Thomas Hardy's War Poems

The First World War (1914-1918), Wars, and Hardy’s Two War Poems

Teacher Talk - by Liz Hanton

This talk should be expanded upon by the teacher. The teacher could explain in detail images of war. The talk should be adjusted to the level and mood of the classroom, as well as the teacher’s own style.

Before the First World War many poets wrote in a romantic style. When the war started many people were excited by it. They saw it as a chance to be patriotic and prove that Britain was a powerful country. Many working class people saw it as a chance to leave their dull factory jobs and have more spending money in their pockets. Middle and upper class people saw the war as an adventure. However, as the war went on the people became disillusioned. They knew that more and more of their own men were being killed. They were disturbed because Britain seemed to be less powerful than they had thought.

Hardy had seen many wars before the First World War. It was difficult to believe that such a loss of life was to happen again. There was the Boer War in southern Africa, the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s, and the Crimean war of the 1850s. The ruling class saw the First World war as "The Great War" because it was to end all wars. Hardy may have been more positive about the war in his poems than he really felt because he was afraid of persecution.

How does this help you to understand the women in "The Going of the Battery"? What do they predict about the war that their lovers are going to?
What do you think the men were putting their hope in? How does this help you to understand the view that the men were leaving for war "too readily"?
Romantic writing is escapist. Can you see any escapism in Hardy’s In the Time of ‘The Breaking Nations’?
Can you understand why Hardy’s poem, In the Time of ‘The Breaking Nations’, was slightly optimistic?
Can you tell me why Hardy used the country side to talk indirectly about the war?

Details in paragraph one adapted from, Scannell, V (1978) The Poetry of the First World War Liverpool: Sound Education.
Details in paragraph two drawn from Martyn Richmond and Kate Sambell’s English lesson, Groby Community College, Leicester, 1998.