At an Inn by Thomas Hardy (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes

At an Inn by Thomas Hardy

Overview

Thomas Hardy's poem explores the experience of love that develops too late between two people. The speaker and his female companion visit an inn together, where onlookers mistakenly assume they are romantic partners. The poem examines how this external perception contrasts sharply with the reality of their relationship. Structured as five octets with a regular metrical pattern, the poem reflects on missed opportunities and the tragedy of love constrained by social circumstances and poor timing.

Context

The Victorian period

Victorian society operated under strict moral codes that heavily regulated behaviour, particularly regarding relationships between men and women. Several key aspects of this period are relevant to understanding the poem:

• It would have been considered highly inappropriate for an unmarried man and woman to socialise together in a public place such as an inn
• The period valued strict standards in areas such as religion, morality and personal conduct
• Victorian morality emphasised evangelism and self-improvement
• Sexual relations were not openly discussed, leaving many people uninformed and uncomfortable with such matters
• There was significant moral concern about prostitution during the 1850s and 1860s, as it represented visible female freedom from social control

Literary context

Victorian poetry frequently returned to certain recurring themes that appear in this poem:

• Isolation and loss of innocence feature prominently alongside romantic love and social injustice
• The poem examines love at different phases, particularly the early stages when anticipation and desire are strongest, versus later years when passion may have dimmed
• Victorian poetry often served a moral purpose, intended to challenge unfair social and political systems
• Poetry was highly valued and popular during this era, with romantic poets like William Wordsworth receiving particular reverence

Hardy as Victorian realist

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is often classified as a Victorian realist who examined the social constraints affecting people's lives in Victorian Britain. His experiences shaped his literary perspective:

• He lived through the height of Victorian society and witnessed the devastation of World War I
• These experiences contribute to the justifiably angry and pessimistic tone often found in his work
• During his lifetime, Hardy was primarily known for his poetry, though his novels later gained recognition as significant literary works
• His writing frequently revolves around tragedies caused by social circumstances

Autobiographical elements

Strong evidence suggests the poem is based on Hardy's relationship with Florence Henniker:

• She was married to an army officer
• Hardy met her at The George Hotel in Winchester in 1893, when he was married to his first wife, Emma Gifford
• Florence Henniker appears as the 'rare fair woman' in Hardy's poem 'Wessex Heights'
• Their platonic relationship also features in 'A Broken Appointment'
• Hardy apparently fell in love with Florence, corresponding with her for 30 years until her death in 1923
• She did not wish to pursue anything beyond friendship

Synopsis

Stanza one

Two people described as 'strangers' enter a pub together. The speaker notices how the pub's patrons seem to assume they are a romantic couple. The speaker's focus on how others perceive the pair suggests his own desire for the relationship to be what it appears, rather than what it actually is. He would not dwell on these observations if he were content with their platonic status, or use the word 'fixate' to describe his preoccupation.

Stanza two

The onlookers at the pub do not question the relationship in the way the speaker does. He introduces the phrase 'maybe/ The spheres about made them our ministers', wondering whether supernatural forces desire the couple to be together. The observers seek to witness what the speaker and his companion appear to possess - a romantic connection.

Stanza three

The speaker reveals the unfortunate truth of their situation - there was no genuine romantic connection between them at that time. This revelation creates a painful shift in tone. As readers, we feel disappointed; the relationship appeared to hold such promise, but by the third stanza we learn there is no hope. The speaker's emotional response to this fact remains unclear - whether mourning it or merely noting its absence. There are no evident emotions between the two at this point in their history; their relationship proved as futile as attempting to strike glass.

Stanza four

As the speaker and his companion prepare to depart, they do not kiss. The implication is that if circumstances had matched the pub patrons' assumptions, they would have shared this gesture. The poem shifts to a third-person narrative, creating a more powerful effect, almost as if the speaker is questioning God - though a God he does not believe in (if we interpret the speaker as Hardy himself). The pub's customers expect them to kiss. The speaker expresses frustration that their love could not develop if others or even God believe it should. He questions why God treats him like a plaything, referencing King Lear who makes the error of judgement. The phrase 'In after hours' suggests perhaps they should not be together for reasons unknown to us, whilst also indicating the gradual, drawn-out nature of their developing feelings.

Stanza five

Time has intensified the speaker's love, and he returns mentally to that day at the inn. Now they are no longer together, but perhaps they wish they could have been. Looking back, that moment becomes a turning point. It becomes clear that circumstances have changed; they appeared to be falling in love but were not, and now it seems they are in love but cannot be together. Certain barriers keep them apart, preventing them from engaging in the physical expression of their emotions. The final lines express desperation; the speaker seeks a way to return to the inn, to a place where loving one another might have been possible.

Key themes

Love and loss

The poem expresses a profound sense of love thwarted by lost opportunities:

• There is a fascination with what might have been and the potential the relationship held
• The speaker yearns for the relationship, or the perceived relationship he believed existed in the past
• He is bitterly troubled by the final stanza's revelation that what once seemed a promising connection is now destroyed by 'severing sea and land' (line 37)

Another form of loss the poet describes is the audience's loss in understanding what they observe. The observers are presumptuous; 'ah, God, that bliss like theirs/ would flush our day!' (lines 18-19). Their determination to see romance between the couple clouds their vision and prevents them from perceiving the cold reality of the situation.

The speaker then explains the absence of love between the two during this stage of their relationship: 'and we were left alone/ as Love's own pair;/ yet never the love-light shone/ Between us there!' (lines 17-19). Loss of opportunity becomes evident as the speaker points out that when the couple had the chance to pursue romance, they overlooked each other, maintaining only friendship. This forms the root of the speaker's genuine pain and the primary sense of loss within the poem; the speaker is most troubled by losing the opportunity to love the woman he once had the chance to love. 'And now we seem not what/ we aching are' (line 35-36); the use of 'aching' emphasises the speaker and his companion's yearning to return to the past when love was possible.

In the final stanza, the pair want to love each other unlike before, but now circumstances no longer permit them to be together.

The past being better than the present

One of the tragic elements of the poem is the speaker's apparent conviction that what the couple shared before they fell in love may have been preferable to the pain he feels in the final stanza, despite the fact that their earlier relationship lacked romantic foundation. The phrase 'never the love light shone' (line 19) demonstrates a yearning for the past and the speaker's dangerous use of retrospective thinking. Looking back makes it easier to glorify the past and forget the challenges such a relationship would have faced. His poem becomes an exercise in self-pity as he wishes for something that could never truly have existed.

Irony

Though the guests surrounding them believe the pair are lovers, Hardy reveals that kisses 'came not' (line 26) and that, paradoxically, 'love lingered numb' (line 27). The irony lies in the fact that the surrounding audience perceives the couple as lovers because the speaker makes it clear they were not romantically involved; 'no love-light shone' (line 19). This fundamentally changes how we interpret certain lines, such as 'and that swift sympathy/ with living love/ which quicks the world- maybe' (lines 9-11). The speaker's tone may be considered wistful here as he retrospectively observes how the couple used to be perceived as lovers. He wished then, at the point of writing when they are separated and now in love, that he could experience the dizzying excitement of falling in love with this woman.

Proximity and distance

The pair are physically close at the inn's beginning, drinking together, but emotionally and sexually distant. This situation reverses at the end when they are emotionally close but physically distant and unable to act on their feelings.

Hardy's speaker protests against the sea, the land and human laws which force lovers to remain divided. A reader might question whether love has blossomed in spite of distance, or because of distance. When they were together, their relationship was 'chilled' (line 21) with seemingly no possibility of romance; now that the pair are separated, they are close and 'aching' (line 36) for each other. Is this because distance has allowed them to idealise one another, creating an image that does not match reality?

Gender and sexuality

The speaker laments the social laws preventing the lovers from being together; the tragedy here proves politically challenging. The poem follows gender expectations - the only voice we hear is masculine. The companion, whom we presume is female, remains both nameless and voiceless, seemingly upholding the societal ideals of proper female conduct; she does not push for or hint at desiring more than friendship with the speaker.

God, gods and the indifference of the universe

Hardy presents evidence of an uncaring universe in his tragic verse. He questions how the couple can be drawn together yet not permitted to consummate their feelings. He suggests this cruelty and manipulation could only be the work of some superhuman power. Hardy references Shakespeare's King Lear when the speaker proposes that an ambiguous 'he' 'shaped [the pair] for his sport' (line 31); this recalls the line 'As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport' that Gloucester utters after he is blinded.

Structure

Form

The poem comprises five stanzas of octets (eight lines each). The regularity of form reflects the speaker's comfort at the inn with his companion. Their friendship develops easily and naturally.

Metre

There is an alternating metrical pattern of iambic trimetres and shorter lines of dimetres (two metrical feet). This pattern creates variation within the consistent structure.

Rhyme scheme

A structured rhyme scheme runs throughout; each octet divides in half so the pattern reads abab cdcd throughout. This rhyme scheme gives the poem a conversational quality, an ease between the couple that develops naturally. It reads as if the speaker is recounting a story well known to both of them in an affectionate and reminiscent manner.

The half rhyme of 'care' and 'were' emphasises the distance from the time he describes in the past and what they supposedly represent now. What they 'were', implying they are something different in the present, also highlights the presumptions of the people watching, who all made assumptions from visual indicators. Hardy comments on how society has a desire to understand or be involved in everyone's life. There is a strong desire for gossip which he subtly criticises.

Language and poetic techniques

Alliteration

Personification

'Love's own pair' (line 18)

This phrase implies their love does not belong to them; instead they exist at the whim of Love. This gives the speaker and his companion a lack of control, a sense of helplessness and inability to make decisions for themselves. This may hint at the controlling and dictating functionality of society, but also relates to the speaker's inability to grapple with the immensity of his emotions, which he decides must be the working of a supernatural force over which he has no control. The speaker suggests the couple are owned; they are not autonomous beings. In this line, however, they are united as a 'pair', implying the speaker's wishes for such a union despite its improbability.

'Love lingered' (line 28)

Love is given human qualities, as if it has autonomy and is a physical presence rather than an intangible emotion shared between people. Possibly, the appearance of love between the pair is so great that it is almost tangible. The couple and the others watching them felt something so strong that it is as if love were a person who just left the room and their aura is still felt.

Cosmic imagery

'Spheres above' (line 12)
'Quicks the world' (line 11)
'Breath/ Of afternoon' (lines 21-22)

The speaker is uncertain of how he has developed a desire for more than friendship with his companion, how they appeared so in love when they are not, and how the universe has brought them together and yet no love is born. His questioning exceeds the space of Earth and moves into the supernatural. This is because what he asks seems to have no worldly explanation.

These whimsical and romantic notions liken the power of love to those of God or supernatural forces. As readers we can discern from the speaker's expressions that he is familiar with love, but whether this is love borne of as-yet unrequited feelings for his 'chilled' companion, we do not know.

Cyclical structure

Hardy starts and ends with the same memories, creating a sense of helplessness. The speaker returns repeatedly to what could have been. The cosmic imagery adds to the cyclical feeling and could possibly hint at the inability of the speaker to comprehend what has happened; it is beyond him.

Metaphor

'Yet never the love-light shone / Between us there!' (line 19-20)

Love is described as something which emits light, as a source of clarity, something which enables sight. This is significant given what the speaker deeply desires. He wants his questions of the universe answered, he wants an explanation for his emotions, he wants more than friendship from his companion.

The use of 'shone' also implies other, amicable and warming elements to the 'love light' whilst making the reader pity the speaker for the tragedy that it never shone between the two when they were at the inn together.

Critical views

Albert J Guerard: 'The illusion of simplicity: the shorter poems of Thomas Hardy'

Guerard offers valuable insights into Hardy's poetic approach:

What irritated the late Victorians is pleasing to us, who prefer...the pure unsentimental notes of sadness, loneliness and deprivation sounded decade after decade; the sense of a life as a succession of small undramatic defeats; the honest declaration of unfaith and unhope

The mention of 'small undramatic defeats' is striking as Hardy uses circumstances that feel genuine and true to translate the speaker's pain into words. The image of the couple being together at an inn and now separated by sea and land is not complex or far-fetched; it's tangible and realistic, which makes the scenario more heartbreaking.

Guerard continues:

There is a very modern awareness of psychic fatigue, of tiredness and dullness of spirit. And there is also, of course, the ironic awareness of ordinary human incompatibilities, of misplaced hopes and absurdly mismatched destinies.

Guerard points out Hardy's fatigue; the tone of the poem demonstrates this lethargy through the speaker's quietly disappointed angst that he will never be able to live the life he now desires with the woman he speaks of. The pace is slow as the speaker comes to terms with the situation. He is disappointed and seems frustrated, but his frustration is not expressed in overtly angry tones.

In this poem, the mismatched paths of the couple are evident in the fact that when they had the chance to be together, they were not in love, but when they are eventually emotionally in love, they are physically separated. The irony is expressed by Guerard as 'mismatched hopes' which is especially present and persistent in the speaker's wishing for alternative circumstances despite their impossibilities.

Comparisons with other anthology poems

Comparison with 'The Ruined Maid'

Gender and sexuality

It is important to consider how Hardy presents gender and sexuality in his poems and where the narrator's sympathies lie. 'The Ruined Maid' challenges some ideas about how women are defined by Victorian culture. However, many of society's ideas are reinforced. This is seen in the stereotypical representation of the women in the poem; the way they uphold ideals of femininity means Amelia is presented as the woman with the more desirable life, as well as being particularly superficial - a supposedly feminine trait.

Women in Hardy are predominantly weak and men much stronger. In 'The Ruined Maid', we are presented with a strong rural woman who appears to work just as hard as the men in the country. However, she is susceptible to the ideals of femininity, fashion and societal acceptance, and the woman she admires is the epitome of this. Amelia's rejection of the rural life exposes her as someone preoccupied with appearance and social status.

Similarly, in 'At an Inn' the speaker's companion is bound by the expectations of society and acts accordingly. Like the unnamed rural woman, the companion has no name and additionally, no voice. The poem is overpowered by masculine thought and desire.

Love and loss

'At an Inn' presents the tragedy of the irretrievable loss of opportunity. When the couple have access to each other, they appear to be in love, but when the situation changes and they are separated by land and sea, they find themselves actually in love. The conflict for the narrator is the exasperation of considering what could have been and what he has lost because opportunity has come and passed him by. He is left, in the final stanza, grappling with a love he cannot hold onto.

In 'The Ruined Maid', Amelia takes the opportunity to climb the social ladder, but her persistence to elevate her status means that she has forgotten where she has come from. She has lost insight and the clarity of mind that her rural upbringing afforded her. This is made most obvious when she chastises her old friend for her aspirations to enter high society. Amelia has also lost physically, as a 'ruined maid', she has lost her virginity and innocence, and not for love but for social acceptance.

Thus, loss, in its different manifestations, is a theme in both poems.

Social conventions and taboos

Women are often victims of love and society. For example, in 'At an Inn' the restrictions of society prevent the pair from progressing their relationship further. A woman and a man together in public, unmarried, was also socially unacceptable. The speaker in the poem seems frustrated by the limits he must abide by.

'The Ruined Maid' criticises social conventions more overtly, through the deeply ironic discussion between the two women. Social convention means that both women are essentially ruined, despite Amelia's apparent success in climbing the social ladder. She risks being rejected by respectable society as a woman who has engaged in sexual activity outside marriage.

Comparison with 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'

Love and loss

'At an Inn' explores several kinds of loss but most deeply examines the loss of perceived opportunity. The main focus of the poem is the speaker's regret in not feeling love towards a woman in the early stages of their relationship, or not allowing himself to (considering the context of the poem and the fact it may relate to Hardy's real life situation where the women he had desires for was married and so was he at the time). He explicitly points out 'never the love-light shone' (line 19), clearly telling the reader the couple, although perceived as lovers, were not interested in each other romantically.

However, by the end of the poem, we learn that this friendship and enjoyment of each other's company has developed into love and this is what he years for. He wishes endlessly that there was now no barrier for them to be together, but they are unfortunately separated by 'sea and land' (line 37). This kind of loss causes the speaker a similar kind of yearning as the knight in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'. This is seen in the nostalgic and retrospective nature of both poems; both speakers take the form as an opportunity to reflect on a time when their lover was with them.

Another noticeably different way the poems deal with loss is that the Knight is completely alone as he tells his story; 'And this is why I sojourn here,/ Alone and palely loitering' (line 45-46). This loneliness is also made apparent by the sparse setting in which he is found and left, compared to the abundant nature descriptions of when he is with the elfish woman.

By contrast, the speaker in 'At an Inn' never seems to extract himself from the partnership he longs for. He mentions the physical distance between the pair in the last stanza. However, a deeper emotional connection between the couple is implied by his assertation that they are 'aching' (line 36) for each other. Thus, the speaker in 'At an Inn' is only separated from his lover physically, whereas the Knight is both physically and emotionally estranged from the woman he was involved with.

Romantic love of many kinds

The love between the couple in 'At an Inn' appears to be a love that has developed after years of knowing one another. In 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' the love the knight experiences is sudden and closer to infatuation or obsession. He is so physically in love that it makes him sick and changes his countenance, hence his 'palely loitering' (line 2) mode and why he is 'so haggard and wo-begone' (line 6).

Another parallel between the loves described in the two poems is the truncated nature of both. The love between the pair in 'At an Inn' can never be consummated or come to fruition, and similarly the knight will never meet his lover again - who may well have been a fantasy anyway.

Love through the ages according to individual lives (young love and maturing love)

The love in 'At an Inn' seems more mature - the love of someone with more experience than the knight in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'. His tone is more measured and his assessment of the love that he has lost or missed out on is mournful but in some ways accepting. He states the way it is; his poem is a wishing for something that cannot happen and he sees that now. As at the end of the poem he calls out in exasperation 'ere death, once let us stand/ as we stood then!' (lines 39-40). In this way, he accepts that in this life, their union is not possible.

The knight, however, remains 'palely loitering' (line 2) throughout the whole poem in the same baron landscape which he is found in. He is lovesick to the point of no return, and unable to move forward with his life. This is partly why he seems young and inexperienced in love; his description of being in love with the elfish woman is fast paced, sudden and we can liken it to the description in 'At an Inn'; 'love/ which quicks the world' (lines 10-11). He is caught up in an overwhelming feeling that is unmatched by the longing of the speaker in 'At an Inn'.

Proximity and distance

Proximity and distance are themes relevant to both poems. In neither poem do we actually meet the female lover; only iterations of her through memories in 'At an Inn' and dreams/ memories in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci'. The female lover is therefore distant and ambiguous in both poems. We do not know whether the lady in 'La Belle Dame' loved the knight, despite her (questionable) assertion that she 'love[d him] true'. Likewise, we are not sure whether or not the speaker's companion in 'At an Inn' harboured feelings for him at that time ago (that she simply did not act upon). In this way, the reader experiences a part of the distance her male lover feels.

This reverse is true in 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', where the knight is firstly found 'alone and palely loitering' (line 2). After he 'me[ets] a lady in the meads' (line 13) his sense of distance from love is diminished and the couple engage in presumably sexual acts; 'she looked at me as she did love,/ and made sweet moan' (line 19-20), 'I set her on my pacing steed' (line 21), 'she took me' (line 29), 'I shut her wild wild eyes' (line 31). The proximity of the two is intense; they do a lot of things in rapid succession (almost something new in each stanza) whereas in 'At an Inn', the speaker uses the poem to only talk about one instance of proximity.

Remember!