A broken Appointment Love Poem by Thomas Hardy - Powerful Poetry

For people who are new to the world of Thomas Hardy, this poem, The Broken Appointment, provides a neutral point of entry into his poetry. It provides a perfect balance between his old and forgotten poems and the classic and analyzed ones. In this poem, the author decides to express his pessimism, disappointment, and unrequited love for a person, who is also not present because she missed (broke) her appointment. While many critics claim that the inspiration from this poem was from a thwarted relationship that the author Thomas Hardy had with a woman, Florence Henniker, it is clear to see that the poem goes beyond the matters of personal relationships and speaks on emotions and situations that many people can relate to.
The poem showed how the disappointment at the failure of the addressee to turn up for her appointment beget other emotions such as the pessimism and quietening of the author’s love, as the absence of the addressee showed she doesn’t care about him.