Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses

Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses is a collection of poems by English poet Thomas Hardy, and was published in 1922. While covering a typical (for Hardy) range of subjects - such as mismatchings, grotesqueries, and ironic memories - the poems generally take a musical shape, often remembering the past in ballad format.[1]

Hardy's 'Apology'

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Hardy prefaced the collection with a self-styled Apology, beginning prosaically by reporting some half of the poems included as recent, the remainder as old,[2] but continuing with a broader defence of his poetic principles. Against charges of systematic pessimism, he maintained that his poetry was instead “really a series of fugitive impressions which I have never tried to co-ordinate”.[3]

Themes

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As if to protest further the charge of pessimism, Hardy opened the collection with the cheerfully lyrical 'Weathers', though he closed it with the self-searching meditation 'Surview'.[4] Other notable poems paid tribute to the friend of his youth, Horace Moule, and to his second wife, Florence Dugdale;[5] while others recalled once again Hardy's first wife Emma, perhaps representing a final coming-to-terms with the memory of their marriage.[6]

Influence

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Many of the poems have been subsequently set to music, by a variety of different composers.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ I. Ousby ed., The Cambridge Companion to Literature in English (CUP 1994) p. 531
  2. ^ D. Wright ed, Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems (Penguin 1978) Appendix p. 442-3
  3. ^ Quoted in J. C. Brown, A Journey into Thomas Hardy's Poetry (London 1989) p. 42
  4. ^ M. Seymour-Smith, Thomas Hardy (London 1994) p. 853
  5. ^ M. Seymour-Smith, Thomas Hardy (London 1994) p. 50 and p. 853
  6. ^ J. C. Brown, A Journey into Thomas Hardy's Poetry (London 1989) p. 241-2
  7. ^ I. Ousby ed., The Cambridge Companion to Literature in English (CUP 1994) p. 531
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