ralph pite
glory (still less romance) in a war fought with machine-guns, but more absolutely
dishearteningthan these was Hardy’s fear that the latest war just could not be borne,
not at least in the same way that earlier ones had been.The Dynastshad shown
people learning doggedness, and had even suggested that the moment of battle
could be welcomed because it demanded resolve, realizing a power latent within
individuals and communities. St Paul wrote that ‘Suffering breeds endurance,
endurance breeds character, character breeds hope’ (Rom. 5: 4), and Hardy in
The Dynastsarticulates something roughly similar to this: ‘character breeds pity,
pity breeds hope’ is perhaps the extra stage he introduces. The destructive forces
confronting soldiers in the First World War proved too overwhelming, however;
the conflict could not breed endurance even if it could be (and was being) endured
somehow. At least, Hardy found that he could not ‘Hold...to braver things’ any
longer. Out of that dejection arose a different kind of war poetry and, in the
post-war years, an impressive desire to help the veterans. Hardy opened his home
to Sassoon, Blunden, T. E. Lawrence, and many others, welcoming and discreetly
counselling those soldiers in particular whose belief in the possibility of courage
had been tested to breaking-point.^40
(^40) Similarly, Hardy responded quickly and generously to requests for help designing war memorials,
whether they came from Dorchester or from Dudley. See William W. Morgan, ‘Verses Fitted for a
Monument: Hardy’s Contribution to the Dudley War Memorial’,Thomas Hardy Journal,1/1(Jan.
1985), 25–31.