The Pine Planters: Marty South's Reverie - A Poem by Thomas Hardy

Woman in the Forest by Ion Andreescu (1880)

I'm not usually drawn to poems, but Mallika @ Literary Potpourri has pointed out to me the other day that Hardy had wrote a poem about Marty South, an important figure on The Woodlanders, which is also subtitled: Marty South's Reverie. I've found the poem, and it's too beautiful not to be featured in a special post. So here it is, Thomas Hardy's poem in two parts. The first part is about Marty South's unrequited love, while the second is, I guess, more about how she sees her life in the woodland in the end. Hope you'll love it as much as I do!

I

We work here together

In blast and breeze;

He fills the earth in,

I hold the trees.

He does not notice

That what I do

Keeps me from moving

And chills me through.

He has seen one fairer

I feel by his eye,

Which skims me as though

I were not by.

And since she passed here

He scarce has known

But that the woodland

Holds him alone.

I have worked here with him

Since morning shine,

He busy with his thoughts

And I with mine.

I have helped him so many,

So many days,

But never win any

Small word of praise!

Shall I not sigh to him

That I work on

Glad to be nigh to him

Though hope is gone?

Nay, though he never

Knew love like mine,

I'll bear it ever

And make no sign!

II

From the bundle at hand here

I take each tree,

And set it to stand, here

Always to be;

When, in a second,

As if from fear

Of Life unreckoned

Beginning here,

It starts a sighing

Through day and night,

Though while there lying

'Twas voiceless quite.

It will sigh in the morning,

Will sigh at noon,

At the winter's warning,

In wafts of June;

Grieving that never

Kind Fate decreed

It should for ever

Remain a seed,

And shun the welter

Of things without,

Unneeding shelter

From storm and drought.

Thus, all unknowing

For whom or what

We set it growing

In this bleak spot,

It still will grieve here

Throughout its time,

Unable to leave here,

Or change its clime;

Or tell the story

Of us to-day

When, halt and hoary,

We pass away.

 

Classic Character: Marty South from The Woodlanders (Thomas Hardy)

Marty South might not generally be considered the main character in this book, but for me, she is the center of The Woodlanders. She is the epitome of a true woodlander. She works with tree and woods, and has an amazing skill in making wooden spars, though she must work very hard only to be paid very poorly.

Marty is pictured as no more than nineteen or twenty years old, but poverty and hard working "had forced the provisional curves of her childhood's face to a premature finality." In every aspect of feminine appearance, "she had but little pretension to beauty, save in one prominent particular - her hair. Its abundance made it almost unmanageable."

In short, Marty South is an unattractive woman in the eyes of men. Men tend to treat her as just a worker (one of themselves, perhaps), though no doubt, she is much more talented than most of them. One man she loves, Giles Winterborne (another woodlander), never sets eyes on her, much less saying anything other than business. Her last resort of ever attracting and winning Winterborne's heart is her beautiful hair, but, alas, that too she must sacrifice for money, as her father is ill and can't work. Thus, her final hope is crushed.

To be honest, I admire Marty South. She, who lives in solitude and obscurity, is one of the most courageous female characters I've ever read. Her unrequited love doesn't crush her. She keeps working hard, and she never hates Grace, the woman whom Winterborne loves. When instructed by Grammer Oliver to help in Winterborne's "scheme" to win Grace's heart, Marty silently relents and do what she's expected to.

True, she's a little mean when she reveals about the "hair chronicle" to Fitzpiers, in the last attempt to ever win Winterborne. But that's the only moment of her spur competitiveness, and it's quite understandable. Other than that, Marty proves to be loyal and persistent in her life. And in the end, those qualities give her peaceful mind and life improvement - in short, happiness.

Oh Marty, you rightly deserve to be happy, and I'm so glad of Hardy's ending to this story. It's always about a woodlander who is true to her heart and land, from the beginning to the end.