Literary Analysis Formalist Criticism

Business Communications It's immediately obvious that one of the purposes of Thomas' Hardy's "Channel Firing" is to speak out against the atrocities of war. This is apparent in the very beginning of the poem when a raging battle wakes the dead, "That night your great guns, unawares, / Shook all our coffins as we lay" (1-2). More subtly, however, Hardy's intent is to lash out against God for doing nothing to stop war or to punish those who are responsible for causing it.

Hardy believes that there should be a judgment day for those causing war, but indicates that God hasn't done anything; the judgment day never comes. This is apparent in "We though it was the Judgment-day" (4) and "That this is not the judgement-hour / For some of them's a blessed thing / For if it were they'd have to scour / Hell's floor for so much threatening" (17-20). So, because the judgment day never comes, according to Hardy, those that she be punished by being sent to hell remain free to engage in battle.

Hardy thinks that his request for God's intervention and punishment are only mocked by God, "Ha, ha. It will be warmer when / I blow the trumpet (if indeed I ever do)" (21-23). Having God say "Ha, ha" may indicate that Hardy fears that God may be just as demented as the people promoting war or it could also be an effort by Hardy to portray God and a sneering, uncaring entity. There's also evidence that Hardy feels that God has been ineffective in preventing war.

For Hardy, war gets more violent, but God stands helplessly by, "All nations striving strong to make / Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters / They do no more for Christes sake / Than you that are helpless in such matters" (13-16). And, Hardy also states that the church hasn't changed anything either, "And may a skeleton shot his head / 'Instead of preaching forty year' / My neighbor Parson Thirdly said / 'I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer'" (29-32).

In other words, the preacher is saying that his efforts have been in vein. Hardy's bitterness is displayed when uses "The glebe-cow drooled" (9) as symbolism to attack the wealth of the church. Hardy also questions why God sacrificed his only son to save mankind, but created man only to stand by and watch them die. Hardy accomplishes this by using.