Poem analysis essay "The Oxen"

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Literature

19 February 2009

“The Oxen” analysis

“The Oxen” was written by Thomas Hardy in a turbulent time of England’s history, published during the First World War near Christmastime. At first glance, the poem seems to reaffirm faith in the noble and spiritual, and most readers and publishers interpret the piece as the tale of a speaker’s journey back into the ideals and joys of Christmas that he encountered as a child; the triumph and immortality of these principles inherent in his desire to return. "If someone said on Christmas Eve, / Come; see the oxen kneel, / In the lonely barton by yonder comb/ Our childhood used to know/ I should go with him in the gloom, / Hoping it might be so.” However, while that may be one facet of the poem’s meaning, pigeonholing this work as just a life-affirming Christmas product is doing it great injustice. By use of diction in some parts of the poem and allusions, Hardy makes it clear that he is quite alienated from the faith and innocence of his early days, one that included a faith in the goodness and redemptive qualities of mankind. However, should a reader be tempted to paint the poem as a two-dimensional work with only an interplay of supposed belief and actual rejection of ideals, the structure of the poem emphasizes the emotion and inner struggle of the speaker who wants to believe. Lastly, Hardy polishes off the inner complexity of the poem with the symbolism of the imagery used, standing for various things that affected post turn of the century Western Society.
By analyzing the diction of the beginning part of the poem, one can see that Hardy uses comfortable, cozy words such as “hearthside” “embers” “meek” “elder” and “elder” to paint the innocence of the speaker’s early years as imbued with community and definite structures. This is used to delineate the rift the speaker has later on in life, as revealed by the phrase “Nor did it occur to one of us there / To doubt they were kneeling then.” With the advent of this phrase sneaks in a more reserved and disbelieving voice, as shown by the phrase “So fair a fancy few would weave / In these years!” in referring to the legend he accepted as truth so long ago, along with the words “lonely” and “gloom”. This rift the speaker has is significant to the poem—it can be interpreted as a loss of faith in a benevolent God, or a loss of faith in humanity’s goodness, particularly interesting when noting the major event of the time of the poem’s creation. With the advent of a war that was increasingly more impersonal, horrific and ultimately a waste of lives, people began to lose faith in the old traditions and institutions, and the speaker is a reflection of society as a whole. The average reader’s interpretation of the poem is turned on its head as one faces the question of whether the speaker’s depression and loss of faith is truly justifiable, and whether it is innocence and blind belief that is evil that should not be returned to. After all, such qualities in Western society led to the First World War: a blind belief in one’s rulers and religion to always be right no matter the action taken; innocence in the perception of war as glorious.
With the symbolism of the imagery used, particularly for the legend of the kneeling oxen, Hardy emphasizes the aspect of lost innocence but also ties the oxen to the soldiers of the war, who are much like the “meek mild creatures” and of the people who “[sit] in a flock”. At a time when Britain was manipulating its media extensively to raise public support and outrage against the Germans, Hardy was voicing his dissent and lack of trust in the ideals of civilization that Britain held itself to be the sole protector of, thus making him and the speaker of the poem alienated from the common herd. A herd that was being herded with lies and distortions to a pointless death on the battlefield for a few feet of ground, and suffering deprivations of war, not to protect religion or human virtue, but for a power play between the aristocracy of Europe. It is also interesting to note what the meaning of the line “I should go with him in the gloom, / Hoping it might be so.” could be. Is the gloom representative of the future the speaker foresees, as humanity continues on its downward path, always to be blinded by illusions of human virtues and optimism? Or is the gloom a passing “dark night of the soul” to be conquered?
With the use of structure and changing diction in the third stanza, Hardy captures a third layer to his poem—the emotional state of the individual forever torn by the question of whether humanity is really a force for good in the universe, or just a bestial species in an uncaring world.
The first two stanzas of the poem are structured neatly and rhythmically, almost in a sing-song way, tying the themes of belief in the good of humanity with childishness and of a drone. With the third stanza where the speaker notes his loss of faith, “So fair a fancy few would weave in these years!” the poem’s rhythm abruptly shifts, and loses its continuity with the previous stanzas, paralleling the speaker’s break with old beliefs. It is with the tone of the next line, “Yet I feel, if someone said on Christmas Eve, come; see the oxen kneel,” that the poem re-establishes a new cadence, and the hesitant hope of the speaker finds voice. The speaker dances between hope and loss of faith, something that he continues to do for the rest of the poem, by juxtapositioning words such as “childhood” and “hoping” with words like “gloom” and “used to”.
Overall, the message of the poem centers on the journey of the speaker, an individual who has been affected by war, lies, and a rapidly changing world to see the truth underneath the veneer of politeness and virtue of society. He has lost the ideals and beliefs that masked his vision, but at the same time, the individual is left to wonder who is truly right in the end: the optimistic view of his childhood in the universe, or the more pessimistic view of a rational, unmysterious universe without guiding principles or moral consequences to evil. This speaker’s journey underlines the dilemma of all individuals in modern day society faced all around by evil deeds and ignorance—what is humanity in this universe? A force to pursue good, or a species that rationalizes its selfish actions? And what is the correct reaction? Is it to keep hope in humanity, as the speaker is tempted to do by believing once again in the legend of the kneeling oxen? Or is it to accept that man is not the improving, orderly, and moral force of the Victorian’s ideal (The “meek mild” oxen) but an animal driven by selfish desires and ignorance? (The bestial animal that innocently takes itself to the slaughterhouse) Ultimately, as is the fate of all individuals, the speaker may ask the question, but does not know the answer—“I should go with him in the gloom, hoping it might be so.” It is a question every individual reader must ask, and then answer for themselves.