Thomas Hardy Diction

Today conspiracy theories exist for every existing thing. The same goes for poetry as poets are known to hold secrets through the locks called diction, rhetoric, and style. Such a poet includes Thomas Hardy and his poem, “A Broken Appointment” whose secrets go beyond its plot of absent love and love in general. As with analysis of the first three lines compared to the entire poem, Thomas Hardy contends that the most ruthless type of love is an unrequited love.
Hardy begins his attack on love through his usage of commas and line breaks. As all throughout the poem, the pauses being placed in-between both line and word are all meant to set up a malicious and gloomy mood. In the beginning lines of, “You did not come, / And marching time drew

His use of diction comes in the form of such words: “You did not come” (1). The idea of using simple words to begin his poem shows Hardy wants people to understand his anger towards love. Due to the fact he follows it with, “Marching time drew on, and wore me numb,- / Yet less for loss of your dear presence there” (2-3). Again, simple language reveals the poem’s ulterior motives but the reason he decided for these words are not so simple. As a reason for these words is to emphasize time’s physical anguish on him was painless compared to the psychological turmoil of grieving over the deficiency of compassion from his lover. Therefore, using diction Hardy is trying to tell the world that fake love is a cruel beast but the only thing restraining his message is his overall

According to Poetry Foundation’s biography on Thomas Hardy, he lived his life in misery especially when he wrote this poem as he was grieving over the loss of his wife and was having scandalous relationships with much younger women (Poetry Foundation). It only goes to show his creditability of how love wounded him and how he can grieve over his new lover lack of devoted love to him. Going on with the biography, another key point to be made is his masterful use of the musical components of poetry such as control of breath in the first two lines with focus on the commas. Through the usage of the commas, he is controlling when the reader is taking a breath and as stated before creates the mood that love is hate. However, in conjunction to his poetry’s musical aspect it comes with the bitter and gloomy atmosphere in every poem. An example of this is the first line: “You did not come,” (1) the bitterness in line comes to play perfectly with the comma. Mentioned earlier on the comma placement, this current structure creates that harsh and unpleasant sound coming from the speaker’s mouth. Which then comes to appeal to the audience’s pathos. Which completes his persecution against empty love but also his use of