Wessex Heights Essay

600 Words3 Pages
To what extent do you agree with the view that ‘Wessex heights’ poem is key to the whole selection? Your answer you should consider form, structure and language as well as subject matter. Thomas Hardy’s poem ‘Wessex Heights’ deals with complex and diverse themes such as: religion; death; the idea of past haunting his presence; love. The way in which Hardy deals with these complex issues is very different to some of his other poems such as: ‘channel firing’, ‘I look into m glass’, ‘the darkling thrush’ There are also similarities between ‘Wessex Heights’ and some other poems written by Thomas hardy: a Christmas ghost story. The title of the poem is significant as it is the established place of romance; we are not quite certain of where ‘Wessex heights’ is in particular. The effect of not being open about this place evokes it as an extraordinary place: remote, timeless and capable of bringing majestic transformation. This impression is linked to heaven: “I seem where I was before my Birth, and after death may be”. The reference to religion is significant as hardy is contradictory in the poem, this is because by this time Hardy had lost faith in religion. On the contrary there is no reference to God only a suggestion of a heavenly surrounding which as we know through our contextual knowledge could be manmade as Dorset (which is where the poem is set) is very close to Thomas hardy and his wife Emma Hardy. This idea could strengthen Hardy’s rejection of God because his wife and he have found their own utopia and Hardy therefore is confirming his rejection of God. Hardy often orders many disordered issues, he assembles abstract thoughts into something which can be understood for example in ‘Channel firing’ the structure of the poem is neat in order to make sense of the poem. However within ‘Wessex heights’ there is no order given to the stanzas which reflects the need
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