Gonzales 1 Mara Gonzales Mr.

Molina English 12 CP Synopsis January 17, 2012

Fairhall, James. "Hardy's WHEN I SET OUT FOR LYONNESSE". Explicator; Fall86, Vol. 45 Issue 1, p25, 3p.

In this Article, "Hardy's WHEN I SET OUT FOR LYONNESSE," by James Fairhall, he begins with explaining the background of one of Thomas Hardy's "best known and most graceful... poems" (25). One of the reasons is because of its mystical and fairytale like feel. It is said that when he first visited St. Juliot Rectory and Church in Cornwall, and met his wife-to-be, he was transformed and with him was " feeling of having been changed in some magical way" (25). He fell in love with Emma Lavinia Gifford on his trip and this love contributes to the emotion of this poem. Growing up, Hardy was surrounded by oral traditions and nursery rhymes. One of which was "a possible source of "When I Set Out for Lyonnesse," probably heard in one form or another"(Fairhall 25). This nursery rhyme is called "How Many Miles to Babylon". It contains many similarities to Hardy's poem. A very important similarity is the "journey to a mysterious, romantic-sounding place with legendary overtones" (26). Fairhall also mentions the distances that were in both poems and how they "must be taken

Gonzales 2 in a figurative or magical sense" This is because Hardy actually did journey by rail road and horse-drawn wagonette and in the nursery rhyme, it implies long trips and walking as the form of transportation (26). More mystery is illustrated in "the absense of any mention of daylight, however, they inevitably associate... with nighttime, enhancing the atmosphere of mystery in each poem (26). As Fair hall defends his points on the similarities of the first two stages in the two poems, he also defends that the third stage differs. In this stage, "the return... the fate of the travveler in "Babylon" has yet to be decided. In "Lyonnesse," however, the pattern is completed. Reflecting Hardy's experience of falling in love". In this last stage of Hardy's poem, his return is one of great rapture and bliss. Fairhall expresses his opinion that in "When I Set Out for Lyonnesse" the speaker is full of "magic" in his eyes and produces a happy ending from the extremely mysterious poem Hardy's poem was inspired by.