Selected Shorter Poems of Thomas Hardy

by Thomas Hardy, John Wain

book

Genres: Poetry, Classics

160 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1988

About the author

Thomas Hardy, OM, was an English author of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain.

The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his 50s, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy's serial novel A Pair of Blue Eyes in 1873. In the novel, Hardy chose to leave one of his protagonists, Knight, literally hanging off a cliff staring into the stony eyes of a trilobite embedded in the rock that has been dead for millions of years. This became the archetypal — and literal — cliff-hanger of Victorian prose.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Initially NO · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes me to a place of rhythmic sense that I've never known to exist in reality. I glimpse this sense more in Hardy's poetry than any period movie made. There's something very exacting about poetry, takes out the human core and coats it into the consensual forms of the environment lived in. Not that I would know about what things were like in 1866.
I'm not always in the mood for old writing, sometimes it can feel so far from all the pressing things current circumstances are asking to be solved, understood, recognised, that is isn't at all relevant. Enjoyable little gallivant, that said, I found this book to be today.

[Helbob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently he preferred writing poetry than novels which he viewed as his bread and butter work. But sorry TH I’ll stick to Tess and Bathsheba please. A lot of verse about loss, death, nostalgia and graves. A few nice hedgerow moments although they got lost in the gloom and I couldn’t find them again.

[Rosamund · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much sadness in these poems. As a cheery soul myself I am intrigued that I love them intensely.

[Tom Reeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first taste of Hardy's poetry, certainly not my last

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant.

[Christopher Smol]

Yeah sure, mumbled these to myself on the train

[Afsana Banana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems were very enjoyable, great for a quick perusal. Thomas Hardy's voice is equally as delightful as it is in his novels. The collection was supported well by notes from John Wain; they provided great insight into Hardy's context and process.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My admiration for Hardy the poet outstrips even that for his work as a novelist. Turning to poetry mainly in later life he was enormously prolific. His complete poems (into which I dip every now and then) runs to nearly a thousand pieces. This excellent selection of his shorter poems contains pretty much all of his most famous works: poems like The Darkling Thrush, The Oxen and the incredible outpouring of work in the Poems of 1912-13 are all here, along with many others. Hardy was a master of form, and all shapes and sizes are represented here. Many echo traditional folk forms, with their repeated phrases, others seem very modern. The landscape and the characters of Harry's native Wessex populate many of the poems, and there is a rich, often ironic, view of the cycles of life, of birth, death and regeneration in poems like Voices from Things Growing in a Churchyard and Proud Songsters.

[Precious Lyda Atriginio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like Hardy's poems. His poems are like wine, bitter at first and becomes sweeter the longer it lasts.He is one of the many poets that I admire. He knows much about grief, and the sorrows and little joys of life, even the mundane. That is why I was thrilled when I was able to find this book in Booksale. This is one book that I like to read again and again.

[Hayleigh]

I'm trying to read more classic poetry and this was a nice little collection. Some of them went straight over my head, either because of the words or the content, but there were several poems I really enjoyed.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely selection containing just a few of Thomas Hardy's poems. My particular favourite is 'The Ruined Maid' (1866) which made me laugh out loud and remember that Hardy's work is not all as depressing as some people would have one believe.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a lot of joy in Mr Hardy, but some great versifying...