The Oxen By Thomas Hardy - Analysis

The Oxen by Thomas Hardy - analysis
Thomas Hardy wrote The Oxen in 1915, he was 75 years old when he wrote this short poem and it
was first published in The Times on 24th December (Christmas Eve)of that year when Britain was
embroiled in the First World War.
The poem conforms to the “common metre” found in ballads and hymns. This is about old folk
tradition that the author remember. In thefirst two stanzas, we found the act of religious belief, also
a nostalgic of the childhood. Hardy uses words like “flock” to create the rural atmosphere. Both
stanzas contrast with the incredulity,or more sceptical present, therefore the poem moves from a
community view to an individual view, also the syntax moves, we may appreciate in the second half
of the poem. We can picture Hardy, as achild, astonishing with the image of the kneeled oxen in the
stable at midnight before Christmas Eve.
The children would have been allowed to sit up late to welcome the start of Christmas Day, andthe
older members would have told them stories when they sat in front of the fire in a country cottage .
We can assume that Hardy’s “elder” is somebody who teach the children, something like a personwho values for their wisdoms. In the bible this term is used for refereed the oldest of the tribe.
The children have no doubt that “they [oxen] are all on their knees’” (2). They do not need anyproof of that because their faith is so innocent for the doubt. “Hoping it might be so” (16) taints the
poem with a wistful end where Hardy longs for childhood days when faith knew no limits throughinnocence. It is as if he has temporarily forgiven God for disappointing him. Hardy’s use of a
uncomplicated verse structure and arcade language like “flock”, it is mean herd, “barton”, it is meanstable, “coomb”, etc...This suggests real speech rural people, especially, uneducated people who he
lived in the past.
Hardy includes a dialogue exposed in some quotation marks, –he was more famous...