In the poem The Oxen, Thomas Hardy illustrates his disbelief
in the Christmas story as an adult, by looking back at a Christmas Eve when he
was a child. His tone expresses nostalgia, disbelief and hopefulness by his
word choice and description of The Oxen on Christmas Eve. In the first stanza
Hardy writes ‘“Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a
flock’ (Lines 2-3). Hardy is looking
back at himself as a child, and his willingness to believe what an adult told
him, and his amazement of the Christmas story. The word “elder” used to
describe the person telling Hardy about The Oxen expresses that the adult is
older and wiser. Hardy expresses nostalgia for when he was a child, and when he
believed what adults told him without any questions. Hardy expresses his
disbelief as an adult: “Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were
kneeling then” (Lines 7-8). Hardy explains that adult believed that the oxen
were kneeling in the barn because knew that Jesus was holy and important. Hardy
doubts the oxen were kneeling for Jesus. The last line of the poem illustrates
that Hardy does not want to right about the Oxen, yet he still is trying to be
realistic about the Oxen kneeling down for Jesus. Hardy is still hopeful that
the Oxen are kneeling: “Hoping it might be so” (Line 16). His hopeful tone is
expressed by the way the poem ends with hoping, and that he remember believing
that the Oxen kneeling when he was a child.
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