Answer:
Here, the digger quotes the words of the loved one, and the man states that his recent marriage will have no effect upon the deceased woman. With this, the poet completes the first of several ironic passages that continue throughout the poem. In all of these, the woman in the grave wants to believe that others are thinking of her following her death. In reality, however, she has been largely forgotten. Hardy uses these ironic reversals to create a somewhat humorous tone, and this type of unexpected switch is often used to make people laugh. In this poem, Hardy’s writing becomes a kind of “black humor” because it centers on death—a grim event that is not usually associated with merriment. This effect is intensified because the humor of the poem reveals a sad message: the dead woman is forgotten and eternally lonely.
