''Poems of the Past and the Present'' is the second collection of poems by
English
English usually refers to:
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poet
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
, and was published in 1901. A wide-ranging collection, divided into five headings, it contains some of Hardy's most powerful and lasting poetic contributions.
Reception and thematics
The unusually favourable reception of the collection was due in large part to its opening with the section of 'War Poems', many previously published independently, and welcomed by the public for their treatment of the
Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
— the seminal ''Drummer Hodge'' being the outstanding example.
Hardy's friend
Sir George Douglas called some of the collection's poems
Aeschylean, and Hardy himself considered that the 'Doom' themes in the work overlapped with those in ''
The Dynasts
''The Dynasts'' is an English-language closet drama in verse and prose by Thomas Hardy. Hardy himself described this work as "an epic-drama of the war with Napoleon, in three parts, nineteen acts and one hundred and thirty scenes". Not counting ...
''. However, he had been careful in the collection's Preface to disclaim any organised philosophy therein, adding that "Unadjusted impressions have their value..."
Notable pieces
Among other notable pieces were his poem 'Well-beloved', on the transient succession of a man's love-ideal; and "
The Darkling Thrush
"The Darkling Thrush" is a poem by Thomas Hardy. Originally titled "By the Century's Deathbed", it was first published on 29 December 1900 in ''The Graphic.'' The poem was later published in ''London Times'' on 1 January, 1901. A deleted '1899' on ...
", the humorous piece "
The Ruined Maid
"The Ruined Maid" is a satirical poem by Thomas Hardy. It was written in 1866 but first published, in a slightly bowdlerized form, in ''Poems of the Past and the Present'' (1901).
Overview
Thomas Hardy's "The Ruined Maid" is a poem about a woma ...
", and the dour sequence "In Tenebris".
[I. Ousby ed., ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'' (Cambridge 1993) p. 746]
See also
*
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...
*
Rupert Brooke
Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an En ...
*
War poetry
A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...
References
External links
* ''
Poems of the Past and the Present'' (1901) at
Archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
*
Poems of the Past and the Present' (1901) at
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
1901 poetry books
English poetry collections
Poetry by Thomas Hardy
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