[Hardy-l] Wessex Heights-Terror and Delight in Thomas Hardy

[Betty Cortus]

Thanks for telling us about this Roy--an interesting setting for the  
poem.  But I am not convinced that the "rare fair woman" of  "Wessex  
Heights" is more likely to be Agnes Grove  (a blonde)  than Florence  
Henniker  (a brunette).  For one thing, the word  "fair"  has  
multiple meanings, the primary one being simply  "beautiful"  or  "of  
attractive appearance."

Florence Hardy, for one, believed that Florence Henniker was the one  
referred to in the poem.  In a letter dated 9 September 1914  to Lady  
Hoare she confirmed this, writing:

"Again in  "Wessex Heights"  there is one woman 'one rare fair woman'  
of whom he says 'now I can let her go.'
She has always been a sincere and affectionate friend to him, staunch  
and unaltering -- and I am glad to say, she is my friend too.  There  
was never any idea if his letting her go -- for he too, is true and  
faithful to his friends, but the poet wrote that."
(Letters of Emma & Florence Hardy, ed. Michael Millgate, 105)

I am not aware that Florence Hardy ever considered Agnes Grove among  
her close friends.

Betty

On Aug 12, 2007, at 2:36 PM, Roy Buckle wrote:

>
> Look up the latest news on Roy Buckle's front page to hear
> a first rendering of the new song setting (the first?) of
> WH plus some challenges to the usual assumptions regarding
> the identities of persons referred to in the poem!
>
> See
>
> www.segr-music.net

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://coyote.csusm.edu/pipermail/hardy-l/attachments/20070813/a8b116fd/attachment.html