Thomas Hardy – Channel Firing

Thomas Hardy was a mixture of the Victorian and Modern era. Most of his books were very controversial. He wrote on and challenged religious beliefs which during his time period was completely taboo. Many of the reader during that time were alarmed that such a man would even write about the topic. He covered a variety of topic other then religion, such as industrialism and the differences in social class. He wrote mostly Victorian novels, but when it came to his poetry he was a modernist. Hardy lived during the time of Word War I and the events of the war influenced many of his poems. His poem “Channel Firing” was written before World War I which shows that was had a huge impact on the thoughts of Thomas Hardy. I was never involved in war until I read an essay a little boy in a middle school class I was helping teach this summer wrote an essay about his brother who recently died in Iraq. For some reason I felt closer to war, and it has been weighing on my mind. Thomas Hardy had the weight of war on his mind when he wrote “Channel Firing.”

Hardy wrote “All nations striving strong to make/ Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters/ they do no more for Christes sake/ Than you who are helpless in such matters” (1077). I enjoyed these verses of the poem because it shows the madness and helplessness of war. Later Hardy attempts to justify why war is necessary, but here he shows the hatefulness of war. “All nations striving strong to make/ Red war yet redder” (1077), this give me an image of complete chaos. I imagine a sea of people from all over the world, or in this case near the English Channel, just slaughtering one another. I know that “slaughter” is not a very appealing word, but it conveys the intended meaning of a “Red war yet redder.” Since this particular poem is refereeing to military exercises this verse is of particular interest. He doesn’t take sides, he mentions “All nations” (1077), and this is a way of sharing the blame. Saying that all are partaking, all are striving to cause the chaos that is war. I love how concise his words are in this poem. It is beautifully written, I really enjoyed reading Thomas Hardy.