[Hardy-l] Little Father Time

[Rosemarie Morgan]

I wonder if this discussion on "Little Father Time" has taken account of 
the various other figurations of lost, lonely, disturbed little boys in 
Hardy - notably in his verse? (I haven't read every posting so excuse me if 
this has already been mentioned -- just hit the "delete" button!)

I think the closest to the orphaned little Jude features in "Midnight on 
the Great Western" where the "journeying boy" travels to his destination in 
similar fashion, by train, wearing a string around his neck bearing "the 
key of his box" and his rail ticket stuck in the band of his hat. He seems 
less destitute than little Jude (at any rate he carries a few possessions) 
and although he's listless, "bewrapt" and utterly alone in the world he 
*is* partly illumined by the lamp light and by a "spacious vision" which, 
in common with little Jude, marks "This region of sin that you find you 
in,/ But are not of?"

Emphasising the lighter aspect (lighter than little Jude's) of the orphan's 
journey  each stanza ends with the lilting phrase "journeying boy." This 
lends a singing tone and a dancing rhythm to the sombre motif while also 
echoing (in the exultant "...oy"-sound repeated 4 times) the lifted-up 
voice at closure which isn't really closure at all because the poem leaves 
us with an open-ended question--  "This region of sin that you find you 
in,/ But are not of?" This differing perspective,  this alternative stance 
as t'were, which offers insight into the heart and soul of the orphaned 
(illegitimate?) boy in a manner the narrator of JO doesn't attempt, adds a 
new dimension, I think, to our reading of little Jude much as the poem, 
"The Roman Road" (among others) augments our reading of RN (after all, 
Hardy openly confessed to transferring odd fragments of his verse to his 
imaginative prose).

"Vagg Hollow" is also interesting in this context where the lonely, 
fatherless little boy is also a "seer" (I think little Jude is a visionary 
child). Likewise "The Whipper-In" -- but for different reasons: after many 
years the child returns (from abroad) to the father and, spotting him in 
the distance, cries out "Surely it is my father."  His interlocutor sadly 
explains that it is indeed his father's distinctive red coat but it now 
adorns a scarecrow. The father is dead. The shocking scarecrow image is 
evocative, I would suggest, of crucifixion (-- back to the self-immolating 
Jude). In "The Seven Times" the boy is also a "seer" -- reminiscent of 
little Jude only insofar as he is at once a child and at once an aged man. 
When the poem opens it is dark, and the "boy" is barely visible as he trots 
beside the speaker and chats on about his past. Then the speaker turn his 
lamplight upon him and to his shock he sees a "small form .../ shrunken 
with old age  and battering wear,/ An eighty-years long plodder ..."

I'm sure there are many more such Hardy poems which might add a new 
dimension to the little oddity in JO who, so sensitive and susceptible, 
cannot relish, as does Sue,  the beautiful flowers on display at the fair 
because he sees their withering -- in a few days -- in his mind's eye.

Again-- apologies if these poems have already been mentioned on this thread.

All best wishes
Rosemarie