Immersion Task

So much in life is down to chance and luck and fortune. The friends you meet; the lovers you have; the jobs you hold; the opportunities that come your way: all of these are dependent on your preparation, yes, and your skills and talents, but ultimately to fortune. One minute earlier, one minute later, and the opportunity could be gone, and that path in your life forever closed. And those friends, those lovers, those jobs, those opportunities – vanished. The detail of our lives are down to chance – and it’s the detail in our lives that give our lives meaning.

SIFA

What effect do these words have?

Why was Hardy attracted to this woman? How does he describe her, and what effect does it have. ◦ Key words: “bird”, “cloud”, “bare-browed”◦ Effect of contrast with “clammy lawn”, “dim of

dawn”

Define “pathetic fallacy”. Identify where it is used and what effect it has. Is it effective in a poem that talks about the meeting of two lovers?◦ The dawn is dim and gray and the weather

outside is terrible. Underline all the words that suggest such weather.

◦ There is a haunting metaphor about the weather in stanzas 1 and 2 – what is it and why is it there?

Destiny is a key idea in this poem. Identify the words that suggest Hardy HAD to find this woman and meet her, and that he had no choice or decision about it.◦ Key words: the plan “ruled us”, “fortune”, esp in

contrast to “beginnings so small”, “quicked by a spur”, “bound to obey”

How is the excitement and happiness of this meeting suggested in stanza 4?◦ Key words: “I followed her”, “crimson”,

“burned”, “came in together”

Define proleptic marker. How is their ominous foreboding in this poem that all will not end well?◦ Key words: pathetic fallacy; “crimson”,

“burned”, “bare boughs”, speech