The Last Signal

[John]

THE LAST SIGNAL

(Oct. 11, 1886
A Memory of William Barnes)

Silently I footed by an uphill road
That led from my abode to a spot yew-boughed;
Yellowly the sun sloped low down to westward,
And dark was the east with cloud.

Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east,
Where the light was least, and a gate stood wide,
Something flashed the fire of the sun that was facing it,
Like a brief blaze on that side.

Looking hard and harder I knew what it meant -
The sudden shine sent from the livid east scene;
It meant the west mirrored by the coffin of my friend there,
Turning to the road from his green,

To take his last journey forth--he who in his prime
Trudged so many a time from that gate athwart the land!
Thus a farewell to me he signalled on his grave-way,
As with a wave of his hand.

[John]

This poem comes from Hardy’s Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses.

As the date notes, it was likely written in 1886 or perhaps close to that year. William Barnes was a friend of Hardy’s and a very interesting man. He was what is called a polymath — excelling as good as any expert in several fields. Here is a link to Barnes, which is helpful to understanding the impact he seems to have had on a younger Hardy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willi...

[John]

This poem is a great example, in my opinion, of Modernism. It captures a moment, it is vibrant, it is concise and to the point — the words are active and energetic.

Hardy, as much as Eliot or Pound, wrote the first Modern poems. He was a bridge from Victorian to Modern. It is true that Eliot’s The Wasteland was thought to break the ground for Modernism. But Hardy, using his formalism, seemed to create a feeling, an instant, and a tone that breaks the same Modernism ground.

[Connie]

John, thank you for the introduction to this poem as well as to William Barnes, an interesting man and a close neighbor to Hardy. I like the idea of a flash of light as a communication from the deceased. The flash of light probably gave Hardy a sense of comfort as he headed to the funeral or burial of his old friend.

The poem often uses consonance with soft-sounding consonants such as S and L, appropriate for a sad time. He uses a string of F sounds to emphasize what may be the most important line of the poem:

"Something flashed the fire of the sun that was facing it"

He uses repetition to call our attention to this line:

"Looking hard and harder I knew what it meant"

It's a lovely tribute to Hardy's friend.

[John]

Connie, excellent observations. I read the poem several times again, once out loud, and noticed the soft consonants. Certainly apt.

[Bridget, Moderator]

I too loved the consonance and alliteration in this poem. My favorite is

"Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east,
Where the light was least"

I love "where the light was least". So evocative of the feeling Hardy is creating and it really stays with me. Which makes me agree with John's "modernist" take on this poem.

I also enjoyed learning about William Barnes. Thank you for the link John. William Barnes sounds like a very interesting man. Without this poem by Thomas Hardy, I'm not sure I ever would have known about Barnes. That's the ultimate tribute Hardy could give his friend. Longevity through poetry.

[Connie]

On reading the poem again, I noticed the internal rhymes in addition to the rhymes of the ending words of the second and fourth lines of each stanza.

Hardy also rhymes the end word from the first line with the fourth or fifth word of the second line. Road/abode, east/least, meant/sent, prime/time.

[Pamela]

Thank you for sharing this poem. It does feel more modern than I expected. I'll have to try reading it out loud — I often did that with my professional writing and it's always helpful to hear if something has a good rhythm.

[John]

I am also surmising that the word livid, which is used twice in the poem, does not signal angry but rather a bluish color.

[John]

A few phrases I liked in this poem:

Yellowly the sun
Dark was the east
Yew-boughed
The sudden shine
Trudged so many a time
On his grave-way

[Sara]

I love the poem, its immediacy and the way it paints a picture in your mind of both the coffin making its way to the grave and the observer trudging to the sad event. Then the moment is lightened by the flash and the feeling that it is a friend's last goodbye.

Thank you, John, for the link to William Barnes page. He was both interesting in his own right and for his influence on Hardy. He knew other men whose names outlive them, which tells me something of the regard in which he was held. I took the time to read his poem, The Fall. Time well spent. Judging from it alone, I believe he and Hardy had a deep feeling for nature and the life of the people around them in common.

[Bionic Jean, Moderator]

Thanks for all this great analysis 😊

William Barnes is now best known as "Dorset's other poet"! He used to be very famous, but is little read now as he writes in Dorset dialect and it's hard to decipher. I think he's only really remembered outside academic literary or historical circles because of Thomas Hardy's great admiration for him. Yes, Sara, they were close in their concerns, and Thomas Hardy felt he was the earlier poet's natural successor.

Thomas Hardy tried to bring William Barnes's poetry to a wider popular appreciation during his lifetime, but met with little lasting success. William Barnes was almost 40 years older than Thomas Hardy and I wonder if perhaps the world was not willing to cope with Dorset dialect without a champion?

Thanks for choosing this important poem John. The GR author page has a list of his works and a portrait of him, but to give everyone an idea of where William Barnes lived, LINK HERE. It's an information post with a picture of Shaftesbury, from our read of Tess of the D’Urbervilles - no spoilers though!

(Poem also now linked)