Appreciating Rain on a Grace

This poem represents the poet, Thomas Hardy as the persona and his grief over his wife’s death using imagery and emotive language. The poem is set at the moment in time after the persona’s partner’s death, where the persona is at her grave. The poem reflects on the persona’s guilt of mistreating his late wife while she was alive and his yearning to be with her now ‘Would I lay there – And she were housed there! – Or better, together… We both, - who would stray there’ Hardy wrote this poem as a way of expiating the way he treated his late wife while she was alive. The poet, Thomas Hardy initiates the poem by describing the rain spouting on the persona’s deceased wife’s grave ‘Clouds spout upon her’ and the pain she suffered from the persona whilst she was living ‘Her who but lately – Had shivered with pain’.
The poet’s purpose of writing this poem was to reflect and acknowledge his guilt for the mistreatment of his late wife. The persona reflects and contemplates on his behavior towards his wife while she was alive ‘Her who but lately – Had shivered with pain’ and his yearning to be reunited with her again ‘Would I lay there – And she were housed there! – Or better, together… We both, - who would stray there’ Hardy acknowledges that his love was lost – his mistreatment to his late wife ‘Her who but lately – Had shivered with pain’ and was found again, unfortunately too late
The poem goes from a dark tone to a light tone. The poet evokes a sad, melancholy mood in the early stanzas of the poem ‘Clouds spout upon her’ ‘Had shivered with pain’ and in the late stanzas of the poem the poet evokes a somewhat prosperous mood ‘Love beyond measure – With a child’s pleasure – All her life’s round.” There is a gentleness tone to the poet’s reflections upon his thoughts of his wife in the poem. The poem has a bittersweet feel to it.
The structure of this poem has four stanzas with nine lines in each stanza. The language in Rain on a Grave is effective and appropriate in