Works of Thomas Hardy discussion
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The Two Men
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I took the liberty of posting our next poem slightly early, since I may be tied up until early afternoon. (Jean, you suggested a poem title to me in a recent post; but I didn't write it down, and don't remember what thread the comment was posted on. :-( Sorry; maybe another time!)"The Two Men" was included in Hardy's first published collection of poetry, Wessex Poems and Other Verses; and being dated 1866, is actually one of his very early poems. (But his observation of human psychology is already acute. and pessimistic!) This tale of two men with very different plans, who nonetheless meet very similar destinies, raises questions (without supplying canned answers) about the relative roles of fate and human decision in the way individual lives turn out.
This is an interesting philosophical poem about one man who is idealistic and spiritual, and a second man who is overly materialistic. Neither man took a path which had a balance between having high moral qualities, and having enough material goods to be comfortable. Neither of the two men had real happiness.They took very different paths, but ended up with similar consequences. The last sentence of the poem is ironic:
"These men were like in all they did."
Such an different poem from what I've got used to seeing Hardy write — just shows his great range and at such an early stage in his career. I liked it even though I felt sorry for both men.
Mod
Not to worry neither do I! But I'll investigate later this week and let you know for a future possibility as you say. This is a great choice, thanks 😊
(Linking now.)
Thanks, Jean! Glad that several people are enjoying this one.
Lots to love about this one, although it certainly is pessimistic. I had a laugh at these lines:
He liked the winnings of the mart,
But wearied of the working part.
I also thought it was interesting the way Hardy used a parenthetical stanza for each of the men, showing maybe what lay behind their actions.
It reinforced in me the idea that it's the journey that matters, not the end!
Mod
I felt sorry for the men too, and even more sorry for their wives!!
Mod
I like this thought, Connie. It strikes me that both men didn't do any work. The first didn't work because he wanted to live a virtuous life: pursing "higher aims" and embracing "truth and purity". But of course, those aims won't pay the bills, one would have to be independently wealthy to live a life like that.
The other gent seems to just be lazy; like the line Kathleen quoted "wearied of the working part" (which also made me laugh. I'm weary of the working part almost every day LOL).
At any rate, they are very alike in that they both don't want to work, just for different reasons. There is that pessimism that Werner talked about which is very present in Hardy's works.
This was a fun poem to puzzle through. Thank you Werner!
Bridget wrote: "I felt sorry for the men too, and even more sorry for their wives!! ...This was a fun poem to puzzle through. Thank you Werner!"You're welcome, Bridget; glad you enjoyed it!
Actually, I don't think either man was ever married, though both were engaged. In the eighth stanza, "plighted" can refer to engagement as well as marriage; and if the two had already been married, he couldn't protect her from the consequences of his poverty, nor unilaterally "loose her bond," just by pretending to no longer love her. She'd still legally be stuck with him. Also, in the 11th stanza, it appears to me that what destroyed him emotionally was losing the "hope" (not actuality) of wedded bliss.
Guy #2 also lied to his "Love" in stanza 17, in his case pretending to want to spare her from sharing his poverty (the way that the first man really did), but really plotting to marry a different woman who was an heiress. (Luckily for the latter lady, she "read him" like a book, and didn't fall for his blarney!) That makes more sense if he was just breaking an engagement to the first woman; actual divorce and remarriage might have been legally possible in 1866, but it certainly wasn't easy or socially approved.
Mod
I thought there was only one unfortunate lady for Guy #2. I thought the maid he descried (the one of corn and wine) was the same maid a few lines before who deserved a crown. But I do think you are right there are two young ladies for Guy #2.
I just wanted to articulate all these so others would see that poetry can be hard to decipher, and please don't be afraid to ask questions, or make comments. This is why I find this group so helpful. I still loved my reading of the poem, but now through this discussion I'm coming to understand it so much more. :-)
Bridget wrote: "This is why I find this group so helpful. I still loved my reading of the poem, but now through this discussion I'm coming to understand it so much more. :-) "Same here! I've had that experience with several of our poems.
I enjoyed rereading this poem, and am glad that others liked experiencing it as well! Thanks to each one who commented.
There were two youths of equal age,
Wit, station, strength, and parentage;
They studied at the selfsame schools,
And shaped their thoughts by common rules.
One pondered on the life of man,
His hopes, his ending, and began
To rate the Market’s sordid war
As something scarce worth living for.
“I’ll brace to higher aims,” said he,
“I’ll further Truth and Purity;
Thereby to mend the mortal lot
And sweeten sorrow. Thrive I not,
“Winning their hearts, my kind will give
Enough that I may lowly live,
And house my Love in some dim dell,
For pleasing them and theirs so well.”
Idly attired, with features wan,
In secret swift he laboured on:
Such press of power had brought much gold
Applied to things of meaner mould.
Sometimes he wished his aims had been
To gather gains like other men;
Then thanked his God he’d traced his track
Too far for wish to drag him back.
He looked from his loft one day
To where his slighted garden lay;
Nettles and hemlock hid each lawn,
And every flower was starved and gone.
He fainted in his heart, whereon
He rose, and sought his plighted one,
Resolved to loose her bond withal,
Lest she should perish in his fall.
He met her with a careless air,
As though he’d ceased to find her fair,
And said: “True love is dust to me;
I cannot kiss: I tire of thee!”
(That she might scorn him was he fain,
To put her sooner out of pain;
For incensed love breathes quick and dies,
When famished love a-lingering lies.)
Once done, his soul was so betossed,
It found no more the force it lost:
Hope was his only drink and food,
And hope extinct, decay ensued.
And, living long so closely penned,
He had not kept a single friend;
He dwindled thin as phantoms be,
And drooped to death in poverty . . .
Meantime his schoolmate had gone out
To join the fortune-finding rout;
He liked the winnings of the mart,
But wearied of the working part.
He turned to seek a privy lair,
Neglecting note of garb and hair,
And day by day reclined and thought
How he might live by doing nought.
“I plan a valued scheme,” he said
To some. “But lend me of your bread,
And when the vast result looms nigh,
In profit you shall stand as I.”
Yet they took counsel to restrain
Their kindness till they saw the gain;
And, since his substance now had run,
He rose to do what might be done.
He went unto his Love by night,
And said: “My Love, I faint in fight:
Deserving as thou dost a crown,
My cares shall never drag thee down.”
(He had descried a maid whose line
Would hand her on much corn and wine,
And held her far in worth above
One who could only pray and love.)
But this Fair read him; whence he failed
To do the deed so blithely hailed;
He saw his projects wholly marred,
And gloom and want oppressed him hard;
Till, living to so mean an end,
Whereby he’d lost his every friend,
He perished in a pauper sty,
His mate the dying pauper nigh.
And moralists, reflecting, said,
As “dust to dust” in burial read
Was echoed from each coffin-lid,
“These men were like in all they did.”
1866