Animism. Or, "It's alive. IT'S ALIVE!!"

Hardy develops complex (and often deeply personal) symbolic systems that deal almost exclusively with the natural world. Notice how we get up close and personal with things like frost and birds but not with people (even our speaker)? Instead he brings things like frost to life. Hardy's nature is as alive and walking and breathing as a Disney theme park. What can we say? This guy just might be the nineteenth century's version of the National Park Service. Except in verse. And without those nifty shoulder patches.