What's wrong with an emotional response to a poem? It doesn't always have to be about analysis. "The Oxen" reflects in part Hardy's loss of faith, but the last line seems regretful to me, rather than cynical. That is his emotional response, maybe similar to Betjeman's uncertainty in "Christmas": "...And if it is, and if it is (true)"... which somehow does not detract from his climactic ending "... then God was man in Palestine, and lives today in bread and wine."
This Christian unsurprisingly goes for Christina Rosetti's "In the bleak midwinter", (known irreverently by our Church choir as "In the BMW) the ending of which both states and evokes a spiritual, rather than an emotional response: "What can I give Him.....give my heart."
This is a favorite poem of mine and doubtless many others. Philip Larkin, who loved Hardy's work and was, though not very admittedly, inspired by him, must have had "Oxen" in mind when he wrote "The Explosion," about the aftermath of a horrific mining accident. Of another era entirely, as your notes tell us, Hardy was better able to express and capture the phenomena of lived experience with all its emotional subtleties. Larkin, in the time of B.F. Skinner and Bertrand Russell, has a grimer, sharper edge; is less given to such explorations of feelings--one suspects in his personal life as well as his poetry--feelings and phenomena that the Empiricists and Sociologists had deemed 'not knowable by empirical means' and hence--not important! Thank you for this post. Please bring more from Hardy, whose body of work is so large it may be difficult for the lay person to find the gems, at times.
My kids have a picture book of Susan Hill’s spin-off poem, “Can It Be True?”, which Hill based off of Hardy’s “The Oxen.” The animals kneeling at Christ’s birth is just the perfect image of pre-Fall Eden.
Another of my favorites. I am drawn to the subtle melancholy of it; the speaker no longer believes that the oxen kneel (or that Christ has come) and yet -- something in him wants it to be so and wishes that it were . . . but he won't go to look and be disappointed. I love the use of the word "flock" in the first stanza!
And finally (though there are others), Alan Rawsthorne, a composer I like okay, set it, but I've never heard it and it doesn't seem to be up on YouTube.
What's wrong with an emotional response to a poem? It doesn't always have to be about analysis. "The Oxen" reflects in part Hardy's loss of faith, but the last line seems regretful to me, rather than cynical. That is his emotional response, maybe similar to Betjeman's uncertainty in "Christmas": "...And if it is, and if it is (true)"... which somehow does not detract from his climactic ending "... then God was man in Palestine, and lives today in bread and wine."
This Christian unsurprisingly goes for Christina Rosetti's "In the bleak midwinter", (known irreverently by our Church choir as "In the BMW) the ending of which both states and evokes a spiritual, rather than an emotional response: "What can I give Him.....give my heart."
This is a favorite poem of mine and doubtless many others. Philip Larkin, who loved Hardy's work and was, though not very admittedly, inspired by him, must have had "Oxen" in mind when he wrote "The Explosion," about the aftermath of a horrific mining accident. Of another era entirely, as your notes tell us, Hardy was better able to express and capture the phenomena of lived experience with all its emotional subtleties. Larkin, in the time of B.F. Skinner and Bertrand Russell, has a grimer, sharper edge; is less given to such explorations of feelings--one suspects in his personal life as well as his poetry--feelings and phenomena that the Empiricists and Sociologists had deemed 'not knowable by empirical means' and hence--not important! Thank you for this post. Please bring more from Hardy, whose body of work is so large it may be difficult for the lay person to find the gems, at times.
I think ‘hoping it might be so’ is pretty good going.
That's lovely.
My kids have a picture book of Susan Hill’s spin-off poem, “Can It Be True?”, which Hill based off of Hardy’s “The Oxen.” The animals kneeling at Christ’s birth is just the perfect image of pre-Fall Eden.
Merry Christmas, Sally and Joseph!
Liked by this old atheist too. Though perhaps 'Journey of the Magi' is the very greatest Christmas poem.
Another of my favorites. I am drawn to the subtle melancholy of it; the speaker no longer believes that the oxen kneel (or that Christ has come) and yet -- something in him wants it to be so and wishes that it were . . . but he won't go to look and be disappointed. I love the use of the word "flock" in the first stanza!
I love the horse, looking over the wall, in the 17th-century Mexican painting, done in oil and mother of pearl, at the end of the post. I clipped out the handmade frame, to save space, but it's lovely too. https://jaimeeguiguren.com/usr/library/documents/main/discovering-viceregal-latin-american-treasures-catalogue_compressed-1-.pdf
Thanks for including that!
Prefer this of Robert Southwell SJ (the first 3 stanzas anyway) to The Burning Babe:
THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.
By Robert Southwell
Behold the father is his daughter's son,
The bird that built the nest is hatch'd therein,
The old of years an hour hath not outrun,
Eternal life to live doth now begin,
The word is dumb, the mirth of heaven doth weep,
Might feeble is, and force doth faintly creep.
O dying souls! behold your living spring!
O dazzled eyes! behold your sun of grace!
Dull ears attend what word this word doth bring!
Up, heavy hearts, with joy your joy embrace!
From death, from dark, from deafness, from despairs,
This life, this light, this word, this joy repairs.
Gift better than Himself God doth not know,
Gift better than his God no man can see;
This gift doth here the giver given bestow,
Gift to this gift let each receiver be:
God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,
God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.
Man alter'd was by sin from man to beast;
Beast's food is hay, hay is all mortal flesh;
Now God is flesh, and lies in manger press'd,
As hay the brutest sinner to refresh:
Oh happy field wherein this fodder grew,
Whose taste doth us from beasts to men renew!
Ah, Bob, just when Sally and I picked "The Burning Babe" as this year's poem for Christmas Day.
Thank you and Sally for this work of care, attention and love! Merry Christmas! Beautiful poem choice. - Carla
Thanks! Merry Christmas to you and to Sally. I'm not able to attend closely to your posts every day, but they are an important part of my day.
There are many good settings of it. Gerald Finzi of course set it, as Hardy was the poet he set most often:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amLJU2LjJVs
And it's set in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Christmas cantata, Hodie (at 24:57 here):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh0CmBQFhEI
One setting I don't know very well is that by Britten.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEpK_H2Vybk
And finally (though there are others), Alan Rawsthorne, a composer I like okay, set it, but I've never heard it and it doesn't seem to be up on YouTube.
Beautiful, even to an old atheist. Merry Christmas.