The Cosmic Poet (1903-1908)
common people, messengers, mobs,—humanity in all its aspects; the supernatural actors are the Ancient Spirit of the Years, the Shade of the Earth, the Spirit of the Pities, the Spirits Sinister and Ironic, spirit messengers, rumors, and recording angels, and choruses of the Years, Pities, and Sinister and Ironic spirits. The resources of typography are employed to make clear to the reader the difference in atmosphere. The poetry declaimed by the spirits is italicized, the dialogue of mortals is printed in the ordinary open-face type, and the stage-directions for both the actions is in small type, which frequently produces a very real and significant effect of uncanny aloofness, as when we are told that the peals of bells are heard faintly by the supernatural spectators. The point of view of the audience, or reader, which is usually also that of the spirits as well, is shifted about with complete freedom. The action of the humans is observed from the most convenient point, whether that be close to the scene, or so far on high that all of Europe can be taken in at a glance.
Even as Homer's gods often intermingled with the mortal heroes in their struggles, so do Hardy's abstractions occasionally interfere with the human action, usually causing some little annoyance to the reader if he is logical-minded. It is indeed in the welding together or in the combination of the two actions or viewpoints in the book that the greatest difficulties are encountered. Mr. Gosse, and many a critic after him, found it hard at times to reconcile the attitude towards life expressed by the spirits (reminding him of the refrain of a popular coster-song: "What's the use of anything?" "Why, noth-
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