At Lulworth Cove a Century Back > Likes and Comments
date
newest »
newest »
This poem, was written September of 1920. It shows Hardy's admiration of Keats. He refers to Keats poem, "Bright, star!" According to Keats experts, "Bright, star!" contrasts a solitary permanence of a star with the long lasting, passionate love he wants with his lover. Hardy's poem is a tribute to Keats who made a journey to Rome and most likely landed at Lulworth Cove.
This is such an interesting poem, Natalie. Hardy is transporting himself back a hundred years to when Keats lived. Keats was traveling to Rome, and stopped at Lulworth Cove during his journey. The poem shows Time pointing out Keats by saying, "You see that man?" three times. The poem emphasizes that we often do not recognize the geniuses and talented people around us until after they have died, and they live their life in despair. Hardy visited the graves of Keats and Shelley in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome in 1887. The group read a poem about that visit a few years back, "Rome at the Pyramid of Cestius Near the Graves of Shelley and Keats."
I was so excited when I saw you were to lead this poem Natalie 😊 I love the connection with John Keats - and I love Lulworth Cove too. It's in Dorset but the other end of the coast from my caravan. Here it is:
As you can see, it is one of the prettiest coves in Dorset, being almost perfectly circular in shape. It is land-locked, apart from a gap on the south side where the sea has broken through the rocks. This is a famous beauty spot called Durdle Door:
I was surprised that Thomas Hardy uses its proper name in the title, because in his novels he calls it "Lullwind Cove". In Far From the Madding Crowd it is (BIG spoiler ahead for anyone who missed our group read (view spoiler). I wonder if it's because it is such a late poem, or whether its because he wanted to emphasise that this was a real life poet, and not one invented for his "dream country" 🤔...
By the way, there is an excellent film called "Bright Star" from 2009, directed by Jane Campion. It's based on the biography about John Keats by the poet Andrew Motion and is about the last three years of John Keats's life, and his romantic relationship with Fanny Brawne. I really recommend this one!
(Linking the poem now. The one Connie mentions is also in the list, of course.)
The way that Hardy describes his longing to have crossed paths with Keats . . . . well I feel that way about Hardy. Oh, how I would have loved to visit Dorchester when he was alive and perhaps have run across him while shopping in town or waiting for a train. Hardy could not have foreseen that 100 years after writing this poem, others would have felt for him, the way he feels about Keats. It makes this poem very relatable, I think.Here is a link to the poem Connie mentioned:
Rome at the Pyramid of Cestius
And here is the Keats poem (for those who are curious):
“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
By John Keats
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
Just FYI - I'm going to move this thread to the "Currently Reading" section of the home page in hopes that more members will find it there :-)Thanks Natalie for leading this one!! And thank you Jean for the wonderful pictures!!
Jean, the photos of the cove are wonderful. The area is so picturesque!Bridget, thank you for posting the Keats poem. I've been noticing mentions of the constant North Star in many older poems, a reminder of how different life used to be before radar, GPS, etc.
Love those pictures Jean! The picture I saw in an online description was from years ago, and in black and white. The color versions are so stunning!
Natalie wrote: "Love those pictures Jean! ....The color versions are so stunning!"Jean, what Natalie said!
I might have gone, as I have gone this year,
By Warmwell Cross on to a Cove I know,
And Time have placed his finger on me there:
"You see that man?" — I might have looked, and said,
"O yes: I see him. One that boat has brought
Which dropped down Channel round Saint Alban's Head.
So commonplace a youth calls not my thought."
"You see that man?" — "Why yes; I told you; yes:
Of an idling town-sort; thin; hair brown in hue;
And as the evening light scants less and less
He looks up at a star, as many do."
"You see that man?" — "Nay, leave me!" then I plead,
"I have fifteen miles to vamp across the lea,
And it grows dark, and I am weary-kneed:
I have said the third time; yes, that man I see!"
"Good. That man goes to Rome — to death, despair;
And no one notes him now but you and I:
A hundred years, and the world will follow him there,
And bend with reverence where his ashes lie."