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Modern arbiters of literature are as mystified as his contemporaries were by the fact that Hardy ,
at the height of his reputation in the late 1890s , abandoned novel-writing to devote
the last thirty years of his life to poetry. It seemed as if he was turning away from serious (and
profitable) work in order to pursue an idle hobby. “The poet” , he wrote in 1918 ,
“is like one who enters and mounts a platform to give an address as announced. He opens his page ,
looks around , and finds the hall – empty.” After Jude the Obscure in 1897 , he settled
down to spend the rest of his life writing narrative and lyric poetry , supported in
modest comfort by the royalties from his novels. In his poems , as in his previous fictions , he
depicts how people either break up under the strains of fate or they harden into a bitter
defiance. He had the peasant's realism , a grim resignation to the fact that life will be harsh.
He also had a dour humour, the relish for odd tales about his neighbours, and the slow
endurance that carries on in spite of all life's tribulations. Like many who witness the
monotonous lives around them , Hardy had a weakness for junketings , occasional good times and
the roguish gaiety evident in this poem , The Ruined Maid :
' O 'Melia my dear , this does everything crown !
Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town ?
And whence such fair garments , such prosperity ? '
' O didn't you know I'd been ruined ? ' said she.
' You left us in tatters , without shoes or socks ,
Tired of digging potatoes and spudding up docks ;
And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three '
' Yes ; that's how we dress when we're ruined ,' said she.
' You used to call home life a hag-ridden dream ,
And you'd sigh and you'd sock ; but at present you seem
To know not of megrims or melancholy '
' True. One's pretty lively when ruined ,' said she.
' I wish I had feathers , a fine sweeping gown ,
And a delicate face , and could strut about Town.'
' My dear – a raw country girl , such as you be ,
Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined ,' said she.
Born in a small village near Dorchester in 1840 , he knew poverty from birth , both in his own
family and that of his neighbours. He was familiar with shepherds , carriers , dairy maids and
ploughmen , all speaking the Dorset dialect he heard from his own parents. His grandfather , uncle
and father were all self-employed stonemason/builders , looking down on the hard-pressed
farm labourers as they themselves were looked down upon by local farmers and professional men.
Away from the village and above them all were the landowners , a different species altogether.
In the cultured world of letters and art , country folk were viewed as quaint and picturesque
simpletons but in giving them a voice , Hardy preserved their world as the high culture
of the landowners disintegrated after 1914. Following his death in 1928 , events took as bizarre a
turn as some of the plots in his novels. His will expressed a clear wish to be buried in
the local churchyard where his parents , his sister and first wife lay. However his literary
executor had other ideas and made arrangements for a funeral at Westminster Abbey , who insisted
they only had space for his ashes. The local vicar made a gruesome suggestion , that Hardy's heart
be cut out before cremation and buried where he'd asked to be laid was agreed to by his
distraught widow and so , while the eminent processed in the Abbey , a crowd of curious locals
gathered in Stinsford churchyard for the heart's burial.
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Archive
Poets' Corner #1 – Poetic
Pessimism, 13th September 2012
Poets' Corner #2 – The Workman's
Friend, 10th October 2012
Poets' Corner #3 – On The Trail of
Two Dylans, 12th November 2012
Poets' Corner #4 – Omar Khayyam,
14th December 2012
Poets' Corner #5 – William Blake,
25th January 2013
Poets' Corner #6 – A Minor Poet,
19th February 2013
Poets' Corner #7 – Thomas Hardy,
20th March 2013
Poets' Corner #8 – Shakespeare's
Sonnets, 21st April 2013
Poets' Corner #9 – Edward Thomas,
20th May 2013
Poets' Corner #10 – Harry Smith's
Anthology, 19th June 2013
Poets' Corner #11 – William
Plomer, 21st July 2013
Poets' Corner #12 – Ghosts ,
20th August 2013
Poets' Corner #13 – William
Dunbar, 20th September 2013
Poets' Corner #14 – Bathtub
Thoughts, 20th October 2013
Poets' Corner #15 – Bagpipe Music,
20th November 2013
Poets' Corner #16 – Sylvia &
Emily, 20th December 2013
Poets' Corner #17 – The Fall Of
Icarus, 16th January 2014
Poets' Corner #18 – Those Gone
Before, 20th February 2014
Poets' Corner #19 – Rudyard
Kipling, 20th March 2014
Poets' Corner #20 – Martin Bell,
20th April 2014
Poets' Corner #21 – Another Modest
Proposal, 20th May 2014
Poets' Corner #22 – Thomas Gray
and The Eighteenth Century, 20th June 2014
Poets' Corner #23 – Edgar Allan
Poe, 18th July 2014
Poets' Corner #24 – Tread Softly,
19th August 2014
Poets' Corner #25 – Mad To Be
Saved, 24th December 2015
Poets' Corner #26 – Wants,
20th January 2016
Poets' Corner #27 – Samuel
Johnson, 15th February 2016
Poets' Corner #28 – T.S.Eliot,
10th March 2016
Poets' Corner #29 – Alfred Lord
Tennyson, 18th April 2016
Poets' Corner #30 – Leonard Cohen,
12th November 2016
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