The Life of Thomas Hardy
himself by employing the form of literary art in which it had ever been his ambition to become a master. His novels had assured him of income and position; he could now afford to speculate in the hazardous field of poetry. Some people, indeed, had already realized that they had been reading poetry while they perused the "novels of character and environment," and accepted the new state of affairs with satisfaction. Others, however, simply stopped reading Hardy. At any rate, the world had before long to assimilate the fact that if it wanted to read Hardy's new books, it would have to read verse.
Poems of the Past and the Present, like Wessex Poems, contained many early pieces, but consisted chiefly of Hardy's poetical efforts between 1898 and 1901, recording his impressions of the Boer War and of two trips to Italy, the Poems of Pilgrimage. Time's Laughingstocks appeared in 1909; it was distinguished by A Set of Country Songs, some of the most successful dramatic ballads, the Love Lyrics and the greater part of those poems in which the ancient Wessex musicians reappear in person and in spirit. Satires of Circumstance followed in 1914; it has, without too much exaggeration, been called one of the most remarkable collections of poetry produced in recent years. It drew forth the following comment from Mr. Gosse:
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