ON THE DEPARTURE

PLATFORM
Thomas Hardy

Prepared by: Durgamageswary a/p Devadass

We kissed at the barrier ; and passing through
She left me, and moment by moment got
Smaller and smaller, until to my view
She was but a spot ;

A wee white spot of muslin fluff

That down the diminishing platform bore
Through hustling crowds of gentle and rough
To the carriage door.

Under the lamplight’s fitful glowers,

Behind dark groups from far and near,
Whose interests were apart from ours,
She would disappear,
 Then show again, till I ceased to see
That flexible form, that nebulous white ;
And she who was more than my life to me
Had vanished quite.

We have penned new plans since that fair fond day,

And in season she will appear again—
Perhaps in the same soft white array—
But never as then !

—‘And why, young man, must eternally fly

A joy you’ll repeat, if you love her well ?’
—O friend, nought happens twice thus ; why,
I cannot tell !
This poem is about a changing relationship. The poet and
the woman kiss at the departure barrier and he watches her
walk away till she grows smaller and smaller. He watches
her progress through the pushing crowd until she vanishes
from sight. They have planned to meet again sometime but
the poet admits that things will not be the same as before.
• There are three main characters: a young couple -a woman who is going away and
her boyfriend, who sees how she leaves- and probably a friend of the man, who
talks to him at the end of the poem.

• The speaker of the poem is the man in love who says good-bye to his girlfriend.
He is telling the story to his friend.

• The place where the action takes place is given in the title: the departure platform.
Just by reading it, we can imagine the story, which will be about people saying
good-bye and leaving.
Analysis of ‘On The Departure
Platform’
 In first stanza….

• The opening is sudden, but there is no passion in the kiss, it is perfunctory.

• The couple part at the barrier, the woman moves away, and the poet watches her
receding from sight until she is just a moving spot.
• In the opening sentence sharp punctuation is used, 'we kissed at the barrier;'. The
semi colon acts like a barrier reflecting a break in their relationship.
• A lot of repetition is used in the first stanza, such as 'moment by moment', 'got
smaller by smaller'. The repetition emphasizes the departure and the increasing
distance physically and emotionally between them.
 In Stanza 2…
• The lady who is clad in muslin now is so far that she is
like a spot of “muslin fluff”, insubstantial and
insignificant.
• She walks down the platform, moving through jostling
crowds that are sometimes polite but often rough too.
 In stanza 3…
• Through pools of darkness she moves and then
she suddenly appears illuminated by the
insubstantial glow of the lights.
• She weaves through crowds of people who
pursue unknown concerns far removed from
that the poet and his lady.
In stanza 4…
• Soon even that spot of muslin fluff completely
disappears from sight.
• The poet had at one time loved her more than
his life but he now he cannot see her. It is
symbolic of the state of their relationship.
 In stanza 5…
• Since the departure of the lady on that pleasant day,
the couple have communicated by letter and made
plans.
• The lady is expected to return to him in time but
something would have changed by then and
equations between them would have changed forever.
 In stanza 6…
• The form of a conversation between the poet and a
listener.
• To the question why should the poet flee from the joy
of being with a woman he loves since she is sure to
fall in love again, the poet replies that there is no
surety that things will happen in the same away again.
Theme

Separation
- The speaker’s lover leaves
him to board the train.
- Although the speaker is
very much in love with his
lover, he feels that she can
appear ‘never as of then!’
due to their relationship
being at its end.
Theme
Love Pain
- "Fitful", "apart", "disappear",
The speaker loves his "ceased", "nebulous", and
lover so much, they "vanished" are focal points of
kissed goodbye at the the speakers dialect.
barrier before they
-These all create a powerful
separate. “ We kissed at
feeling of loss, distance, and
the barrier”.
uncertainty.
Tone
Melancholy
It portrays a love that has ended or is soon to end.