English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms.

Laurin

I. Introduction

A. Thesis statement: biography:

In “I Said to Love,” “The Voice,” and “The Dead Man Walking,” Thomas Hardy uses

repetition, hyperbole, and imagery to reinforce the themes of untouchable love, flaw of love,

and death’s penalty.

II. Body Paragraph #1

A. Topic sentence: Thomas Hardy uses repetition in “I Said To Love” to describe the

theme of “Flaw of Love.”

B. Supporting evidence:

i. (Stanza 1), He remember the old days with his wife, which mean he really her a lot.

ii. (Stanza 2-3), The persona don’t want her to have pain, this could be said that his

wife might have a sickness that can lead to death, after her passed away, the persona

think that the world is so cruel without her.

iii. (Stanza 3), now he can accept what happen to her

B. Clincher sentence: Repetition was used for describing the pain he has without his

lover.

III. Body Paragraph #2

A. Topic sentence: In “The voice”, Thomas Hardy uses hyperbole to reinforce the

theme of “Untouchable Love.”

English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms. Laurin

B. Supporting evidence:

i. His biography when he first met Emma Gifford, a wife of Thomas Hardy

ii. (Stanza 2-3, line 5-12), The persona really miss her, but she has gone(pass

away) already. (Hyperbole = “Standing as when I drew near to the town /

Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then” (lines 6-7) and “You

being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness” (line 12)

iii. (Stanza 4, line 13-16), The persona kept looking forward and keep walking

even how pain he have in his heart. (Hyperbole = Wind oozing thin through

the thorn from norward,

And the woman calling.)

C. Clincher sentence: Hyperbole was used for depicting how much he love his wife.

IV. Body Paragraph #3

A. Topic sentence: Thomas Hardy uses imagery for comparison to express the theme

of “Death’s Penalty.”

B. Supporting evidence:

i. (line 1-8), the persona imply us about the place that the situation occurred,

and what is the main situation that lead to the story of it.

ii. The jailer were punish and torture the persona an d kept doing it until his

consciousness become slowly disappearing.

iii. The persona were slowly dying by cruel torture

English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms. Laurin

C. Clincher sentence: The idea of imagery were used for expanding how cruel that the

prisoner have from jailer.

V. Conclusion A. Rephrased thesis statement: Thomas Hardy uses several poetic

devices to express his ideas toward the theme of poems.

English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms. Laurin

Factor of Life

Thomas Hardy is one of the well-known English novelist and poet. He was born in 1840 as

the eldest son of Thomas Hardy and Jemima Hardy when he was young, he loves to read a

book from his mother which she also a reader he really loves to read a book also. His father

teaches him to play violin because his work is to travel to the countryside for playing and

dancing. Thomas Hardy learn both of them behavior but he was a good reader more than the

musician. In the age of sixteen, he became an apprentice with an architect, John Hicks. After

he had an internship with John Hicks, he went to London which this is the first time that he

began to write the poem by an inspiration from Reverend William Barnes. One of his poetic

style that attract many readers to see his book is because he liked to write down his own story

in to the form of poems to express his feeling, which I “Said to Love” and “The Voice” was

written from the real situation when his wife has passed away, and to show how love he had

toward his wife. In his poems, most of the poetic devices that he used are enjambment,

hyperbole, and imagery for describing how he feels to a reader. In “I Said to Love,” “The

Voice,” and “The Dead Man Walking,” Thomas Hardy uses hyperbole, imagery, and

enjambment to reinforce the themes of untouchable love, flaw of love, and death’s penalty.

Thomas Hardy uses repetition in “I Said to Love” to describe the theme of “Flaw of

Love.” This poem came from his life event which it was when his wife going slowly to the

end of her life. In this poem, he said that he can remember the old days, a past memory,

during that time the persona and his wife tried to learn each other heart. The human cycle has

born, old, painful, and Death, by the time past, he afraid that his wife Emma will be painful,

so he can only make a wish. But, something happening, his wife has passed away because of

the heart attack and during that time he thinks that the world is cruel without her which he
English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms. Laurin

already mention in this poem in the stanza 3 that “I said to Love, / "Thou art not young, thou

art not fair, / No faery darts, no cherub air,/ Nor swan, nor dove/ Are thine; but features

pitiless,/ And iron daggers of distress,”/ I said to Love” (line 15 -21). He uses a repetition of

phrase to be a thing that depicting his feeling. In this poem, in every stanza starts with a

phrase said that “I Said to Love,” and “I Said to him,” which it means this poem has two

characters talking to each other which are the persona and his wife. The repetition was used

hear to reinforce the theme “Flaw of Love,” by showing that two lover shows his/her feeling

to each other and on the top sentence of the last stanza it said that “Depart then, Love!…,”

which it might be the last sentence that he said to his wife for making her accept her dead.

In “The voice”, Thomas Hardy uses hyperbole to reinforce the theme of “Untouchable

Love.” This poem also came from a real situation from his life. This poem telling about how

much he pain and his feeling toward the death of his wife. During his early life in 1867, he

worked with Hicks and he wrote many novels likes The Poor Man, the Lady, and Desperate

Remedies, but all of that cannot catch a reader and become a n unsuccessful novels. In the

meantime, Hardy had doing work with Gerald Crickmay, which he sent Thomas Hardy to

Cornwall on Marc, 1870, which it is a time when he met with his first love, Emma Lavinia

Gifford. Even how failure he has on literature, but he will keep writing because he is a born

bookworm that really love in reading and writing books. He continued with his work and

hoping that it makes enough money to marry with Emma Gifford. Moreover, he had written

down his story with Emma in many novels or poems likes “A Pair of Blue Eyes,” “When I

Set Out for Lyonnesse,” “Beeny Cliff,” and more. After he marrying with Gifford in 1874, he

was move to Maxwell and both of them have a happy life together. Then, in November 27,

1912, his wife has passed away by heart attack which it made he to live alone and become

depressed because he cannot handle this feeling and pain. In the poem, Thomas said that “Or
English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms. Laurin

is it only the breeze, in its listlessness/ Travelling across the wet mead to me here,/ You being

ever dissolved to wan wistlessness, / Heard no more again far or near?” (line 9- 12). In these

lines, he uses hyperbole as a device to express his feeling when he can’t hear the voice of his

one of the most valuable person in his life have passed away, which means that he can’t

accept this kind of thing that occurred in his life. But, in the end he finally can deal with it

and tried to look forward and keep walking even how pain he has in his feeling. According to

my research, in the time that Thomas Hardy nears to the death, he died while there is his wife

corpse near with his body which it shows that how love he have to his wife Emma. He thinks

that the best way to handle this situation is to keep positive memories of each other in his

own heart and go on his life.

Thomas Hardy uses imagery for comparison to express the theme of “Death’s

Penalty.” This is the last poem that I have to choose. It conveys a life of loss and sorrow. This

poem was first published in 1899, which it was after his wife already dead, this poem is about

dead that come toward to the persona. In stanza 7, he said that “When passed my friend, my

kinsfolk, / Through the Last Door, / And left me standing bleakly, / I died yet more;” (line 25

- 28). In this poem, the persona uses a lot of death images which it was a main idea of this

poem. In this stanza, he said that all of people around him are already dead, family, friend, or

even his love, there is nothing left for him to go back which makes him become more pain

and depression. Moreover, there are other death images that the persona uses like “Ashes

gone cold” (line 8) or “No catch off breath,” (line 14). In the end, he is continually torture by

the jailer until he has met with death.

Thomas Hardy uses several poetic devices to express his ideas toward the theme of

poems. In “I Said to Love,” “The Voice,” and “The Dead Man Walking,” Thomas Hardy
English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms. Laurin

mostly said about love and depression in all of these three poems. In each poem, there is an

enjambment using for separate his feeling toward death. The purpose in the most of the

poems that he has written from the past until today is that he wants everybody to know that

death is really near us and it was hard to accept it like a quote that he said “Happiness is but a

mere episode in the general drama of pain.”

English 11 Unit Four Essay Outline Ms. Laurin

References:

BIOGRAPHY (n.d.), Thomas Hardy Biography. Retrieved from

https://www.biography.com/people/thomas-hardy-9328464

Thomas (1982). “Thomas Hardy Biography” Retrieved from

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Gi-He/Hardy-Thomas.html