“At Castle Boterel” is a beautiful, emotionally charged piece of poetry by Thomas Hardy. It has beautiful imagery that pulls readers into the emotions of the speaker. His treatment of time is bewitching in it’s beauty and haunting in that he makes it feel as though it is fleeting even as you read the poem its self. However there is a mystery in the lines of “At Castle Boterel”. Hardy’s line “Something that life will not be balked of…”(Hardy) continues to invite readers to flush out its meaning. He speaks of something that life will not be denied, and what can this be but the truly glorious moments of love. The simple, unexplainable moments that cannot be forgotten.
Hardy begins the piece with a dreary scene: a waggonette on a road in the …show more content…
It is showing the pure moments of beauty, love, and unexplainable importance that no life is denied completely. Hardy relays the pain of loss effectively. His words are at times woeful and heavy on the heart, yet they speak eloquently of the great hurt that can accompany great love. He brilliantly illustrates the fickle, yet ever moving nature of times passing. He shows the fleeting unforgettable moments of joy, and the drudging yet passing sorrows of life. He reminds us that life is a fleeting thing, that “Time’s unflinching rigour” is an unstoppable force (Hardy), and that life is sinking away. However, he recalls, also, that life is important. That in all of time perhaps a singular story is the one a hillside will chose to hold for all eternity. For Hardy, and I believe for all, love is the “Something that life will not be balked of “(Hardy). It is love, and all its intricacies, the joy of it, and the pain at its loss, which no life can be denied. It is this that all will know, and that no life can be fully lived without. It is moments of love that make time not quantitative but qualitative. For Hardy this is the thing of uttermost importance in a
Hardy begins the piece with a dreary scene: a waggonette on a road in the …show more content…
It is showing the pure moments of beauty, love, and unexplainable importance that no life is denied completely. Hardy relays the pain of loss effectively. His words are at times woeful and heavy on the heart, yet they speak eloquently of the great hurt that can accompany great love. He brilliantly illustrates the fickle, yet ever moving nature of times passing. He shows the fleeting unforgettable moments of joy, and the drudging yet passing sorrows of life. He reminds us that life is a fleeting thing, that “Time’s unflinching rigour” is an unstoppable force (Hardy), and that life is sinking away. However, he recalls, also, that life is important. That in all of time perhaps a singular story is the one a hillside will chose to hold for all eternity. For Hardy, and I believe for all, love is the “Something that life will not be balked of “(Hardy). It is love, and all its intricacies, the joy of it, and the pain at its loss, which no life can be denied. It is this that all will know, and that no life can be fully lived without. It is moments of love that make time not quantitative but qualitative. For Hardy this is the thing of uttermost importance in a