Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy was born in 1840, and has for years been famous on both sides of the Atlantic as a writer of intense and sombre novels. His Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure are possibly his best known, although his Wessex Tales and Life's Little Ironies are no less imposing. a It was not until he was almost sixty, in 1898 to be precise, that Hardy abandoned prose and challenged attention as a poet. The Dynasts, a drama of the Napoleonic Wars, is in three parts, nineteen acts and one hundred and thirty scenes, massive and most amazing contribution to contemporary art. It is the apotheosis of Hardy the novelist. Lascelles Abercrombie calls this work, which is partly a historical play, partly a visionary drama, "the biggest and most consistent exhibition of fatalism in literature." While its powerful simplicity and tragic impressiveness overshadow his shorter poems, many of his terse lyrics reveal the same vigor and impact of a strong personality. His collected poems were published by The Macmillan Company in 1919 and reveal another phase of one of the greatest living writers of English. IN TIME OF “THE BREAKING OF NATIONS " Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk, With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk. Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch grass: Yonder a maid and her wight War's annals will fade into night GOING AND STAYING The moving sun-shapes on the spray, Seasons of blankness as of snow, The silent bleed of a world decaying, These were the things we wished would go; THE MAN HE KILLED (From "The Dynasts") "Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, "But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, "I shot him dead because— Just so: my foe of course he was; "He thought he'd 'list, perhaps, Was out of work-had sold his traps- 'Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You'd treat, if met where any bar is, Robert Bridges Robert Bridges was born in 1844 and educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. After traveling extensively, he studied medicine in London and practiced until 1882. Most of his poems, like his occasional plays, are classical in tone as well as treatment. He was appointed poet laureate in 1913, following Alfred Austin. His command of the secrets of rhythm and a subtle versification give his lines a firm delicacy and beauty of pattern. WINTER NIGHTFALL The day begins to droop,- But nothing tells the place NIGHTINGALES Beautiful must be the mountains whence ye come, And bright in the fruitful valleys the streams, wherefrom Where are those starry woods? O might I wander there, Nay, barren are those mountains and spent the streams: Whose pining visions dim, forbidden hopes profound, Alone, aloud in the raptured ear of men From these sweet-springing meads and bursting boughs of Dream, while the innumerable choir of day Welcome the dawn. |