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"A Broken Appointment"

In "A Broken Appointment," the Thomas hardy displays the pessimism that marks much of modernist literature, with a poem evoking a sense of dependency. In this poem, the man is missing something he has never known. The woman does not love him and never has. He has asked her to meet him and she has not come:

And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb (1-2).

There is no indication that she said she would, only that he has hoped she would. The speaker is a very needy individual, requiring even the slightest indication from this woman that she knows he is alive. He may seek love from this absent woman, but he is willing to settle for "compassion" or "lovingkindness." The fact that she has not come has caused him to grieve, which elevates her absence to the level of the loss of a loved one in death. He is fully aware of this fact and aware that she has no loyalty to him, for loyalty comes with love: "I know and I knew it" (11). He has waited for her until the waiting has made him numb. Indeed, it has also left him feeling sorry that she has not seen fit to show him more kindness. This is clear in the fist stanza when he says that he is unhappy not just because she has not shown up but also because he has now "found lacking in your make/ That high compassion which can overbear/ Reluctance" (4-6). In other words, she was reluctant to meet him, but if she were kinder she would have done so anyway.

Since she has not, he might seem to be rethinking his feelings for her. Yet, while he does say that he is sorry to discover this lack in her makeup, he still pleads with her in the second stanza as if he might convince her to be more kind in the future. The woman to whom he is speaking in this poem is real and alive even though not present. He also judges her harshly for failing to be as kind as expected, and he does this by comparing her to the women of history who have done what she has failed to do--show compa

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"A Broken Appointment". (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:46, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682266.html