Editing Thomas Hardy (section)

==Poetry==
[[File:Thomas Hardy by Walter William Ouless.jpg|thumb|upright|Thomas Hardy by [[Walter William Ouless]], 1922]]
In 1898, Hardy published his first volume of poetry, ''[[Wessex Poems]]'', a collection of poems written over 30 years. While some suggest that Hardy gave up writing novels following the harsh criticism of ''Jude the Obscure'' in 1896, the poet [[C. H. Sisson]] calls this "hypothesis" "superficial and absurd".<ref name="English Literature 2000"/><ref>"Introduction" to the Penguin edition of ''Jude the Obscure'' (1978). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984, p.13.</ref> In the twentieth century Hardy published only poetry.

Thomas Hardy published ''[[Poems of the Past and the Present]]'' in 1901, which contains "[[The Darkling Thrush]]" (originally titled "The Century's End"), one of his best known poems about the [[turn of the century]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rumens |first=Carol |date=2009-12-28 |title=Poem of the week: The Darkling Thrush, by Thomas Hardy |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/28/poem-of-the-week-the-darkling-thrush-thomas-hardy |access-date=2023-08-09 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Thomas Hardy wrote in a great variety of poetic forms, including [[lyric poetry|lyrics]], [[ballad]]s, satire, [[dramatic monologue]]s and dialogue, as well as a three-volume epic [[closet drama]] ''[[The Dynasts]]'' (1904–08),<ref name="britannica1">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/255167/Thomas-Hardy |title=Thomas Hardy (British writer) – Encyclopædia Britannica |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=6 November 2013 |access-date=19 May 2014}}</ref> and though in some ways a very traditional poet, because he was influenced by folksong and ballads,<ref>"Thomas Hardy", ''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'', ed. Marion Wynne Davies. New York: Prentice Hall, 1990, p.583.</ref> he "was never conventional," and "persistently experiment[ed] with different, often invented, stanza forms and metres,"<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide'', p. 583.</ref> and made use of "rough-hewn rhythms and colloquial diction".<ref name="poets1">{{cite web |url=http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/110#sthash.STdc5gsw.dpuf |title=Thomas Hardy &#124; Academy of American Poets |publisher=Poets.org |date=11 January 1928 |access-date=19 May 2014 |archive-date=14 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140414084147/http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/110#sthash.STdc5gsw.dpuf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a re-evaluation of ''The Dynasts'' in 2006 Keith Wilson wrote, "''The Dynasts'', this unusual work that allowed him [Hardy] to explore what he had noticed about human beings over the most ambitious canvas that he had ever attempted, should stand among his greatest achievements."<ref>Wilson, Keith, 'We Thank You … Most of All, Perhaps, for The Dynasts': Hardy's Epic Drama Re-Evaluated.	''The Thomas Hardy Journal'' 22 (Autumn 2006): 235-254.</ref>

Hardy wrote a number of significant war poems that relate to both the [[Boer War]]s and [[World War I]], including "Drummer Hodge", "In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'" and "[[The Man He Killed]]"; his work had a profound influence on other war poets such as [[Rupert Brooke]] and [[Siegfried Sassoon]].<ref name="Axelrod">{{cite web |last=Axelrod |first=Jeremy |url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/thomas-hardy |title=Thomas Hardy |publisher=The Poetry Foundation |access-date=19 May 2014 |archive-date=27 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140527112937/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/thomas-hardy |url-status=live }}</ref> Hardy in these poems often used the viewpoint of ordinary soldiers and their colloquial speech.<ref name="Axelrod"/> A theme in the ''Wessex Poems'' is the long shadow that the [[Napoleonic Wars]] cast over the 19th century, as seen, for example, in "The Sergeant's Song" and "Leipzig".<ref name="Katherine Kearney Maynard 1991, pp. 8">Katherine Kearney Maynard, ''Thomas Hardy's Tragic Poetry: The Lyrics and The Dynasts''. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991, pp. 8–12.</ref> The Napoleonic War is the subject of ''The Dynasts''.

[[File:Thomas Hardy (1923 portrait).jpg|thumb|left|upright|A portrait of Thomas Hardy in 1923 by [[Reginald Eves]]]]
Some of Hardy's more famous poems are from ''[[Poems 1912–13]]'', which later became part of ''Satires of Circumstance'' (1914), written following the death of his wife Emma in 1912. They had been estranged for 20 years, and these lyric poems express deeply felt "regret and remorse".<ref name="Axelrod"/> Poems like "After a Journey", "The Voice" and others from this collection "are by general consent regarded as the peak of his poetic achievement".<ref name="britannica1"/> In a 2007 biography on Hardy, [[Claire Tomalin]] argues that Hardy became a truly great English poet after the death of his first wife Emma, beginning with these elegies, which she describes as among "the finest and strangest celebrations of the dead in English poetry."<ref>Tomalin, Claire. "Thomas Hardy." New York: Penguin, 2007.</ref>

Many of Hardy's poems deal with themes of disappointment in love and life, and "the perversity of fate", presenting these themes with "a carefully controlled elegiac feeling".<ref>''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', 7th edition, vol. 2, p. 1916.</ref> [[Irony]] is an important element in a number of Hardy's poems, including "The Man He Killed" and "Are You Digging on My Grave".<ref name="Katherine Kearney Maynard 1991, pp. 8"/> A few of Hardy's poems, such as "[[The Blinded Bird]]", a melancholy polemic against the sport of {{lang|nl|[[Vinkensport|vinkenzetting]]}}, reflect his firm stance against animal cruelty, exhibited in his [[Vivisection|antivivisectionist]] views and his membership in the [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]].<ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/wakinggiantspres00schn_0
| url-access=registration
| page=[https://archive.org/details/wakinggiantspres00schn_0/page/35 35]
| quote=the blinded bird.
|title=Waking Giants: The Presence of the Past in Modernism| year=1991
| publisher=Oxford University Press
|author=Herbert N. Schneidau| isbn=978-0-19-506862-7
|access-date=16 April 2008 }} (Google Books)</ref>

Although his poems were initially not as well received as his novels had been, Hardy is now recognised as one of the great poets of the 20th century, and his verse had a profound influence on later writers, including [[Robert Frost]], [[W. H. Auden]], [[Dylan Thomas]] and [[Philip Larkin]].<ref name="poets1"/> Larkin included 27 poems by Hardy compared with only nine by [[T. S. Eliot]] in his edition of ''[[The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse]]'' in 1973.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/110 |title=Poetry.org |publisher=Poets.org |date=11 January 1928 |access-date=19 May 2014 |archive-date=14 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140414084147/http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/110 |url-status=live }}</ref> There were fewer poems by [[W. B. Yeats]].<ref>"Thomas Hardy", ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature'', 7th edition, vol.2, p. 1916.</ref> Poet-critic [[Donald Davie]]'s ''Thomas Hardy and English Poetry'' considers Hardy's contribution to ongoing poetic tradition at length and in creative depth. Davie's friend [[Thom Gunn]] also wrote on Hardy and acknowledged his stature and example.