[Ttha-potm] re: Childhood among the ferns

[Rosemarie Morgan]

Aside from pure aesthetic principles of art --I think the one of the most 
disturbing things about

>" the biographical hints[that] threaten to lead
>away from the poem?"
is that -- like seeing Polanski's Tess before "seeing" Hardy's Tess one can 
never really get rid of the first impression and thereafter Hardy's Tess is 
never autonomously her own self -- or Hardy's.

When I think of Emma Hardy I instantly "see" that large, heavy woman with 
highly coiffeured hair and sullen expression and at the same time I recall 
the remarks from Max Gate about her cruel remarks to TH (that he looks like 
Crippen) and so on -- hence if I identified her with, say, "Where the 
Picnic Was" I would feel profoundly different about the poem -- and very 
much at odds with the beauty and truth of it.

Doesn't anyone else have this problem? - is it just me? -- do I have a 
perversely strong associative memory?

Best
Rosemarie