Afterwards by Thomas Hardy

We are ready to represent the best custom paper writing assistance that can cope with any task like Afterwards by Thomas Hardy even at the eleventh hour. The matter is that we posses the greatest base of expert writers. Our staff of freelance writers includes approximately 300 experienced writers are at your disposal all year round. They are striving to provide the best ever services to the most desperate students that have already lost the hope for academic success. We offer the range of the most widely required, however, not recommended for college use papers. It is advisable to use our examples like Afterwards by Thomas Hardy in learning at public-education level. Get prepared and be smart with our best essay samples cheap and fast! Get in touch and we will write excellent custom coursework or essay especially for you.

Afterwards Analysis

The poem Afterwards by Thomas Hardy consists of five stanzas, each one a quatrain. Hardy is anticipating his own death and questioning how he will be remembered. The use of nature, not in the abstract sense but in his own feelings towards it and the sensitivity of his observations of nature contrasts his mortality. He wants to be remembered as a man who “used to notice such things”

The “Present” tense is personified in the first stanza as it latched its postern. A postern is a back door and a private exit giving the first indication the poet fears his death will pass quietly and unnoticed. Use of alliteration may month glad green and assonance dewfall-hawk emphasise the grandeur of seemingly ordinary things and events. A beautiful description of dusty leaves being coated with new-spun silk creates an almost fairy like image and once again stresses the frail enchantment of ordinary things in nature. In the final line of each stanza, Hardy puzzles how he will be remembered. He uses “may think/say” because he is only using his own opinion on how he would like to be perceived and being dead he would never actually know how he would be remembered.

Hardy identifies himself to innocent creatures, because they like him are doomed to death. The nightjar bird known in Hardy’s local area as the dewfall-hawk makes a great deal of noise when it is still, yet is silent and fast when flying. Hardy compares his poetry to the strange noises the bird makes when it is still and his life to the bird in flight, ending both quickly and unnoticed. The “eyelid’s soundless blink” emphasises the silence of the “dewfall-hawk” during flight and also reminds readers of the senses sight and sound, that is essential to observe nature. Hardy feels out of place with his wild ideas in his structured environment like a hedgehog that “travels furtively over the lawn”. A hedgehog is a wild animal and also seems out of place when it is crossing the lawn - an area that man has recultivated.




The main contrast in the poem is between the vivid life of nature and the energy of Hardy as he observes this, against the dull grey lives of the people he lives among. However Hardy does not judge them harshly, but can “do little for them” and hopes that they will “notice such things” and realise how valuable natural beauty is. The tone of the poem is self-deprecating and full of regret. He doubts that he will be remembered as anything but someone who sat and watched the world go by, yet does not blame people for thinking this. Hardy uses the words “neighbours” and “gazer” to describe other people he vaguely notes. He is not concerned with them so they appear far less clear than the small creatures he notices and appreciates. Hardy’s observations of nature are also unpretentious and accurate. The modesty in describing “full starred heavens” and “glad green leaves” increases the “mysteries” of these seemingly ordinary things, as anyone can observe them but only he seems to be able to appreciate their strange beauty.

“Bells of quittance” in the final stanza links the theme of Hardy’s anticipated death that was first established in the first stanza. Repetition of the bells initial “outrollings” which “cuts a pause” after a “crossing breeze” illustrates how the spirit of his poetry is passed on and continues like the chiming of the bells, despite the slight pauses caused by the death of individuals.



Mind that the sample papers like Afterwards by Thomas Hardy presented are to be used for review only. In order to warn you and eliminate any plagiarism writing intentions, it is highly recommended not to use the essays in class. In cases you experience difficulties with essay writing in class and for in class use, order original papers with our expert writers. Cheap custom papers can be written from scratch for each customer that entrusts his or her academic success to our writing team. Order your unique assignment from the best custom writing services cheap and fast!