You need to remember that this poem is part of a series of
poems that are elegies for Hardy's dead wife, Emma. They are characterised by a sense of
deep lament and also regret for the way that Hardy treated Emma during his life. In this
poem we are presented with a man who is haunted by the supposed "voice" of Emma. He
doubts it is her, but then says if it is he wants to see her as she was in Cornwall in
the earliest days of their courtship:
Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you,
then,
Standing as when I drew near to the
town
Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you
then,
Even to the original air-blue
gown!
Thus the "air-blue
gown" is a compound epithet that is mentioned as an effort to remember and resurrect
Emma as part of the excitement of the first two stanzas, which, however, quickly give
way to the despair of the third and fourth stanzas as the speaker realises how utterly
alone he is in his grief.
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