9780140436990

After the hostile reception of Jude the Obscure in 1896, Thomas Hardy devoted the last thirty years of his life to poetry. This generous selection of poems displays the wide variety of his metrical styles and stanza forms, as well as the philosophical scope of his work. While his verse is often seen as the culmination of late Victorian moods, Hardy combines irony and stoicism to forge a thoroughly modern stance against ruin. His poems illustrating the perversity of fate are some of the most authentic expressions of human sorrow and regret in the English language; and the love lyrics written for his deceased first wife constitute the best examples of the modern elegy. This volume includes an insightful introductory essay along with textual and explanatory notes.

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Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At sixteen, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels—Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure—he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He died on January 11, 1928, and was buried in Poet’s Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.

Introduction

xv

(24)

Chronology

xxxix

(16)

Suggestions for Further Reading

lv

(2)

Note on the Selection

lvii

Domicilium

1

(4)

From WESSEX POEMS AND OTHER VERSES

5

(10)

Hap

5

(1)

Neutral Tones

5

(1)

She, to Him II

6

(1)

Friends Beyond

7

(2)

Nature's Questioning

9

(1)

In a Eweleaze near Weatherbury

10

(1)

"I Look Into My Glass"

11

(4)

From POEMS OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

15

(26)

Embarcation

15

(1)

Drummer Hodge

15

(1)

The Souls of the Slain

16

(5)

Rome: At the Pyramid of Cestius Near the Graves of Shelley and Keats

21

(1)

Zermatt: To the Matterhorn

22

(1)

To an Unborn Pauper Child

22

(2)

To Lizbie Browne

24

(3)

"I Need Not Go"

27

(1)

At a Hasty Wedding

28

(1)

His Immortality

28

(1)

Wives in the Sere

29

(1)

An August Midnight

30

(1)

Winter in Durnover Field

31

(1)

The Last Chrysanthemum

32

(1)

The Darkling Thrush

33

(1)

Mad Judy

34

(1)

The Ruined Maid

35

(1)

The Respectable Burgher on "The Higher Criticism"

36

(1)

The Self-Unseeing

37

(1)

In Tenebris I

38

(3)

From TIME'S LAUGHINGSTOCKS AND OTHER VERSES

41

(28)

A Trampwoman's Tragedy

41

(4)

The House of Hospitalities

45

(1)

The Rejected Member's Wife

46

(1)

Shut Out That Moon

47

(1)

The Division

48

(1)

"I Say I'll Seek Her"

48

(1)

"In the Night She Came"

49

(1)

The Night of the Dance

50

(1)

At Casterbridge Fair

51

(4)

The Ballad-Singer

51

(1)

Former Beauties

51

(1)

After the Club-Dance

52

(1)

The Market-Girl

52

(1)

The Inquiry

53

(1)

A Wife Waits

54

(1)

After the Fair

54

(1)

To Carrey Clavel

55

(1)

The Orphaned Old Maid

56

(1)

Rose-Ann

56

(1)

The Homecoming

57

(2)

A Church Romance

59

(1)

After the Last Breath

60

(1)

One We Knew

61

(1)

She Hears the Storm

62

(1)

The Man He Killed

63

(1)

One Ralph Blossom Soliloquizes

64

(5)

From SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE, LYRICS AND REVERIES

69

(38)

Channel Firing

69

(1)

The Convergence of the Twain

70

(2)

"My Spirit Will Not Haunt the Mound"

72

(1)

Wessex Heights

73

(2)

The Schreckhorn

75

(1)

"Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?"

75

(2)

Before and After Summer

77

(1)

At Day-Close in November

78

(1)

Poems of 1912-13

79

(12)

The Going

79

(1)

Your Last Drive

80

(1)

The Walk

81

(1)

Rain on a Grave

82

(1)

Without Ceremony

83

(1)

Lament

84

(1)

The Haunter

85

(1)

The Voice

86

(1)

His Visitor

87

(1)

After a Journey

88

(1)

At Castle Boterel

89

(2)

"She Charged Me"

91

(1)

The Moon Looks In

91

(1)

In the Days of Crinoline

92

(1)

The Workbox

93

(2)

Exeunt Omnes

95

(1)

Satires of Circumstance in Fifteen Glimpses

96

(11)

At Tea

96

(1)

In Church

96

(1)

By Her Aunt's Grave

97

(1)

In the Room of the Bride-Elect

97

(1)

At a Watering-Place

98

(1)

In the Cemetery

98

(1)

Outside the Window

99

(1)

In the Study

99

(1)

At the Altar-Rail

100

(1)

In the Nuptial Chamber

101

(1)

In the Restaurant

101

(1)

At the Draper's

102

(1)

On the Death-Bed

102

(1)

Over the Coffin

103

(1)

In the Moonlight

104

(3)

From MOMENTS OF VISION AND MISCELLANEOUS VERSES

107

(38)

"We Sat at the Window"

107

(1)

Afternoon Service at Mellstock

107

(1)

At the Word "Farewell"

108

(1)

Heredity

109

(1)

Near Lanivet, 1872

109

(2)

To the Moon

111

(1)

Timing Her

112

(2)

The Blinded Bird

114

(1)

"The Wind Blew Words"

115

(1)

To My Father's Violin

116

(1)

The Pedigree

117

(2)

Where They Lived

119

(1)

"Something Tapped"

120

(1)

The Oxen

120

(1)

The Photograph

121

(1)

An Anniversary

122

(1)

Transformations

123

(1)

The Last Signal

123

(1)

Great Things

124

(1)

At Middle-Field Gate in February

125

(1)

On Sturminster Foot-Bridge

126

(1)

Old Furniture

126

(2)

A Thought in Two Moods

128

(1)

Logs on the Hearth

128

(1)

The Caged Goldfinch

129

(1)

The Ballet

129

(1)

The Five Students

130

(1)

During Wind and Rain

131

(1)

He Prefers Her Earthly

132

(1)

A Backward Spring

133

(1)

"Who's in the Next Room?"

133

(1)

At a Country Fair

134

(1)

Jubilate

135

(1)

Midnight on the Great Western

136

(1)

The Shadow on the Stone

137

(1)

In the Garden

138

(1)

An Upbraiding

138

(1)

The Choirmaster's Burial

139

(2)

In Time of "The Breaking of Nations"

141

(1)

Afterwards

142

(3)

From LATE LYRICS AND EARLIER

145

(24)

Weathers

145

(1)

The Garden Seat

145

(1)

"According to the Mighty Working"

146

(1)

Going and Staying

147

(1)

The Contretemps

148

(2)

A Night in November

150

(1)

The Fallow Deer at the Lonely House

150

(1)

On the Tune Called the Old-Hundred-and-Fourth

151

(1)

Voices from Things Growing in a Churchyard

152

(2)

A Two-Years' Idyll

154

(1)

Fetching Her

155

(1)

A Procession of Dead Days

156

(1)

In the Small Hours

157

(1)

The Dream Is--Which?

158

(1)

Lonely Days

159

(1)

The Marble Tablet

160

(1)

The Master and the Leaves

161

(1)

Last Words to a Dumb Friend

162

(2)

An Ancient to Ancients

164

(5)

From HUMAN SHOWS, FAR PHANTASIES, SONGS AND TRIFLES

169

(22)

Waiting Both

169

(1)

A Bird-Scene at a Rural Dwelling

169

(1)

Coming Up Oxford Street: Evening

170

(1)

When Dead

170

(1)

Ten Years Since

171

(1)

Life and Death at Sunrise

172

(1)

A Sheep Fair

173

(1)

The Calf

174

(1)

Snow in the Suburbs

175

(1)

Ice on the Highway

176

(1)

No Buyers

176

(1)

One Who Married Above Him

177

(2)

Last Love-Word

179

(1)

Nobody Comes

180

(1)

When Oats Were Reaped

180

(1)

The Harbour Bridge

181

(1)

The Missed Train

182

(1)

Retty's Phases

183

(1)

The Sundial on a Wet Day

184

(1)

Shortening Days at the Homestead

185

(1)

A Hurried Meeting

186

(2)

A Leaving

188

(3)

From WINTER WORDS IN VARIOUS MOODS AND METRES

191

(6)

Proud Songsters

191

(1)

"I Am the One"

191

(1)

Expectation and Experience

192

(1)

Throwing a Tree

193

(1)

Lying Awake

194

(1)

Henley Regatta

194

(1)

"A Gentleman's Second-Hand Suit"

195

(1)

A Forgotten Miniature

196

(1)

Appendix: Hardy's Notes and Remarks

197

(8)

Notes

205

(40)

Index of Titles and First Lines

245

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Hardy: Selected Poems

Hardy: Selected Poems

0140436995

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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