The Voice

My interpretation of the poem 'The Voice'. I think that this poem is about a man who has lost the woman he loves or loved to either death or simply because she left. He is haunted by the thought of her and is so infatuated that he thinks he can hear her voice calling to him. 'you call to me', 'Can it be you that I hear?' This is also a rhetorical question, Hardy uses many techniques such as these in order to grab the readers attention and involve them. Other techniques include...

• Alliteration: 'wan wistlessness', faltering forward'. This is also a good use of language as the word 'falter' has a strong negative impact because if you falter it could mean when you either fall, stumble or fail.
• Punctuation: '...air-blue gown!' for effect and impact.
• Stanza structure: For example, the last stanze of the poem is significantly shorter than the others, this shows that it could be more important so therefore must stand out more.