Yes, I'm thinking, especially in light of my friend Silvia's comment below, about the suggestion of what you see by the light of a kind of Puritan rationalism --- the way the frost makes the cobweb starkly visible --- as opposed to the mystery and unknowing (the Keatsian idea of negative capability, I guess?) which the more folkloric, supernatural, extra-rational figure seems to bring with him. This is a more unreliable kind of seeing, yet it's not really diminished.
Feb 9Liked by Sally Thomas, Poems Ancient and Modern
What one sees is what one gets. The question remains, how much is in the eye of the beholder and how much of it just isn't what it seems. As one sometime poet wrote, "Behold yonder beggar may be a king, for a king may chose his garment, but a beggar cannot hide their poverty."
Feb 9Liked by Sally Thomas, Poems Ancient and Modern
What a great poem! I know that Hardy was something of a folklorist, and I read recently that he lamented that the mythical figure of Father Christmas had aged, from a young and mirthful man that the Puritans did their best to squash in Cromwell’s time to the white-bearded Saint Nick type figure we know now. I think it’s appropriate that Hardy refers to a young(ish) ruddy man in holly green arriving at the disappearance of the frost and the start of white winter.
Quick, we are old!
And perhaps the unreliability of visions.
Yes, I'm thinking, especially in light of my friend Silvia's comment below, about the suggestion of what you see by the light of a kind of Puritan rationalism --- the way the frost makes the cobweb starkly visible --- as opposed to the mystery and unknowing (the Keatsian idea of negative capability, I guess?) which the more folkloric, supernatural, extra-rational figure seems to bring with him. This is a more unreliable kind of seeing, yet it's not really diminished.
What one sees is what one gets. The question remains, how much is in the eye of the beholder and how much of it just isn't what it seems. As one sometime poet wrote, "Behold yonder beggar may be a king, for a king may chose his garment, but a beggar cannot hide their poverty."
It’s a shame, I’m finding the Hardy connection in my notes but no reference. I’ll let you know if I manage to trace it back.
What a great poem! I know that Hardy was something of a folklorist, and I read recently that he lamented that the mythical figure of Father Christmas had aged, from a young and mirthful man that the Puritans did their best to squash in Cromwell’s time to the white-bearded Saint Nick type figure we know now. I think it’s appropriate that Hardy refers to a young(ish) ruddy man in holly green arriving at the disappearance of the frost and the start of white winter.
Oh, that's fascinating. I'd love to know where you read this bit about Father Christmas.