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Introduction
The Oxen is a short poem that refers to a superstition about Christmas, which the author recalls from his childhood. Thomas Hardy was one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century, but preferred to write poetry.
In 1895, disappointed by the public reaction to his latest novel, Jude the Obscure, Hardy published one more short story, before deciding to live off the royalties (a kind of commission on sales) of his books, while writing poetry for his own pleasure. As a child, Hardy lived in rural Dorset, and this poem has its origins in the simple beliefs of country people.
In writing about this poem, you should try to consider both the content (what the poet has to say) and his method (how he says it).
Once you have read the poem several times, try to answer the questions below which will help you to understand it. If you cannot answer the questions just click on the hyperlink which will suggest an answer.
There are other links to help you make your way through this tutorial. If you are working on this text for GCSE coursework, you may use the hyperlinks at the top and bottom of the page which will take you to the tutorial homepage, to copies of the text of The Oxen and other poems and to further resources you may need.
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Getting started -
summarizing the poem in a sentence or two
What is the argument of the poem? What was the belief Hardy had, as a child,
about what happens on Christmas Eve, and what is his attitude to it now?
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Questions about content -
what the poem is about
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Why is the poem called The Oxen? What do cattle have to do with Christmas
traditionally? When the poet was a child, what superstition did he have about
what the oxen (cattle) do on Christmas Eve?
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Which people encouraged him to believe this superstition? How firmly did he and
his friends hold this belief?
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Does the poet still have this belief? Explain why, in spite of his doubts,
Hardy is still willing to see if the superstition could be true?
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Is this poem, in your view, simply about one particular belief, or is it about
a more general loss of religious faith?
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Questions about method -
how the poem is written:
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Comment on the picture given in the first stanza of the children listening to
the elder. Why are they seen as a "flock"?
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Explain the relationship between the penultimate and the final stanzas or
between doubt and hope in the poem.
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Well done. You have answered all the questions on The Oxen.
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Notes on the argument of the poem
Use these to help you answer questions. They are only suggestions - make sure you can give your own ideas in your own words.
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As a child Hardy was told that the oxen (cattle) in the barton (cowshed) would kneel at midnight on Christmas Eve. Cattle are shown in traditional paintings
of Christmas and in crib scenes like those in churches. They are supposed (or believed) to
know that Jesus is special (the Son of God) and kneel to show respect.
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The person who said this was an "Elder". This person was probably really older, but the word suggests that he (or perhaps she) was wise. As children Hardy and his friends looked up to this person.
He firmly believed what he was told. He did not even think of doubting: "Nor did it occur to one of us there/To doubt they were kneeling then ". He and his friends imagined the scene: "We pictured the meek mild creatures".
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Hardy had lost this belief when he wrote the poem. Now, he thinks, few people would believe the superstition about the oxen. He is thinking both that people are more sophisticated or sceptical (doubting) generally and that he, particularly, knows too much now.
We know that, in spite of his doubts, the poet is still willing to see if the
superstition could be true. We know this because he says if someone suggested
going to "see the oxen kneel ", he would go with this person "hoping it might be so " - hoping that the oxen would really be kneeling.
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Hardy is probably writing about more than just giving up a childish idea of
oxen that kneel to Jesus at Christmas. This idea is linked to his more general
loss of belief in God or the Christian faith, and of there being any meaning in life.
Hardy was famous as an atheist but his own writing tells us of how he spent many years looking
for God and trying to find purpose in life.
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In the first stanza (verse) Hardy describes the children listening to the
elder. They are seen as a "flock ". Hardy may compare them to sheep for several
reasons:
- they are led by the elder to belief as sheep are led to grass by the
shepherd;
- they are innocent and trusting;
- there are lots of them together;
- Jesus calls Himself "the Good Shepherd" and describes His followers as "sheep".
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The children imagined the cattle in the cowsheds which they knew well, but
thought of them as kneeling.
The phrase "meek mild creatures "may remind us of hymns in which Jesus is called "meek and mild ". It also echoes descriptions of sheep in the bible, and William Blake's poem The Lamb.
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Hardy's claim that it did not occur to any of them to doubt suggests that the children trusted the Elder completely.
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Hardy includes direct speech (in speech marks or inverted commas) in the poem. This makes us believe he remembers the Elder's exact words, after all these years.
Later he writes what someone might say: "Come; see the oxen kneel ". He uses dialect (non-standard) words here: barton, yonder and coomb. These suggest real speech of country people, especially uneducated people in the past.
- Barton is another name for a cowshed or byre.
- Yonder means "over there ". It can work as an adjective, as in the poem, or an adverb ("Let us go yonder ").
- Coomb (also spelled coombe or combe) means a valley. It appears in lots of places names, such as Ilfracombe. It is of Celtic origin. In Welsh it is cwm (as in the television soap opera Pobol y Cwm - "people of the valley").
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The short lines and simple ABAB rhyme scheme make the poem very easy to understand in a literal sense. It is very simple but it is very deep. It is about something which happens to most people, something we may think about deeply.
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The simple structure of the poem depends upon Hardy's moving between the past (when he believed) and the present (when he is sceptical). But he hopes that he might one day have reason to regain his childhood belief.
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The penultimate (last but one) and the final stanzas show the relationship, which runs through the whole poem, between doubt (that the oxen kneeled or that there is a God and life has meaning) and hope (that "it might be so " - that the oxen might really kneel and that there might be a God or meaning in life) .
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© Andrew Moore, 2000;
universalteacher@bigfoot.com
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