Thomas Hardy's "Going and Staying"

Paper Summary:

The writer analyzes the poem claiming that it uses simple language to express a complicated thought. The paper looks closely at the poem, stanza by stanza citing details about the language and structure to show that the word choices and the structure of the poem contribute to Hardy's overall idea. The basic theme is the deceptive nature of time.

From the Paper:

"In the second stanza the language is more abstract. The seasons of blankness--times when nothing is happening and life seems dull or oppressive--are compared to the cold blankness of snow. The gradual decay of the world--and of all things including the speaker and the pink faces from the first stanza--is described as a "silent bleed". Life is bleeding out of the world. The third line describes the general unhappiness of the "multitudes" of people on the earth who are suffering. And these miserable things that the speaker wishes would go away are, of course, the very things that seem to say around forever."

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• Dissertation or Thesis # 105765 : "Analysis of Thomas Hardy's Women Characters"

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