Thursday, January 7, 2016
A Broken Appointment by Thomas Hardy
The speaker in the poem addresses the idea of love and how that concept relates to loyalty. The speaker of the poem is forgotten by the woman that he loves. She does not come to meet him like he thought she would. He takes this as a sign that she does not truly love him, especially not how he thought she did: "You love not me." He jumps to this conclusion because "love alone can lend you [the] loyalty" needed to fulfill a promise, such as meeting him. Needless to say, the speaker is heartbroken. He is especially confused since this decision of hers is not congruent with her past behaviors in which she "came to soothe a time-torn man." He finishes this statement with the idea that she does not love him, which implies that this time-torn man is, in fact, himself. The speaker is arguing that love is not the only thing that brings about the loyalty to have her meet him. If that is the case, then why did she not come this time? Maybe the woman once loved the speaker of the poem. Maybe there were extenuating circumstances that caused the woman not to come. The poet probably leaves the answer to this question unknown to show the uncertainty in human emotion. We, as a society, never truly know other people's thoughts and motives. Unless people express how they feel, we will never truly understand. Human nature is incredibly ambiguous, especially regarding love.
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