The Life of Thomas Hardy
with surprise the exact reverse of such judgment coming from Coventry Patmore, who, as early as March 29th, 1875, wrote to Hardy to express his regret that "such almost unequalled beauty and power as appeared in the novels should not have assured themselves the immortality which would have been conferred upon them by the form of verse."
Without attempting a dogmatic opinion on a matter which will be decided by future generations, if at all, one may perhaps with a show of reason point out a possible analogy between the form assumed by the bulk of Mr. Hardy's productions and by Goethe's works. Both created transcendent novels and remarkable lyrical poems, but concentrated the sustained efforts of many years upon the production of one great piece of cosmic poetry;—in the one case Faust was the result, in the other The Dynasts. Without following out the analogy too closely or attempting to judge the final relative merit of the two poets, perhaps impossible at present, we may possibly be aided somewhat in our attempted estimate of the relative importance of the works of Hardy by observing the manner in which posterity has rated those of Goethe.
[220]
