The Self-unseeing Analysis

This poem written by the well known English poet Thomas Hardy (1840 -1928) is entitled The Self –Unseeing and composed of three quatrains. The major theme of the poem deals with the poet’s happy childhood that he spent in his parental home with his mother and father that had become, unfortunately, a history to recollect over the ruined house. In the first stanza, the poem opens in a ruined room with no door and a floor that was eaten away by the feet of those who used to live there. In the second stanza, the poet looks around him in the room and tries to recollect the places where his mother and father, that he referred to by “he” and “she”, were sitting and the activities they were doing; his mother was sitting “in her chair smiling to the fire” while his father was playing the violin “bowing it higher and higher”. In the last stanza, the poet describes himself “childlike” while dancing cheerfully over his father’s playing. What drew my attention the most in the poem were the title and the closing line. The title “Self Unseeing” is composed of self that is the self of the poet, and unseeing that refers to the state of mind that lacks appreciation of something in particular. In parallel with lack of appreciation, the final line comes to finally show the nature of lack of appreciation that is meant to denote the poet’s unconsciousness of his gorgeous past. It is clear enough that the first stanza is fully dedicated to the present state of the room. The poet seems to be overwhelmed with feelings of sadness and remorse over his childhood home. He conveys his sadness through the frequent reference to adjectives like “ancient, foot worn, hollowed, dead”. These adjectives thoroughly describe the deteriorated condition of the room notably when the second line is composed of three consequent adjectives that describe the deteriorated condition of the floor. In the next stanza, the poet moves on from talking about the present state of the room to having a flash backward by which he recalls his mother and father who used to live there. He uses some adjectives and verbs that reflect the merry and peaceful life he was in with his parents “smiling, played, higher”. However, he does not mention his parents directly when he refers to the third person “he” and “she”. The poet may have done this on purpose in order to standardize them as they may be the mother and father of any person. Thus, he broadens his tragedy of loosing them from a personal to universal one. In the third stanza, the poet refers to himself dancing very energetically and childlike, as well as he refers to many terms associated with light “day, glowed, gleam” to draw the happy and gorgeous life he used to lead in harmony together with his parents. It is easy to appreciate this poem and to figure out the overall tone that seems associated with the poet’s feelings of sadness and remorse over his loss of the best moments he spent in the warmness of the parental home. Add to this, there is the loss of the childlike

and innocent emotions of happiness that have gone altogether with his parents so that to leave him with some memories and ruins.