Is Hardy's vision of the 20th century pessimistic? Explain, with reference to "Channel Firing" and at least two other works.

Poetry often reflects the feelings and values of a poet. Even though there is a great diversity of attitudes in Thomas Hardy's poem, it is easy to find that most of them linger with pessimism. By comparing "Channel Firing" with "Drummer Hodge", "The Convergence of The Twain", and "During Wind and Rain", pessimistic qualities can be illustrated as follows: condemnation of human's desire for conflicts; mockery of God's indifference to human's suffering; and nostalgia to the past.

In "Channel Firing" and "Drummer Hodge", the condemnation of human's ruthlessness is presented by a vivid description of war sufferings.

Channel Firing is a dark humor which mocks human's incorrigible desire for conflicts. Scornfulness is first strengthened when a skeleton becomes our persona. Then, in the 1st stanza, he says that...