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The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated): 940+ Poems, Lyrics & Verses, Including...

Thomas Hardy

Start date: August 31, 2025

Finish date: December 31, 2025

Discussion: Poetry

Why we're reading this: We select one poem a week, to share and enjoy. Please look at our current reads folder, to see which we a…more
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* Our Weekly Poem - List with links
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The Puzzled Game-Birds (poem to be read with TMoC Ch 45)
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What Members Thought

Sep 01, 2023 Werner rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, classics

Although Thomas Hardy is best known as one of British literature's greatest writers of fiction, and waited until 1898 (when he was 58 years old) to publish his first book-length collection of poetry, Wessex Poems, he greatly loved that medium, and had actually been writing in it since the 1860s. In the last 30 years of his life, he turned entirely to writing poetry, ultimately publishing eight collections during his lifetime (including a Collected Poems first published in 1919, that went through ...more

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Aug 17, 2022 Brian Fagan rated it did not like it · review of another edition

A word about my rating: my ratings are based on my enjoyment and not about perceived quality. I read Hardy's poetry because I enjoy his novels so much. I always enjoy novels and selected nonfiction more than poetry. Hardy felt very strongly about poetry. He considered it the premier literary form. He wrote novels to make a living. Once he was settled financially, he went back to poetry for the last 30 years of his life. He became one of Britain's most famous poets of his time.

The tone of his po ...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, read-in-2010, victorian-literature, author-thomas-hardy, poet-thomas-hardy, modern-literature, poetry, favorites, my-western-canon

I just completed the variorum edition of Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems, edited by James Gibson (Palgrave, 2001). I actually read every single poem in this massive tome, and all I can say is that it is breathtakingly amazing. I have only read the complete poetic works of two other poets--Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti; and Thomas Hardy is certainly their equal, not only in output, but in quality, and Voice.

Hardy's poetry spans a period of time from the 1860s to his death in 1928. It is I just completed the variorum edition of Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems, edited by James Gibson (Palgrave, 2001). I actually read every single poem in this massive tome, and all I can say is that it is breathtakingly amazing. I have only read the complete poetic works of two other poets--Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti; and Thomas Hardy is certainly their equal, not only in output, but in quality, and Voice.

Hardy's poetry spans a period of time from the 1860s to his death in 1928. It is somewhat paradoxical, but Hardy is considered a great novelist of the Victorian period, but probably didn't really hit his stride with his poetry until into the 20th century. I loved his story-telling poems, and they are quite numerous. According to Hardy biographers, he made a point of collecting the folktales and ballads that he heard as a child. He then spun this raw material into some of the finest lyrical poems that I've ever read.

Hardy is truly a master at delving into the raw human emotions associated with birth, growing up, life, Love, marriage, and even death. Throughout his poetry, Hardy's poetic voice speaks to the human connection with the Nature of his beloved 'Wessex' countryside; as well as the human suffering that occurs as a result of injustice and intolerance. I was also frankly surprised that there isn't a sense of Hardy 'preaching' in any of his poems; like his fiction, Hardy just tells the story with his poem, and he leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Here's one brief example of the power, pathos and drama of Hardy's poetry--

By the Barrows
NOT far from Mellstock--so tradition saith--
Where barrows, bulging as they bosoms were
Of Multimammia stretched supinely there,
Catch night and noon the tempest's wanton breath,

A battle, desperate doubtless unto death,
Was one time fought. The outlook, lone and bare,
The towering hawk and passing raven share,
And all the upland round is called 'The He'th'.

Here once a woman, in our modern age,
Fought singlehandedly to shield a child--
One not her own--from a man's senseless rage.
And to my mind no patriots' bones there piled
So consecrate the silence as her deed
Of stoic and devoted self-unheed.

For many reasons, this sonnet always reminds me of Hardy's beautiful novel, The Return of the Native. Read it aloud to yourself, and experience the full beauty and power of the rhyming and metre of the poem. It is safe to say that I will be revisiting this wonderful volume of Hardy's poetry frequently for the rest of my days. ...more

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