video record
Media not available in the Digital Archive
Description
This programme takes Professor Donald Davie (of the Department of English, Stanford University, California) to Cornwall which Thomas Hardy revisited after the death of his first wife. He discusses ...in this Cornwall setting, Hardy's poems of 1912 - 1913. Professor Davie reads four from that sequence of poems: 'I found her out there', 'After a Journey', 'Beeny Cliff' and 'At Castle Boterel'. All these poems have to do with Hardy's complex revivification of his courtship of his first wife in Cornwall, between their meeting in 1870 and their marriage in 1874.
Metadata describing this Open University video programme
Module code and title: A306, Twentieth century poetry
Item code: A306; 02
First transmission date: 21-02-1976
Published: 1976
Rights Statement:
Restrictions on use:
Duration: 00:24:30
+ Show more...
Producer: Nuala O'Faolain
Contributor: Donald Davie
Publisher: BBC Open University
Keyword(s): Hardy, Thomas
Subject terms: Literature; Poetry; Cornwall (England : County)
Footage description: Donald Davie reads 'I found her out there' - one of Thomas Hardy's poems about his courtship of his first wife in Cornwall. Film of Cornish cliffs and photographs of his wife, Emma. Davie describes Hardy's wooing and marriage of his first wife. He explains the importance of the poems of 1912 - 13 and how Hardy came to write them. Film of various Cornish scenes, including the church where Emma was buried. After further explanation of the significance of these poems, Davie analyses 'After a Journey' in detail. Film of scenes on the Cornish coast. Views of Boscastle and surrounding countryside. Davie relates Hardy's treatment of death in these poems to a greater European tradition of poetry. He traces some of Hardy's influences, especially Virgil. Davie reads 'Beeny Cliff, which is displayed on the screen. He then analyses the poem in detail, relating to Virgilian literature and to the work of Hardy's contemporaries, such as Pound, Yeats and Eliot. He also comments on Hardy's artistic integrity. Shots of Emma and of the church wherein she is buried. Over these Davie reads the poem 'At Castle Boterel'. This concludes the programme.
Master spool number: 6HT/71673
Production number: 00525_3157
Videofinder number: 713
Available to public: no