Late Nostalgia to the Memory of an Early Disappointed Love Experience: A Study in Thomas Hardy's Selected Late Elegies

Abstract

This paper in brief sheds light on the tragedy of love, a true love which had started passionately for a while, then it suffered from cold relationship which lasted for a very long time and all of a sudden ended with death. The shocking death of his wife, Emma Clifford, awakened in the poet's (Hardy’s) heart all old memories revived from under ashes and became alive in front of him, in a vivid vision that led him to the edge of being haunted. Thomas Hardy renewed his old love memories in a series of elegies, notable among them are: "The Going", "Your Last Drive", "Rain on a Grave", "After a Journey", "The Haunter", ….etc.