Hardy's Poetic Vision in The Dynasts

Susan Dean uses Hardy's own metaphor-the diorama of a dream-to interpret The Dynasts, his largest and last major composition. She shows that the poem presents a model of the human mind. In that mind is enacted an event (the war with Napoleon) and, simultaneously, the watching of that event. The author provides a reading of the poem in visual-dramatic terms, using the diorama stage as the vehicle f...