[Ttha-potm] 'Four in the Morning' POTM for June 2008

[Bill Morgan]

David Havird wrote:

What Hardy seems to be doing in that first stanza-and-a-half is depicting
the (fallen) world as edenic--well, not exactly, but "not far" from
it--"not far from Paradise."  After all, the world is in the process of
being recreated at 4 AM--and we ourselves, it would seem, participate in
that process.  Later--in broad daylight--our sense of things (which
involves our sense of sight) will be one with the postlapsarian world,
which is characterized by guile.  Something like that?

Yes, David.  Your distinction between pre- and post-lapsarian ways of seeing
does help me come to terms with "eyes of guile."  In this reckoning, our
(fallen) eyes are themselves guileful (if that's a word).  Thanks.  And I
like very much the idea that the world is recreating itself at 4 AM.
Reading with that notion in mind makes the idea of near-Paradise in the poem
more resonant.  

Bill