Living Through Memories

Thomas Hardy’s poems during the period of World War 1 (1914-1918) were predominantly, Emma poems. That is, they were poems written in remembrance of his beloved wife, Emma, who died due to illness. In these poems he is seen to try to come to terms with her death and we note that he is grief stricken. He makes great use of memories to establish the change in relationship between him and his wife during the later part of her life; to remind himself of the happy times they had had together, to remind himself of her beauty and grace which he fell in love with, or rather come to terms with her death by trying to overcome his feelings of extreme guilt, pain and grief. Through his poems, Hardy takes the reader back to the times when he and Emma were young lovers and did not have a care in the world. The significance of the memories is such that it allows the reader to gain an insight to the stages that Emma and Hardy had to go through in their relationship. The memories create a bittersweet and nostalgic feeling as the reader feels sympathetic towards Hardy for the loss of happy times.

Some of the poems which highlight or refer to certain moments or memories are, “The Walk”, “At Castle Boterel”, “The Voice” and “The Haunter”. These poems creat an image of Emma of being young and beautiful and shows the reader the depth of love which the two had for each other, yet was unfortunately lost later on.