Such a dream is Time that the coo of this ancient bird
Has perished not, but is blent, or will be blending
Mid visionless wilds of space with the voice that I heard,
In the full-fuged song of the universe unending.

~ Thomas Hardy

Yesterday’s featured poet, Philip Larkin, was deeply inspired by the works of Thomas Hardy, the famous English writer of such classics as Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd and The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Interestingly, Hardy’s career did not begin in literature, but in architecture.  But after much prodding from his wife, Hardy decided to delve into the world of writing.  After having a hard time finding an audience for his poetry, Hardy was advised to write a novel.  His first – The Poor Man and the Lady – was rejected by publishers and he destroyed the manuscript.  After Far from the Madding Crowd achieved success, however, Hardy felt that he could earn a living as a writer.

However, two of Hardy’s major works, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, produced so much public outcry over their conflict with traditional Victorian morality, that Hardy vowed he would never write fiction again.  Instead, he devoted the rest of his life to poetry.

In The March of Literature, it is said that Hardy was, “the ideal poet of a generation. He was the most passionate and the most learned of them all. He had the luck, singular in poets, of being able to achieve a competence other than by poetry and then devote the ending years of his life to his beloved verses."

He was buried in the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey.

Photo: Painting by Jean Raoux.