"The Voice"

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how title of Thomas Hardy's poem "The Voice" reveals a lot about its mode of delivery. It examines how the audible whispers of the woman calling are conveyed to the reader through literary devices such as rhyme and rhythm. It evaluates how "The Voice" of the woman becomes a symbol of the narrator's memory, which is tainted by illusion and attachment to the past. It analyzes how although the poem might be about a long-lost love, a past or failed romance, a memory he struggles to retain, Hardy progresses from an initial feeling of hope in the first two stanzas to an acceptance of reality in the last two. "The Voice" is a whisper of the past and a memory of his lover's language.

From the Paper:

"In his natural surroundings, the narrator envisions and hears his lost lover. She is "much missed." This fundamental fact is made clear in the first stanza of "The Voice," underlining the importance of the relationship. The narrator is estranged from the woman whose voice he hears. She was "the one who was all to me," the narrator's soul mate. However, there is no indication of the nature of the breakup. She could be dead or with another man; she could simply be away traveling. Regardless of the actual situation, the narrator longs for times past, "when our day was fair." The present moment is not bleak, but the past offers rich memories. Before the remainder of the poem is read, it would seem as if the narrator is simply hanging on to a hopeless romance. Clearly, this is not the case. Although he becomes aware that he is "faltering forward" by the end of the poem, the narrator does not seem lost or emotionally distraught."

More papers on "The Voice":

• Analytical Essay # 41763 : "The Voice of the River"
• Book Review # 93141 : "The Voices of Time"
• Article Review # 40359 : "Revealing Moments - The Voice of One Who Lives With Labels"

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