Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s Verse
All Hardy critics have noted how the poet-novelist’s works often dramatize a constant oscillation between the Pagan and the Christian. This essay proposes to observe once again how the two traditions seep into each other, but chooses to focus specifically on Hardy’s verse and to examine this in the...
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| Language: | English |
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2014-09-01
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| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/1503 |
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| author | Laurence Estanove |
| author_facet | Laurence Estanove |
| author_sort | Laurence Estanove |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | All Hardy critics have noted how the poet-novelist’s works often dramatize a constant oscillation between the Pagan and the Christian. This essay proposes to observe once again how the two traditions seep into each other, but chooses to focus specifically on Hardy’s verse and to examine this in the light of the poet’s agnosticism and of his appropriation of some folkloristic and positivistic ideas. Hardy’s interest in the fusion of Pagan and Christian beliefs, present in the surfacing traces of the past, actually depends on the human associations to be found there. Hardy’s ‘survivals’ do not help reconstruct the past stages of an obsolescent culture or society so much as they stimulate artistic creation. The fetishism to be observed in his verse is also neither a direct application of Positivistic thought nor a revival of Pagan rites, but one element of a more general ‛animative impulse’ that attaches to the celebration and preservation of human individual affect. Hardy’s leaning towards paganism is therefore more poetic than theistic. The poem ‛Aquae Sulis’ illustrates this by staging an ironic reunion of the Pagan and Christian traditions—‛images both’—while testifying to the ‛animative impulse’ of Hardy’s poetry that reconciles metaphorical discourse with living experience. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6458d0f2dfc240ecae9ecb5da56ed81c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-09-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| spelling | doaj-art-6458d0f2dfc240ecae9ecb5da56ed81c2025-01-30T10:21:31ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492014-09-018010.4000/cve.1503Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s VerseLaurence EstanoveAll Hardy critics have noted how the poet-novelist’s works often dramatize a constant oscillation between the Pagan and the Christian. This essay proposes to observe once again how the two traditions seep into each other, but chooses to focus specifically on Hardy’s verse and to examine this in the light of the poet’s agnosticism and of his appropriation of some folkloristic and positivistic ideas. Hardy’s interest in the fusion of Pagan and Christian beliefs, present in the surfacing traces of the past, actually depends on the human associations to be found there. Hardy’s ‘survivals’ do not help reconstruct the past stages of an obsolescent culture or society so much as they stimulate artistic creation. The fetishism to be observed in his verse is also neither a direct application of Positivistic thought nor a revival of Pagan rites, but one element of a more general ‛animative impulse’ that attaches to the celebration and preservation of human individual affect. Hardy’s leaning towards paganism is therefore more poetic than theistic. The poem ‛Aquae Sulis’ illustrates this by staging an ironic reunion of the Pagan and Christian traditions—‛images both’—while testifying to the ‛animative impulse’ of Hardy’s poetry that reconciles metaphorical discourse with living experience.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/1503poeticsagnosticismHardy (Thomas)poetryChristianitypaganism |
| spellingShingle | Laurence Estanove Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s Verse Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens poetics agnosticism Hardy (Thomas) poetry Christianity paganism |
| title | Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s Verse |
| title_full | Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s Verse |
| title_fullStr | Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s Verse |
| title_full_unstemmed | Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s Verse |
| title_short | Poetry as Pagan Pilgrimage: the ‘Animative Impulse’ of Thomas Hardy’s Verse |
| title_sort | poetry as pagan pilgrimage the animative impulse of thomas hardy s verse |
| topic | poetics agnosticism Hardy (Thomas) poetry Christianity paganism |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/1503 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT laurenceestanove poetryaspaganpilgrimagetheanimativeimpulseofthomashardysverse |