Astrology?: Stars, Sun, and Moon as Symbols in Hardy's Works

219 ASTROLOGY? Stars, Sur, and Moon as Symbols in Hardy's Works Ey J. 0. Bailey (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Hardy's poems present a pattern of the stars, sun, and moon used as symbols. A star or, by Gemini, a flock of stars symbolizes what Meredith in "Lucifer in Starlight" called "the brain of Heaven," or the operation of natural law. When Prince Lucifer, In his "hot fit of pride," rises to challenge "awe," he observes the stars "rank on rank,/The army of unalterable law," and sinks. Hardy opened Human Shows with the poem "Waiting Eoth," In which a star speaks, saying "So mean I," to the poet's decision to "Walt, and let Time go by" until universal processes have worked out their destiny. Hardy's sun usually symbolizes hope and happiness, blessing whatever It shines upon and prophesying good fortune. His poem "The Sun's Last Look on the Country Girl" treats his beloved sister Mary, who had died on November 24, 1915. The sun, throwing a "radiant spot" on Mary's dead face, blesses her. In "Coming Up Oxford Street, Evening," Hardy calls the evening sun a "warm god," brightening the drabness of London. His moon Is sinister, a symbol of romantic Illusion or, contrarlly, cold reason that shatters faith and hope. In "Shut Out That Moon," the poet says, "Close up the casement, draw the blind" to shut out emotional fantasy, In favor of the "dingy details" of fact, for "Too fragrant was Life's early bloom;/ Too tart the fruit It brought." As "reason's movement" in "A Cathedral Facade at Midnight," the moon Is sinister In relation to religious faith. When moonlight creeps across the statuas of "prophet, king, queen, cardinal," the "martyred saints" burled there mourn that It makes "meaningless,/ The coded creeds of old-time godliness." A happening In Far from the Madding Crowd exhibits this symbolism as It appears in the novels. Gabriel Is introduced as a commonplace shepherd, twenty-eight years old but Immature, "a man whose moral colour was a kind of pepper-and-salt mixture." His portrait Is almost a caricature of a yokel, as he snoops, sets his clumsy watch by the stars, and makes it run by shaking It. Yet by the end of the novel he has proven himself true to his name, Gabriel in his guardianship of Bathsheba's and even Boldwood's Interests, and Oak in his solid, dependable strength. The turning point is a happening in which he reads, understands, and absorbs the message of the stars. Hardy does not state that Gabriel learned his lesson from the stars, but the symbols say so with reasonable clarity. Gabriel Is on lonely Norcombe Hill with his sheep. What he observes and how he feels are implied in two paragraphs, here condensed: The sky was clear. . . and the twinkling of all the stars seemed to be but throbs of one body, timed by a common pulse. The North Star was directly In the wind's eye, and since evening the Bear had swung round It outwardly to 220 the east. . . . The sovereign brilliancy of Sirius pierced the eye with a steely glitter, the star called Capella was yellow, Aldebaran and Betelguex shone with a fiery red. To persons standing alone on a hill during a clear midnight such as this, the roll of the world eastward is almost a palpable movement. The sensation may be caused by the panoramic glide of the stars past earthly objects .... The poetry of motion is a phrase much in use, and to enjoy the epic form of that gratification it is necessary to stand on a hill at a small hour of tthe night, and, having first expanded with a sense of difference from the mass of civilized mankind. . . long and quietly watch your stately progress through the stars. (Chapter II) Gabriel is happy, playing his flute, heard only by his dogs and sheep. A little later, after placing a lonely lamb with its mother, he "carefully examined the sky, to ascertain the time of night from the altitudes of the stars." The Dog-star and Aldebaran, pointing to the restless Pleiades...