In Thomas Hardy’s “Plena Timoris,”  the title is a phrase from Latin that signifies “a woman full of panic and dread”. The poem mirrors the diffidence of a woman who has hitherto lived in a roseate world characterized only  by positive vibes. Premchand in his novel Godan gives a description on the changes that love undergoes over time and space: “Early married life throbs with love and desire; like the dawn the span of life is suffused with a roseate glow. The afternoon of life dissolves illusion into its stinging rays, but brings face to face with reality.” An incident in the woman’s life changes her outlook towards life and her beloved. Thomas Hardy’s novels are characterized by a pervading sense of pessimism. Thomas Hardy once wrote:” “There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn’t there.”This becomes the lady’s predicament towards the end of the poem. However, Thomas Hardy also mentions that “Fear is the mother of foresight.”

The lovers looked over the parapet-stone:
The moon in its southing directly blent
Its silver with their environment.
Her ear-rings twinkled; her teeth, too, shone
As, his arm around her, they laughed and leant.

The beginning of the poem portrays the lovers as comfortable in each other’s company as they explore the world with their joint insight.…