Hardy's Early Poetry: Romanticism Through a "dark Bilberry Eye"Not many authors are allowed the privilege of being retrospectively considered both masterful novelists and poets. Despite the fact that Thomas Hardy saw himself as a poet first, only recently have his poems been accepted as equal to his celebrated novels. Persoon explores how Hardy's poetic vision, seemingly cemented in his twenties, existed in constant tension between Darwin and Wordsworth, betweem a scientific outlook and the poetic temperament. Perceiving Hardy's metaphorical double vision--physically represented by his own eyes, one of which was smaller than the other--we see how this bouncing between realism and romanticism informed not only Hardy's poems but also his view of language, art, architecture, religion and even humor. Hardy's Early Poetry deserves attention by anyone who is interested in understanding the full richness and complexity of Hardy's work. |
Contents
Hardys Empirical Ghosts | 5 |
Poems of the 1860s The Division of the Universe | 17 |
Poems of the 1860s The Otherness of the Female | 37 |
Hardys Double Vision of Language | 47 |
Hardy and Metaphor | 63 |
The Question of Hardys Development | 79 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
afterlife Amabel argues beauty birds Brian Green Browning Casagrande century chapter choice choose Cleon critics Darwin dead death Dennis Taylor Dilemma Domicilium Dorchester dream dualism early poems Emma empirical empiricism English Ezra Pound F. R. Leavis father feel female ghosts Hardy's development Hardy's poetry Hardy's universe human imagination kind Larkin Late Lyrics later literal literary living London looking Lyrics and Earlier male memory metaphor Milton mind nature Neutral Tones novels Paradise Paulin Philip Larkin poem's poet poetic Poetry of Perception published qualities realistic reality Revulsion Robert Graves romanticism Rosalind sacramental view seems seen Shelley Shopwoman shows Sign-Seeker song sonnet soul Southern Review speaker spiritual stanza suggests Symons T. E. Lawrence Tennyson things Thomas Hardy Thrush Tom Paulin tradition transcendent truth uncaring Victorian Poetry view of language Wessex Wessex Poems William Barnes woman words Wordsworth Wordsworthian writing York