What is the summary of the poem No Buyers by Thomas Hardy?

Answer 1

The poem speaks of the after effects of war, how it affects people and how it leads to a senses of desolation and emptiness.

It opens to a scene of a cargo (brushes, baskets etc) 'labouring' along in the rain. The 'L' of load is also capitalized. The emphasis and the use of the word labour highlights the weight of war. This sparks the gloomy atmosphere which would be constant throughout the poem. A man, a pony and a woman walk on with a 'shambling sway' which denotes tiredness, sadness and reluctance. They tread slower than a funeral train, chanting their wares in dead tones. The chanting of wares is done in a lively way to attract customers, but here it's dead. Hardy again and again highlights the gloominess of the poem. The last two lines of the first stanza denote a funeral march.

In stanza two, we see a little bit of positivity in the form of obedience, harmony and coordination. The horse mirrors each of his master's moves, stopping when he stops and labouring along when he labours. The horse is eased by the pause because he is old: one could interpret this as he is brought down by war and would like nothing more to break off and wallow in misery. 'Indeed not enough strength shows, to steer the 'disjointed' wagon straight': these two lines speak of listlessness and lack of energy, the word 'disjointed' denotes lack of stability, how the cycle of life has been disturbed and veered off track, and how it struggles now. It goes along in a 'rambling line' deflected by its 'warp and weight'. The weight and the after effects of war have become too hard a burden to carry and people struggle to get back to who they once were. These lines speak of the struggle one faces after battling with war or demons of any kind. It's as if the weight of the world is on one's shoulders and their knees would give away any second, but they struggle along. 'Pushing the pont with it in each incline.' This again denotes struggle.

The third stanza focuses on the woman, who walks alongside the man. This shows equality. She wears an apron which is white and wide in span. 'Wide in span' gives the idea that once the woman was filled with happiness and had a child as shown by the words in the next line 'nursing wise'. Now the child is gone and is dead; so is the happiness she once felt. This marks emptiness and loss, which is one of the after effects of war too. She joins in his dirge, letting her sadness colour the words and exposing her internal battle. And the apron clings to her as it rains, again emphasising loss. They walk along, and nobody buys. The stanza ends with a note of finality, despair and a sense of giving up. There is no hope.

Hardy's poem brings out the effects of war wonderfully and strongly condemns it. The picture it paints is truly desolate and sad.