I only purchased and read The Ruined Maid. Great poem! ( )

3.5 stars
These were very thoughtful and thought provoking poems, but definitely quite pessimistic and sad. ( )

NA

Thomas Hardy the author of such classic novels as The Return of the Native and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was also a great poet. His lyricism, subtlety, depth, and variety have earned him a significant place in the ranks of modern English poets.

Not a critique of Hardy as much as the book itself. Hardy's poetry is easily recognized as "classical" poetry. There is a lyrical quality that took me back to English literature class in college. However, the reading is easier without a professor raging on about rhyme scheme or fertility symbolism. It is enjoyable poetry that can be appreciated by all readers.

As a collection, Dover Publications does what it excels at doing. It brings the reader a fine collection of poetry in an easy to handle size. At eighty pages, this collection is intimidating in itself and being a collection of poetry can be picked up and read and put down again. There is not the need or feeling to read it all in one sitting. In fact, it is better to take your time and enjoy at your leisure. ( )

This slim volume contains 70 of Thomas Hardy's poems dating from 1898-1917, which turned out to be a sufficient amount of his poetry for me. Back when I was in college, I read Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles and liked it enough to want to read more of his work. I picked up this book at one point because it was ridiculously cheap, so why not? Turns out I liked Hardy more as a novelist than a poet. Of the poems featured here, there were less than a dozen that I found notable:

1) "The Ruined Maid" is a tongue-in-cheek, amusing look at a kept woman who simultaneously laments her spoiled reputation while showing off the riches she's gained in the process.
2) "Tess's Lament" seems to be a continuation of themes/events from Hardy's novel and thus is interesting to readers of that work.
3) "The Man He Killed" is a brief meditation on the insanity of war ("Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down/You'd treat if met where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown.")
4) "Channel Firing" is a darker look at WWI ("All nations striving strong to make Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters They do no more for Christes sake Than you who are helpless in such matters. That this is not the judgment-hour For some of them's a blessed thing, For if it were they'd have to scour Hell's floor for so much threatening ... ")
5) "The Convergence of the Twain" remarks on the sinking of the Titanic, presumably when this was still a relatively recent event. ("Over the mirrors meant To glass the opulent The sea-worm crawls - grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.")
6) "Beyond the Last Lamp" talks about one of those moments we've all had - where a strange scene (in this case, a downcast looking pair of passersby) plagues us with wonder regarding what on earth was going on.
7) "Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?" was a darkly humorous piece that lightened all the other depressing poems contemplating death. (Spoiler: it ends with the ghostly narrator finding that it is not her lover nor her family that digs on her grave to plant flowers, but her dog burying a bone because he/she "quite forgot It was your resting-place.")
8) "The Haunter" is a touching poem that reminds us to express ourselves fully in relationships while we still have them ("I hover and hover a few feet from him Just as I used to do, But cannot answer the words he lifts me - Only listen thereto! When I could answer he did not say them")
9) "An Upbraiding" muses on a similar theme as the above but with a more harsh apparition as narrator.
10) "Afterwards" contemplates on what will be remembered of the narrator's life and personality after his death.

The other poems included were fine but nothing worth writing home about in my book. They were largely trite and unremarkable, but it was not necessarily an unpleasant experience to sit down and read them, especially given that this was such a short collection. If you really, really enjoy Hardy's writing or care for so-so poems about predictable themes such as love, nature, and death, then this might be the book for you (or perhaps you'd go for the larger collections of Hardy's some 900 poems). Otherwise, you might want to pass on this particular book. ( )