Aleena Islam
WHERE THE PICNIC WAS – Thomas Hardy
Themes
Melancholy, anguish, grief, bereavement, recollection, isolation
Contextual overview
This elegy was written in 1913, a year after the death of
Hardy’s beloved wife Emma Lavinia Gifford. He writes this
poem in memory of her, depicting his immense grief and
bereavement, as he visits one of their old sites of happiness, a
picnic area.
Key features of language, form and structure
- In the first stanza, the juxtaposition of the two seasons,
‘summer time’ … ‘winter mire’ highlight the immense
desolation that the author feels as a result of his wife’s
death; in the past, there was a sense of joy and
conviviality, however after this tragedy, he experiences a
severe sense of grief and melancholy.
- The pathetic fallacy of ‘winter’ also mirrors his
despondency, since this season has common connotations
of bleakness and misery.
- The plosive alliteration of ‘branch and briar’
accentuates the poet’s bereavement, since the sound
depicted illustrates his melancholic anger and agony as a
consequence of his wife’s death.
- The adjective ‘slowly’ gives the impression that the poet
is not only physically fatigued but could also suggest that
he is mentally exhausted at having to live without his wife.
- The polysyndeton in ‘…and scan and trace’ emphasises
how difficult it is for the poet to reminisce this once jovial
place, since it is as if he does not want to remember the
prosperity that is now destroyed by his wife’s death. The
polysyndeton almost delays the verbs ‘scan’ and ‘trace’
indicating that it is laborious to reminisce.
- Hardy describes this place as ‘forsaken.’ The emphatic
adjective highlights the poet’s isolation due to the fact
WHERE THE PICNIC WAS – Thomas Hardy
Themes
Melancholy, anguish, grief, bereavement, recollection, isolation
Contextual overview
This elegy was written in 1913, a year after the death of
Hardy’s beloved wife Emma Lavinia Gifford. He writes this
poem in memory of her, depicting his immense grief and
bereavement, as he visits one of their old sites of happiness, a
picnic area.
Key features of language, form and structure
- In the first stanza, the juxtaposition of the two seasons,
‘summer time’ … ‘winter mire’ highlight the immense
desolation that the author feels as a result of his wife’s
death; in the past, there was a sense of joy and
conviviality, however after this tragedy, he experiences a
severe sense of grief and melancholy.
- The pathetic fallacy of ‘winter’ also mirrors his
despondency, since this season has common connotations
of bleakness and misery.
- The plosive alliteration of ‘branch and briar’
accentuates the poet’s bereavement, since the sound
depicted illustrates his melancholic anger and agony as a
consequence of his wife’s death.
- The adjective ‘slowly’ gives the impression that the poet
is not only physically fatigued but could also suggest that
he is mentally exhausted at having to live without his wife.
- The polysyndeton in ‘…and scan and trace’ emphasises
how difficult it is for the poet to reminisce this once jovial
place, since it is as if he does not want to remember the
prosperity that is now destroyed by his wife’s death. The
polysyndeton almost delays the verbs ‘scan’ and ‘trace’
indicating that it is laborious to reminisce.
- Hardy describes this place as ‘forsaken.’ The emphatic
adjective highlights the poet’s isolation due to the fact
