Works of Thomas Hardy discussion

I.

Here's the mould of a musical bird long passed from light,
Which over the earth before man came was winging;
There's a contralto voice I heard last night,
That lodges with me still in its sweet singing.

II

Such a dream is Time that the coo of this ancient bird
Has perished not, but is blent, or will be blending
Mid visionless wilds of space with the voice that I heard,
In the full-fuged song of the universe unending.

This poem comes from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, which was published in 1917. The war was still ongoing. This is a nice one in that the smallness of a bird, a memory, a sound — all become the music of the unending universe.

Hardy has never been known as a poet of happiness, cumulatively, but you know, if someone were to put together a book of poems to cure depression, I think a few by Hardy might make their way in. I’d include this one.

Additionally, despite its title, I think these thoughts could easily occur outside of a museum, too.

Such an impressionistic poem - I found it hard to get hold of; thank you for your explanation John.

When I read the title, and the first line, I was expecting something else. Museums felt very different from the bright dynamic places of today, a long time ago. They seemed to be dusty places with glass cabinets of artefacts, and huge stuffed creatures. When I was little I used to go to one in the evening, when it was closed (except to an Astronomical Society my Dad ran) and I was terrified walking down between the cases in the gloom - I fairly scuttled to get to the lighted area at the end, with all those "monsters" looming over me!

The musuem in Dorchester, (Thomas Hardy's local museum), is a lovely place, on two levels with a carved mahogany balcony area. It's quite old-fashioned but has a friendly feel. There is a room devoted to him there.

(Now linked)

The poem describes Time and Space as a blend of the past and the present like the blending in a musical fugue. The past always influences Nature which is constantly changing. The idea that even the smallest things have their important part in the unending universe is a lovely poetic thought. The language in this poem is beautiful!

The first line describes the mould (or cast) of the skeleton of a prehistoric bird. This made me think of Hardy's contemporary, Charles Darwin (1809-82), and his Theory of Evolution which occurs over time. Since he was in a museum, I'm picturing Hardy looking at fossils--so I'm also reading Hardy's poem in a less poetic way.

Yes, there are a lot of fossils in Dorchester museum, as well as separate smaller museums devoted to them, e.g. in Lyme Regis. It is the Jurassic coast after all. Just today the BBC announced a new find on the Dorset coast of the largest complete specimen of a pliosaur - a ferocious marine reptile - ever found: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-en...

Since the cliffs crumble at a few feet every year, new finds are made all the time.

Nicely observed, Connie 😊

Jean, that's a fascinating article from the BBC. I hope they find the rest of the fossil in the shingle. The pliosaur certainly had some scary teeth!

Connie - (off-topic)

David Attenborough has got involved and there will be a programme about it at New Year!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra...

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/239...

Hopefully it wil come to you as well. The other doscumentary mentioned is one we have on DVD - in fact oddly we are watching that box set right now!

Connie, what a great observation!

I can hear the speaker here, like the speaker in "The House of Hospitalities," moving through a physical space and also being present to memories and ideas. It feels like the poet is again working within that kind of memory palace. It's lovely to see that expanded to include a museum, and leaves me with a sense if walking through a world that is also a memory palace.

Jean, you might be interested to know that the pliosaur made the news in the U.S. as well! What a fascinating find!

Oh good!

“Full-fuged sound” I am going to speculate that Hardy was using an archaic spelling of the musical term fugue. He was speaking of sound, an echoing through time.

Here is the Wikipedia definition of “fugue”, which I find blends with the poem quite well.
Fugue:
“a musical composition in which one or two themes are repeated or imitated by successively entering voices and contrapuntally developed in a continuous interweaving of the voice parts; something that resembles a fugue especially in interweaving repetitive elements”.

There was a group of us, some of whom are also in the Thomas Hardy group, who read Rumen Godden's A Fugue in Time recently. She also interweaves past, present, and future times in the history of a family home.

Probably the first thing that most people think of are Bach's fugues where he gorgeously interweaves the music. Hardy was very musical so it seems very appropriate that he would choose a fugue as a metaphor for time.

Connie wrote: "Hardy was very musical so it seems very appropriate that he would choose a fugue as a metaphor for time."

Thanks, Connie! I am new to the Thomas Hardy group so I did not know he was musical. I do like his metaphor of music representing time, because if we listen to (or perform) a serious piece of music, we are suspended for a certain period as we are immersed in the sounds.

I love your last sentence, Lee!

I recall reading The Oxford Anthology of English Literature: Volume VI: Modern British Literature, which was a college textbook of mine. Hardy opened the book. The commentary for him did say that many of his poems were essentially songs — or perhaps were interchangeable with folk ballads and the like.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Yes, there are a lot of fossils in Dorchester museum, as well as separate smaller museums devoted to them, e.g. in Lyme Regis. It is the Jurassic coast after all. Just today the BBC announced a new..."

An amazing creature to be sure! I'm always amazed that in this modern age we still have skeletons of these massive creatures intact. We've had some in the museums here in Southern California (most memorable to me are the La Brea Tar Pits (which is an active paleontological research site) and Museum in Los Angeles. Gosh its been quite a while since I have been there.

But the university where I worked received a donation of a woolly mammoth skeleton (the school mascot is an elephant), so it was displayed in the student union. Just seeing it was amazing and I can imagine the feeling of seeing this skeleton 'in the flesh' sort of, up close was unbelievable. I'm sure that Hardy felt the same and it prompted him to write the poem as a result.