''Satires of Circumstance'' is a collection of poems by
English
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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 1914. It includes the 18 poem sequence ''
Poems 1912-13'' on the death of Hardy's wife
Emma - extended to the now-classic 21 poems in ''Collected Poems'' of 1919 - widely regarded to comprise the best work of his poetic career.
Title and structure
The collection's title was picked by the publisher, and disapproved of by Hardy, emphasising as it did the 15 light-hearted satires and sketches of 1910, at the expense of the Poems of 1912-13 themselves, as well as of the 39 Miscellaneous Lyrics and the 34 Lyrics and Reveries, all with their more serious side. These latter include such fine examples of philosophical meditation and contemporary observation as 'Wessex Heights' and 'Channel Firing'.
Reception and influence
*The collection's initial reception was very muted, only
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...
pointing out how the writing had “the subtle disturbing force of poetry...the secret of touching our marrow-bones”.
*The subgroup 'Satires of Circumstance' have been singled out as a significant influence on and template for
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...
,. and may also have influenced the early
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
.
[S. M. Gilbert, ''Acts of Attention'' (1990) p. 44]
See also
*
Edmund Blunden
Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...
*
Georgian Poetry
Georgian Poetry refers to a series of anthologies showcasing the work of a school of English poetry that established itself during the early years of the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom.
The Georgian poets were, by the strictest ...
References
External links
* The complet
''Satires of Circumstance''*
*
British satirical poems
1914 poems
English poetry collections
Poetry by Thomas Hardy
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