Hardy: Poems

Thomas Hardy (1840-1938) was an English poet and novelist who initially trained and showed promise as an architect before finding success as a writer. His style and form followed in the Victorian realist tradition of George Eliot and the Romanticism of William Wordsworth. Hardy's work displays a concern that the conventions of Victorian society were damaging to many and places an emphasis on empathy toward those it made suffer. His richly drawn characters engage in a timeless striving for happiness and a chance to rise above a world that offers implacable barriers to their hopes. Although he regarded himself primarily as a poet, he first gained notoriety as the author of novels like Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Ubervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). His poetry was acclaimed by some younger poets during his lifetime and lauded posthumously by greats like Ezra Pound and Philip Larkin.