The image of a haunting is of particular significance inudthe poetry of Thomas Hardy. As metaphor for the workingsudof memory it fills Hardy's need for an image whichudcaptures the intensity of recall he experiences, and whichudcannot be described simply in the image of remembering.udThe image of a haunting Is at times implicit in poemsudconcerned with the recreation of the past. The sense weudhave in these poems of memory summonsing the past, and itsudconsequent materialization, the assumption of immediateudform, distinguishes these poems from those in which audconventional memory is recorded, where the past is simplyuddescribed rather than recreated. The haunting is usedudexplicitly to accommodate Hardy's sensitivity to theudlingering presence of past experience which expressesuditself in repeated images of shadowy phantoms , presencesudwhich seem to edge into the poet's present experience andudin the multiplicity of actual ghosts dramatically re- enactingudthe scenes of the past. By associating theudexperience of remembering with a haunting Hardy transformsudthe recall of the past, into a dramatic event, in which theudself actively confronts his past and is allowed toudvisualize, hear and address the dead. The image isudexpressive of Hardy's profound nostalgia for a pastudwhich is perceived as affording placement and familiarityudto a self unhoused and estranged in a present which barsudcomprehension and the perception of significance. in audhaunting the self is allowed a rehearsal of the pastudequipped with understanding and vision.udIn an examination of the 1912-1913 poems, the centrality ofudthe haunting image to the sequence is considered. Theudimage of the haunting functions as antidote to the burdensudof transience and mortality? in the haunting the pain ofudestrangement can be allayed and the reality and finality ofuddeath can be momentarily annexed. In the 1912-1913 poemsudthe haunting is the medium for an expression of regret andudatonement, a mode of expiation. udFinally, the dissertation studies the assumption ofudghost hood by Hardy's personae and considers theudappositeness of the image of the poet as haunter inudexpressing the self's tendency to withdrawal and self effacement.udThe equation of the self with a ghost isudexpressive of the self's sense of exclusion from audwelcoming' community, its retreat from the press ofudexperience, but also of the self's unwilling immersion inudthe past and consequent inability to maintain a firm gripudon its identity.udThe complexity of the haunted and haunter imagesudaccommodates Hardy's sense of the complexities of memoryudand identity, concerns to which the poems return repeatedlyudas the focus of exploration.
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