THOMAS HARDY
Thomas Hardy was a poet by choice. The novels that he wrote, among them Jude the Obscure and Far from the Madding Crowd, he wrote as he maintains, purely in order to pay his bills.
He was born in Dorset in 1840. He was apprenticed to and worked as an architect. Early on, disillusionment became a major theme of his writing, and that was amplified by the death of his first wife, Emma. In his preface to Moments of Vision he states that human beings "are of no matter or appreciable value in this nonchalant Universe."
Elsewhere, Hardy senses very strongly his own alienation from the natural world. But he is a poet of questions, not answers. He intended no coherent or concrete philosophical argument. Much of Hardy's poetry is tragic: that was his vision.
MEMORY AND I
O MEMORY, where is now my youth,
Who used to say that life was truth?"
"I saw him in a crumbled cot
Beneath a tottering tree ;
That he as phantom lingers there
Is only known to me."
"O Memory, where is now my joy,
Who lived with me in sweet employ?"
"I saw him in gaunt gardens lone,
Where laughter used to be ;
That he as phantom wanders there
Is known to none but me"
"O Memory, where is now my hope,
Who charged with deeds my skill and scope?"
"I saw her in a tomb of tomes,
Where dreams are wont to be ;
That she as spectre haunteth there
Is only known to me."
"O Memory, where is now my faith.
On time a champion, now a wraith?"
"I saw her in a ravaged aisle,
bowed down on bended knee ;
That her poor ghost outflickers there
Is known to none but me."
"O Memory, where is now my love
That rayed me as a god above?"
"I saw her in an ageing shape
Where beauty used to be ;
That her fond phantom lingers there
Is only known to me."
Thomas Hardy