Ferment (1863-1870)
seldom invoked to assist in the creation of the proper atmosphere in descriptive passages, while those of painters are often used—with fine effect when the reader is sufficiently acquainted with the styles of art they represent. In Hardy's work art-music is forced to give way to folk-music, just as with many modern composers who find greater inspiration in collecting and arranging popular folk-tunes that still survive in less cultivated and semi-barbarous communities than in the study of classic masterpieces.
The church organ is almost the only modern instrument for which he shows a decided liking. One of his principal characters, Christopher Julian in The Hand of Ethelherta, is an organist and composer, and reflects the knowledge of organ-construction and organ-music gained by Hardy during the period of his study of ecclesiastical architecture. His use of the technical terminology of music is sometimes rather bewildering to a practical musician; yet some of the finest effects in The Dynasts are secured by the invocation of music, tersely but eloquently described for the mind’s ear of the reader. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of a poet's acquaintance with, and love for music, and this is particularly true in the case of Hardy, not only because he, as well as other modern poets, sometimes imitated in his verse the free and natural rhythms of modern music, but also because he has so often been accused of indulging in a total disregard for melody, fluency, and general beauty of sound in his poetry.
Finally, his wide knowledge and great skill in the technique of both metrical and narrative form was picked
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