Works of Thomas Hardy discussion

Epitaph On A Pessimist

I'm Smith of Stoke aged sixty odd
I've lived without a dame all my life
And wish to God
My dad had done the same.

Perhaps not so much a poem, as an ironic joke. 🤔 To me this feels like the sort of witticism someone would have engraved on their tombstone.

I wonder if Thomas Hardy perhaps sometimes felt like this, as he definitely had dark moods.

Just sneaking a very short poem in, so we do not have a gap 😊

Compared to other poems we have read, this one lacks lyrical complexity and philosophical depth. Yet despite its brevity, it packs a punch. The poem offers a wry commentary on the human condition, and the futility of regrets.

"Smith" is such a common name that the narrator could be anybody. Perhaps Thomas Hardy is saying that those living alone might lament their solitary life.

Its simplicity and cynical tone reflect the pessimistic mood prevalent during the Victorian era, marked by social and economic disparities.

Wry commentary is exactly what I thought it was when I read it.

Whenever I encounter a "wish I'd never been born", I always think of It's a Wonderful Life. What if Hardy had gotten this wish, we'd all be the poorer, and he probably had no idea how many lives he was destined to touch.

The epitaph reflects on the dark and disappointing side of life. It is a clever short work that surprises the reader with the last line. I wonder if Hardy was depressed, or was just expressing some dark, dry humor.

In looking for Hardy's motivations for the poem, I came up with this information from a blog called "First Known When Lost" which prints the poem and follows it with
- Thomas Hardy, Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925).
Hardy includes this note to the poem: "From the French and Greek."
Hardy owned a copy of J. W. Mackail's Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology (1906), which contains the following translation of a Greek epitaph:
"I Dionysius of Tarsus lie here at sixty, having never married; and I would that my father had not."
J. O. Bailey, The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A Handbook and Commentary (1970), page 557.
"Dionysius of Tarsus" becomes "Smith of Stoke" in order to bring us up-to-date.

Hardy's sympathetic reading of Schopenhauer is perhaps reflected in "Epitaph on a Pessimist." Schopenhauer opined that, when all is said and done, not having been born may have been the best option for us. Giacomo Leopardi, who Schopenhauer admired, came to the same conclusion. Yes, it sounds harrowing, doesn't it? But, when you read Schopenhauer and Leopardi, they are two extremely jolly fellows, and are quite entertaining about the whole business.

Cynic's Epitaph
A race with the sun as he downed
I ran at evetide,
Intent who should first gain the ground
And there hide.

He beat me by some minutes then,
But I triumphed anon,
For when he'd to rise up again
I stayed on.
- Thomas Hardy, Ibid.

"Epitaph on a Pessimist" and "Cynic's Epitaph" were published together in the September, 1925, issue of The London Mercury, when Hardy was 85.

https://firstknownwhenlost.blogspot.c...

So it looks like Hardy just paraphrased an older saying and updated it to Victorian times. He was 85, so I cut him a break if he wants to use a shortcut to express his curmudgeonly outlook. I don't think it reflects how he actually feels about his own life, but is more of 'some dark, dry humor' that Connie suggests. Also, I'm observing (and experiencing) that for older citizens there can be power and pleasure in having people view you as being grumpy and curmudgeonly. I can see Tom putting out these epitaphs to have a certain public image and degree of control.

Well I posted late at night, and thought to myself that nobody would bother responding ... I should have known better! Some great insights here, and thanks especially to Brian for that great find!

Somehow I thought there must be a story behind this one, and I enjoy the other epitaphs in that article as well. Did Smith - or Thomas Hardy - really wish he had never been born? I hope this was just a mood.

Sara - That is pretty much my favourite film. And the philosophy reminds me very much of the ending of Middlemarch (view spoiler)[ for Dorothea (hide spoiler)]:

"But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

Everyone makes a difference ...

Overall, like Brian I agree with Connie and Pam. We can hold several thoughts and world views in our mind, and whichever we lean towards most at any one time varies.

Brian "for older citizens there can be power and pleasure in having people view you as being grumpy and curmudgeonly."

We see evidence of this around us, but also there is a whole language geared towards power being in the hands of the younger. Doesn't the very word "curmudgeonly" signify an older person? A younger one would be viewed as "assertive". And how about "irascible" rather than witty? Or "feisty" rather than "courageous"? There must be many more patronising appellations, all designed to diminish older people's validity as equal members of society.

Of course I think attitudes do change as we get older. Not only from experience (which I believe makes older people more wise!) but also older people can become more sensitive - thin-skinned if you like. They lack the boldness or confidence they used to have. But other people say when you reach a certain age you can say what you want.

But perhaps that's enough on this subject!

Thank you, Jean, for posting this short "poem". I put that word in quotes, because as you said, it almost feels like it's a joke, or some song lyrics. But it does also stand very well on its own as a poem.

I read through the link Brian provided (which was great!) and I decided I like Hardy's version better than the Greek version. It doesn't surprise me that Hardy wrote many epitaphs, especially in his later years. Death was, I think, something he thought about often. Not in a suicidal, or morbid way, but more because he was a sensitive person who was connected to the natural world and therefore thought of death in a commonplace manner. An always present fact of life.

It's undeniable the poem talks about wishing to have never been born, but I don't think Hardy felt that deeply. Perhaps the brevity of the poem reflects the fleeting nature of that emotion in Hardy himself. Haven't we all felt that way? I know I have, though it's not a lingering emotion for me.

I also did not necessarily think that Hardy was ruing his own life, but the epitaph itself made me think of the misunderstanding of life itself when people do. I said "Hardy" in my previous post, but I was really thinking more of anyone. It was impossible not to think how Hardy himself would have left a gap behind by not existing.

I enjoyed the information you provided, Brian.

I think mood, especially as you age and the body begins to dictate more, can be a huge influence on us all. What you would write one day might seem like a silliness the next. That Hardy thought about death (particularly at 85) is hardly a shocker, though.

In Hardy's poetry, quite often the "speaker" is represented as being, not the poet, but an invented person whose thoughts/feelings Hardy is presenting, not necessarily because they're similar to his own, but because they tell us something about life and people. (And that "something" isn't always what the speaker is literally saying.) Our speaker here is said to be "Smith of Stoke" (not Hardy!), and the title is "Epitaph on a Pessimist" --not "What I'd Like My Own Epitaph to Say." In other words, he's giving us a nutshell version of a pessimist's essential outlook on life. But in his preface to his last collection of poems, Winter Words, Hardy denied that he was pessimistic, even though the critics were characterizing him that way.

So, no, I don't think Hardy is here expressing the wish that he'd never been born, nor encouraging his readers to feel that way. His own outlook might often be melancholy or cynical; but I think he appreciated life and wanted to encourage his readers to take as much satisfaction out of it as they could. He's not presenting Smith of Stoke as a wonderful role model, but rather as someone whom the reader can be glad that he/she doesn't resemble. (Anyway, that's MY take on the poem! :-) )

Sara wrote: "I said "Hardy" in my previous post, but I was really thinking more of anyone ..."

Yes Sara, I had that same feeling about him choosing the name "Smith". He's talking about universal feelings, I think.

Bridget - "he was a sensitive person who was connected to the natural world and therefore thought of death in a commonplace manner. An always present fact of life."

This comes through in his novels, doesn't it? For farming people especially, the cycle of life and death is the natural order of things. You've put this so well 😊

Werner - we cross-posted 🙄

"quite often the "speaker" is represented as being, not the poet, but an invented person whose thoughts/feelings Hardy is presenting, not necessarily because they're similar to his own, but because they tell us something about life and people."

This surprises me, as so often I feel that Thomas Hardy's poetry exactly mirrors his own thoughts, and can even be autobiographical. We have selected quite a few poems of this type - but then with c. 1000 poems in his canon, we probably can't really generalise. Certainly you have accurately described a common approach to poetry, but with Thomas Hardy I often feel it is more focused and personal, rather than detached observations.

Thomas Hardy had a name he used for Everyman as a country worker, but I forget for the moment what it was. Something like "Hodge" (I've got Drummer Hodge in my mind though!) But "Smith" is even more universal and crosses all types.

Brian's link includes 4 more epitaphs by Thomas Hardy. "A Necessitarian's Epitaph" has a similar message without the humour. A complementary one might be this:

"A Placid Man's Epitaph

As for my life, I've led it
With fair content and credit:
It said: 'Take this.' I took it.
Said: 'Leave.' And I forsook it.
If I had done without it
None would have cared about it,
Or said: 'One has refused it
Who might have meetly used it.'

But I do think that in "Epitaph On A Pessimist" - or perhaps of a pessimist, "Smith" does most clearly exhibit the feelings Thomas Hardy was sometimes prone to.

"A Placid Man's Epitaph" is still a downbeat one, but more wordy, less satisfying to read (as the Bard said, "Brevity is the soul of wit" 😆) and without any sardonic humour to lift it. So the placid poem is perhaps, as you were describing, a more observational one.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Perhaps Thomas Hardy is saying that those living alone might lament their solitary life."

That thought struck me with added force right after I posted my comment in message 12. In both this short poem and the Greek original, the "speaker" makes a point of noting that he never married (which is a point that distances him from Hardy, who married twice); and in a poem this short, every word is employed with purpose. IMO, Hardy (and his Greek predecessor) don't bring up the speaker's single state just to set up a quirky way of saying "I wish I wasn't born;" they're saying that a life lived without deep human contact and love is apt to make you pessimistic and feeling that your life was so unfulfilling it would be better if it hadn't been.

I cannot help but think that Philip Larkin, a great admirer of the poetry of Hardy, and a great pessimist, had this wry little poem in mind when he wrote This Be The Verse. Larkin’s poem is short, too.

Perhaps these two Great Pessimists felt that brevity is the soul of the pessimist. It seems in both they are practically spitting out the words.

I can see Larkin sitting at home in his easy chair, after his second or third Beefeater Martini, reading The Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy, and scribbling out This Be The Verse.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

I hadn't made the connection but think you're absolutely right, John!

Philip Larkin's poem is full of bile and barely suppressed, resentful fury. It is equally pithy, but does not have a smidgeon of humour. Otherwise the message of these two pessimists is the same.

Oddly, he was not at all like that if you met him ... just a quiet man. I never did, but I was living in Oxford and working in libraries when he was based there, coincidentally for the same short time. A friend worked at the Bodleian library where Philip Larkin spent many hours. He was actually an important figure in librarianship, as well as poetry! He lived mostly in Hull (North England) and computerised the records for the entire library stock, making it the first library in Europe to install an automated online circulation system!

His poetry was always very dark, and "This Be The Verse" is probably the most controversial (and thus the most famous 🙄)

That’s a great story, Jean. I do recall he was to be Poet Laureate but declined for health reasons, and Ted Hughes was chosen.

We may owe Larkin a debt of service for Hardy’s poetry. Larkin was chosen to compile an Oxford anthology and Hardy had been somewhat neglected at the time. He selected 30 of Hardy’s poems, displacing Yeats as usually having the most in prior volumes. This led to a greater appreciation of Hardy’s poetry.

I sometimes see a literary connection between the two.

I do remember Philip Larkin turning down the OBE when I was still at school. Then Ted Hughes was awarded the OBE later.

Thank you so much for making the connection between Philip Larkin and Thomas Hardy, John! It sounds as though we could do with his championship now, since Thomas Hardy has been removed from the English schools examinations curriculum. 🤔