Compare and contrast how love is presented within the two poems “Ballad: ‘The spring returns, the pewit screams’ by John Clare and ‘A Broken Appointment’ by Thomas Hardy.

Compare and contrast how love is presented within the two poems “Ballad: ‘The spring returns, the pewit screams’ by John Clare and ‘A Broken Appointment’ by Thomas Hardy.

Both poets express their loss of love within these two pieces although different in many ways there are some obvious similarities, which may be due to the attitude of the age. For example the attitude towards women and what was expected of them during a romance and the reaction when this role is not fulfilled.

In the 2nd and 3rd stanzas of ‘The spring returns, the pewit screams’ Clare writes in a very romantic manner when describing his time with Mary. He professed his love for her ‘I confessed myself her lover’ he goes on to describe their intimate moments using the personal pronoun ‘I’ four times within the 3rd stanza as to reiterate how proud he is to be her lover and she, his. ‘I thought myself a king that day My thrown was beauty’s bosom’, he delighted in her presence, and she made him a better version of himself, ‘a king’. During this time women were said to bring out the good in men, they were the good in the world, the love. This attitude is again reflected when Clare writes in the 3rd stanza ‘I thought love’s name a woman’.

In contrast Hardy goes straight into the pain that can be caused by love, ‘And marching time drew on, and wore me numb’ suggesting that is can wear you down. Instead of concentrating on how the love originally felt like and the positive and then contrasting it to how he feels now he rather seems to be consumed by the negativity that is now present due to his disappointment. Although Clare goes into the hardships of loss he still insists on remembering the good times. How his being in love made the pewit scream sound like music ‘‘Twas music last May morning’.

Hardy starts out in ‘A Broken Appointment’ with a strong definitive statement ‘You did not come’ a fact drenched in disappointment. Here he already sets the tone for the rest of the poem. There is a rigid and regular AABCBCAA rhyme scheme, which could be present to suggest calm yet distinct resignation toward the event he is yet to give an account of. ‘And marching time drew on, and wore me numb’, this is in reference to the ‘Appointment’ that is referred to in the title of the poem. Some could argue that this poem is merely about one missed appointment however if that were the case it would make this poem a hyperbole of emotion. It is likely that here Hardy is indicating to a whole relationship, which may be represented by the missing of an important appointment between his loved one, and himself.

As the poem goes on Hardy talks of how this missed appointment in which he refers to revealed to him her lacking in character. ‘That high compassion which can overbear Reluctance for pure loving kindness’ sake’; here he is saying if only she was kinder, had more compassion she would have met with him anyway despite her reluctance towards the situation. This could be said to be a reflection of how women during the Victorian era were expected to act. They were to be the goodness within society, quite lovely creatures. This rejection of love seems to against the sweet meekness and kindness that was expected of women at that time. This same attitude towards women is shown in ‘The spring returns, the pewit screams’, here John Clare talks about a flaw in here perfection. The fact that she doesn’t love him is shown to be a thorn, ‘And least of all that little flower would turn a thorn to wound me’, the image of a flower symbolises what a good woman should be, beautiful, delicate, soft, safe, however it turns out Mary doesn’t hold all these qualities her supposed lack of love for Clare is her flaw, her thorn. ‘As a woman’s cold perverted will’ again this can easily go along side Hardy’s feelings towards the woman that hurt him when he states that she has a ‘Reluctance for pure loving kindness’’ which as I said beforehand was expected of women.

This lack of love of both Hardy and Clare seems to be expressed through the loss of time. Clare first uses the seasons as his reference to time; ‘Spring’ the season of new life, new beginnings is where the poem first starts. In the first 3 stanzas the relationship between him and Mary is flourishing this is direct reflection of the season. When the poem changes tone in the 4th stanza we again see a reference to time; ‘And little thought an evil hour was bringing clouds around me’ Here we see this flourishing relationship changing like the weather within this ‘evil hour’ – this was the time he realised he was not going to see Mary again. This is similar to what is shown in ‘A Broken Appointment’, ‘Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked it sum’ this was the movement he realised no matter how long he waits she is never going to come. In the second stanza he also refers to himself as a ‘time-torn man’ which suggests that his waiting for her and long for her has over time damaged him. It could also give the connotation old age suggesting that he has loved her into his senior years and only now has to ‘hope-hour’ stuck and he has given up.

Both poems show the stresses of loss when it comes to romantic affairs. Although Clare focuses on that pain in the last 5 stanzas, he does reflect upon the good times. On the other hand Hardy brings forward self-pity and blame towards his loved one throughout. The emphasis on time passing creates a rather interesting link between the two poems. Also they both share an feeling of blame towards the their love interests which my reflect the attitude towards women during this era.