The Life of Thomas Hardy
pressing the remembrance of a striking but dreary landscape which reflected a very bitter moment in his life. Love is regarded as the tormentor who deceives and "wrings with wrong." It shows also the author's desire to have the mood of nature correspond always to the mood of the human situation treated.
In Heiress and Architect the situation is highly artificial and unreal, but the idea, the "vanity of human wishes" is strongly emphasized. All of the heiress's hopes, fancies, and enthusiasms are frowned upon and waved aside by the cold and knowing architect, experienced not only in his profession but also in the school of life, who insists on designing her mansion with a view to the requirements of the more bitter moments in life. The pattern chosen for the stanzas of this poem is a rather unusual one, but is very appropriate to the thought contained in it:
Some narrow winding turret, quite mine own.
To reach a loft where I may grieve alone!
It is a slight thing; hence do not, I pray,
This last dear fancy slay!
Such winding ways
Fit not your days,
Said he, the man of measuring eye;
I must even fashion as the rule declares,
To wit: Give space (since life ends unawares)
To hale a coffined corpse adown the stairs;
For you will die.
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