Customer Reviews

Hardy: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

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This is an excellent collection, including some of Hardy's most beautiful poetry. Hardy, in our modern period, is more famous for his controversial novels (Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure among them), although in his life, he was most known, and preferred to call himself a poet. In fact, he is buried in the poet's section of Westminster Abbey. His poems sound with the same issues as his novels, although they are perhaps marginally more digestable because they are all moderately short. I would not recommend reading more than a few of these poems at a time because they are all permeated by the classic Hardian tragic sense of life that we all know and love. If you have not read Hardy's novels, I strongly recommend that you do, and also experience his poetry, which is quite out of this world as well.

This Everyman edition, edited by Peter Washington, for some reason omits almost all of Hardy's most well-known and admired poems!

NOT in this edition: Channel Firing, The Convergence of the Twain, Nature's Questioning, A Confession to a Friend in Trouble, Her Death and After, Are You Digging on my Grave, The Ruined Maid, Hap, The Impercipient, and A Broken Appointment. All of the Wessex Poems are missing, as well.

I can't see what possible harm would have been done by including these poems! As it is, you're better off with the Dover edition -- this cannot be your only collection of Hardy poems, because the editor left out all the good stuff!