After reading Thomas Hardy's poems, most readers will agree that his work focuses on darker, more serious subject matter than usual writers. Hardy's work, while dark and sometimes twisted, is still popular and has become a literary classic. This is because despite the pessimism, he presents the reader with underlying positive aspects to his stories through his focus on fate and man's destiny. Work by Thomas Hardy like "Hap", "The Convergence of the Twain", and "Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?" all have a pessimistic tone to them upon first glance. A deeper examination of Hardy's reoccurring theme of fate's inevitable role in life reveals justification for life's unfortunate events such as the ones discussed in his stories. .
"Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?" is an initially morbid poem. The entire focus of the poem is death and the speaker herself is speaking from her grave. The poem is dark and creepy at first. This poor, sad dead woman is left abandoned and forgotten by anyone who ever knew her. At the end of it all, even her loyal dog has forgotten her. But despite this dark subject matter, the poem itself challenges the reader to think on a deeper level. The truth that Hardy presents is that death is everyone's unavoidable destiny. What if the loved ones of the deceased woman were to sit around and continue to mourn her death? They would not be progressing in life. Life demands progression and change. If the people were to continue to mourn their loss they would be as good as dead. After someone passes away, life continues to go on no matter what and people move on with their lives. This poem, while blunt, provides a reminder to the reader that death is something that everyone will eventually go through; death is everyone's fate. While it is usually a morbid topic, at the end of it all everyone is destined to die. Despite death, life still progresses: people move on and things continue to change.
