The last stanza of the poem is most significant. It reveals that although Hardy may have began optimistic, he is still ridden with guilt for leaving Emma alone when she was ill and for having affairs. The most unusual imagery Hardy uses is: "Wind oozing thin" this may be seen as a liquid slowly dispersing through the air, yet it could also imply that the voice of Emma: "and the woman calling" is beginning to ebb away, disapper. This therefore juxtaposes with the rhythm as it is less fluid then previous ones. Emma's voice has managed to drift into his life quickly and leave just as suddenly. Therefore Hardy is "faltering" and beginng to accept that Emma has died and that no matter how guilty he feels he will never be able to relive the past he has such fond memories of: "the one who was all to me" (1st stanza) and "air-blue gown" (stanza 2). THus, the tone at the end of the poem is bleak as Hardy believes that he has imagined Emma's voice afterall.

| Posted on 2010-04-02 | by a guest

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thanx to every1 who posted, i got an A in my exam coz of u guys

| Posted on 2010-03-30 | by a guest

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As in The Haunter Hardy imagines Emma trying to communicate with him. The poem is in the first person, and Hardy is the speaker, imagining that Emma calls to him. She tells him that she is not the woman she had become after forty years of marriage, but has regained the beauty of her youth, of the time when her and Hardy's “day was fair”.
Detailed commentary
Imagining he can indeed hear her, Hardy implores Emma to appear to him, in the place and wearing the same clothes that he associates with their early courtship. Hardy introduces, in the third stanza, the mocking fear that all he hears is the wind and that Emma's death has marked the end of her existence - that she has been “dissolved” and will be “heard no more”.
The lively anapaestic metre of the first three stanzas gives way, in the final stanza, to a less fluent rhythm, capturing the desolate mood of Hardy as he falters forward, while the leaves fall and the north wind blows, as Emma (if it is she) continues to call.
The poem begins optimistically with a hope that Emma is really addressing Hardy. But by the end, a belief or fear that the “voice” is imaginary has replaced this hope. Though the vigorous anapaestic metre of the poem helps convey this initial hope, it proves unwieldy for Hardy, as is evident in the clumsy third stanza, where “listlessness” rhymes with Hardy's unfortunate coinage (invented word) “existlessness”, and we find the gauche and repetitious phrase “no more again” in the stanza's final line.

| Posted on 2010-03-28 | by a guest

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The poem opens with a lyrical, effervescent flowing rhythm, "Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me/Saying that now you are not as you were", as the enjambment and personal pronouns reflect the flowing, passionate romanticism that Hardy is trying to convey. However, the structure of the poem is a diminuendo- as the happiness and love of the relationship is lost to "wan wistlessness" and the "wet mead", to the point that Hardy regresses into the elegaic reference to "The Wanderer" with "Thus I", and the final bitter indictment of "the woman calling" reveals how their relationship regressed from one of flowing love and "air blue gowns" to " "listlessness" and the stumbling rhythm of the "leaves around me falling".

| Posted on 2010-01-13 | by a guest

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The rhythm's not anapestic, to begin with, despite what some other people have been saying. It's dactylic, or TUM ta ta (falling rhythm). At least it mostly is, apart from the last stanza and some instances of spondee feet.
So it hence echoes heroic fiction, which is ironic when you think about it. Seeing as the poem's really Hardy's exploration of his guilt, it's interesting that he chooses metric feet seen in The Iliad or, more recently, The Charge of the Light Brigade, to convey feelings of personal failing.

| Posted on 2009-12-01 | by a guest

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Hi there, to all the guests that has contributed their point of views and explanations, THANKS A LOT. THis has helped me a lot.

| Posted on 2009-09-01 | by a guest

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It's about his refusal to accept the death of his wife. He is so caught up in his desire for her still that he almost thinks he can hear her voice talking to him.
Hardy’s last stanza is much shorter in its composition to the previous three stanzas, and is Hardy’s attempt to regain order in his life by moving on “faltering forward”. The difficulty Hardy feels in doing so is mirrored in the arrangement of punctuation - by placing a semi-colon immediately after “Thus I”, the phrase “faltering forward” is stressed. This combined with its use of alliteration alerts the reader to how significant the phrase is. It is Hardy’s attempt to accept the inevitability of death and move on with life.

| Posted on 2009-08-25 | by a guest

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The voice,is written by Thomas Hardy after the death of his wife Emma. This poem is in the form of a 1st person narrative as Hardy contemplates whether he can hear his dead wife's voice or not. This poem is written in 4 stanzas and the first three stanzas are written in the from of an anapestic metre. This conveys Hardy's inital hope as he believes he can her his wife's voice. However, this behaviour is a natural coping method as Hardy comes to term with the death of his wife. One of the most poignant lines in the poem is "Even in the original air blue gown" Hardy has powerful dillusions of Emma when she was youth full of radiance and beauty. This could also be interpreted as Hardy seeing a phantom or spectre whom he believes to be his wife. This line however does not fit into the rest of the poem so it conforms to some ambiguity. In addition the words such as "wistlesness and listlesness" as add to the ethereal atmosphere of the peom. The last line, " and the woman calling" relates to how Hardy still reminises his wife Emma when he first met her and how these memories are still following him, despite the shift in time. The last stanza however is less fluent and alsmost chaotic in terms of the use of pathetic fallacy, " leaves faltering forward". This reflects on Hardy's mood and decision thst he must move forward and comes to a realsation that the voice is imaginary. Subsequently, conveying Hardy's desolation at the end of the poem. This contrasts to the beggining of the poem as it is optimistic.

| Posted on 2009-05-18 | by a guest

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thanks for the analysis peeps.
its awesome for my stupid english literature exam.
THANK YOU A TON.

| Posted on 2009-04-28 | by a guest

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As i know .. Hardy 's relationship was not very good at the time, and things were complicated, and he didnt care for her when she was sick. So he wrote this poem due to his guilt, that he lacked the care to his wife. After her death he starts having painful dilusions and starts imagining his wife, Emma, calling for him, and that he's actually hearing her voice.
He used different poetry techniques that help the reader understand things easier, he uses alliteration, sibilance, repitition etc. He says in the very first like "call to me, call to me" which suggests that he's imaginig her trying to communicate with him, and that he's hearing his dead wife's voice in the sound of the wind. The memory of her is haunting him, and this shows that he can't stop thinking about her, and that he totally falling apart .. the very last line says "and the woman calling" which conveys that the memories of the wonderful days they had when they first met, are following him, and this gives a ghostly feeling to the poem.

| Posted on 2009-04-25 | by a guest

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Hardy is coming to terms with the death of his estranged wife. He obviously is somewhat lost without her and grieving has left him with memories that appear to play tricks on his mind. He can hear her voice, but whether it is out of longing or guilt is unclear. Is the wind taunting him, or is she taunting him?
They loved each other but it was a destructive love; perhaps the most powerful kind. Maybe the wind was to blow that pain away or was it a part of the force of destructive nature that was their relationship.
The last stanza is chaotic. The wind has blown it all apart. The repetitive vowel sounds, however, create some unity as they link each word together. The words merge. They become the wind; they become the echoing voice.

| Posted on 2008-12-06 | by a guest

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I don't like this poem. It's way tooo simple. I prefer nursery rhymes

| Posted on 2008-11-25 | by a guest

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I don't think it's a positive poem at all. The anapaestic rhythm in the first three stanzas creates an uplifting and hopeful atmosphere as Hardy thinks he can actually hear Emma but then in the forth stanza a less fluent rhythm is used and Hardy describes himself as "faltering forward" which reflects his desolate mood. Also, Neutral Tones wasn't even about Hardy and Emma so the two poems aren't contextually linked.

| Posted on 2008-11-18 | by a guest

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I thought this poem was, in some aspects, quite positive in the way Hardy thinks about his wife. He thinks of her in a positive way, in contrast to 'Neutral Tones' which portrays the couple at their worst. Hardy is reminiscing about when they first encountered eachother and how he likes to remember her when he says 'as I knew you then' and 'when our day was fair'. I thought that 'Even to the original air-blue gown!' was what she might have worn in the days where they were first falling for eachother. In the first stanza, in the third line, I think Hardy was trying to say that he had suddenly remembered her how he loved her and what she was like when he fell in love with her, and the idea of a voice was really just a very vivid memory that may have been positive but haunts him, as he is trying to move on with his life.

| Posted on 2008-11-04 | by a guest

.: The Voice :.

Hardy & his wife Emma were seperated at the time of her sudden unexpected death. He wrote several poems which reflect the stages of grief he is experiencing and this is largely believed to be the poem he wrote at the point of recovery.
He refers to hearing his wife calling him as he is alone and the "air blue gown" she wears reflects her potential to just dissapear like air. Also the breeze taunting him could also be interpreted as Emma because he can feel its presence but the breeze is indescribable and it cannot be touched or held like he wants to. Critics have suggested that the voice could be calling him into death and hardy is contemplating suicide, before recovering.
In the last stanza he realises he can't go on seeing his wife in places she doesn't exist. She is dead and although he will always think of her he can't change the terms on which they parted and he feels alone and depressed.
Hope this helps with some background info to go on =]

| Posted on 2008-04-11 | by a guest

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"Even to the origional airblue gown" is one of the greatest inventive lines in poetry. The image Hardy conjurs in the mind of a woman wearing a colorful gown in wet field on a windy night can only be that of a phantom or spectre. Hardy further impacts the scene through his use of a contrasting meter. The line does not fit onto the rest of the poem enforcing the strange ambiguity of the scene. The result is jarring.

| Posted on 2007-12-25 | by a guest

.: The Voice -Thomas Hardy :.

This 'gohst story' is dedicated to his dead wife. He can hear her voice and recollects a time of joy. He falteres forward, yearning to be with her again. He has been left alone, questioning his own existence. The only way he can continue, is to live and to stumble on.

| Posted on 2007-07-19 | by a guest

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Throughout all Hardy's poems about his first wife he is unable to accept her death. When they were first together they were in love but shortly after that grew sour. Hardy had an affair with Florence who became his second wife. However, Hardy is overcome with guilt at Emma's death when he didn't get the opportunity to say goodbye or to tell her that in fact he did really love her and wishes they could have been happy in her final days. Instead of admitting his fault he likes to blame Emma as he unable to cope with the large amount of blame he feels himself. He pretends that Emma knew she was going to die and did it to spite him. In this poem in particular he talks about Emma having changed without his realisation. This could be interpreted that she wanted to reminisce but didn't tell him or that she decided to be like him and put no effort into rekindling their romance.

| Posted on 2005-12-20 | by Approved Guest

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It's about his refusal to accept the death of his wife. He is so caught up in his desire for her still that he almost thinks he can hear her voice talking to him.
Hardy’s last stanza is much shorter in its composition to the previous three stanzas, and is Hardy’s attempt to regain order in his life by moving on “faltering forward”. The difficulty Hardy feels in doing so is mirrored in the arrangement of punctuation - by placing a semi-colon immediately after “Thus I”, the phrase “faltering forward” is stressed. This combined with its use of alliteration alerts the reader to how significant the phrase is. It is Hardy’s attempt to accept the inevitability of death and move on with life.

| Posted on 2005-11-01 | by Approved Guest

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ok im trying to appreciate this myself for coursework and its impossible but basically what i got so far is that the poem is written by a man who had a relationship with a woman and she changed (?!) and left him or they split up or something...then she came back "calling" to tge man and he is wondering if she is back to her old self who he loves (and he thinks she is but isn't completely sure but falls for her anyway)
but that was all blatantly obvious! someone help me!

| Posted on 2005-08-30 | by Approved Guest