Relationships with Dead Inworth's We Are Seven and Hardy's We Are Seven and Digging"[One] can survive death not in a divine afterlife but only in a human one. If the poet dies or forgets his beloved, the kills" (Ramazani 131); Thomas Hardy's belief in the "poet's duty of memory" forms the basis for his "Ah, are you digging up my grave?". “[Fearing] he abandoned his own wife before her death,” Hardy wrote the poem to take on “the memorial responsibilities of the poet” (Ramazani 131). While Hardy tries to atone for his sins by “crying continually for his dead wife,” the fuel behind Williamworth's “We Are Seven” is a question of being and existence (Trilling 57). This question arises from the fact “that nothing was more difficult for [Wordsworth] in childhood than to admit the notion of death as a state applicable to one's being” (Noyes 60). Despite the poets' very different intentions, Hardy and Worth both describe relationships between the living and the dead in their poems; however, while Hardy humorously satirizes the way the living forget the dead, Worth demonstrates a child's refusal to acknowledge that the dead are gone. In their poems, Hardy and Worth both elicit the use of conversation; however, the fictional conversation in "Ah, are you digging up my grave?", contrasts with the non-fictional dialogue in "We Are Seven". Hardy's poem "uses the ballad convention of 'The Unquiet Grave' – a dialogue between the living and the dead" (Johnson 48), in this case, between a deceased woman and her dog; Worth's poem consists of an actual confrontation he had with a little girl when he traveled through Europe. Hardy's willingness to use disembodied voices for the intended purpose of creating... middle of paper......umentworth brings out, the girl responds, "No, we have seven!" (Wordworth 1333). She lacks the ability to accept death and “this [absence] of awareness [makes] the poem so poignant” (Drabble 51). What began as a simple everyday conversation ended as a didactic and somewhat emotional poem. Worth, through a real-life conversation, presents “the darkness and perplexity that accompany in childhood our notion of death, or rather our inability to admit that notion” (Noyes 60). In direct contrast to Worth, who did not intend to write a deep and meaningful poem, Hardy knew exactly what he wanted to achieve by writing "Ah, you are digging in my grave." People too easily remove the dead from their memory, and Hardy wanted to admonish his readers of the importance of remembering the dead; just because the dead are gone, they should not be forgotten.

Topic > Relationships with Dead Inworth's We Are Seven and Hardy's We Are Seven and Digging"[One] can survive death not in a divine afterlife but only in a human one. If the poet dies or forgets his beloved, the kills" (Ramazani 131); Thomas Hardy's belief in the "poet's duty of memory" forms the basis for his "Ah, are you digging up my grave?". “[Fearing] he abandoned his own wife before her death,” Hardy wrote the poem to take on “the memorial responsibilities of the poet” (Ramazani 131). While Hardy tries to atone for his sins by “crying continually for his dead wife,” the fuel behind Williamworth's “We Are Seven” is a question of being and existence (Trilling 57). This question arises from the fact “that nothing was more difficult for [Wordsworth] in childhood than to admit the notion of death as a state applicable to one's being” (Noyes 60). Despite the poets' very different intentions, Hardy and Worth both describe relationships between the living and the dead in their poems; however, while Hardy humorously satirizes the way the living forget the dead, Worth demonstrates a child's refusal to acknowledge that the dead are gone. In their poems, Hardy and Worth both elicit the use of conversation; however, the fictional conversation in "Ah, are you digging up my grave?", contrasts with the non-fictional dialogue in "We Are Seven". Hardy's poem "uses the ballad convention of 'The Unquiet Grave' – a dialogue between the living and the dead" (Johnson 48), in this case, between a deceased woman and her dog; Worth's poem consists of an actual confrontation he had with a little girl when he traveled through Europe. Hardy's willingness to use disembodied voices for the intended purpose of creating... middle of paper......umentworth brings out, the girl responds, "No, we have seven!" (Wordworth 1333). She lacks the ability to accept death and “this [absence] of awareness [makes] the poem so poignant” (Drabble 51). What began as a simple everyday conversation ended as a didactic and somewhat emotional poem. Worth, through a real-life conversation, presents “the darkness and perplexity that accompany in childhood our notion of death, or rather our inability to admit that notion” (Noyes 60). In direct contrast to Worth, who did not intend to write a deep and meaningful poem, Hardy knew exactly what he wanted to achieve by writing "Ah, you are digging in my grave." People too easily remove the dead from their memory, and Hardy wanted to admonish his readers of the importance of remembering the dead; just because the dead are gone, they should not be forgotten.