Thomas Hardy’s “Beeny Cliff” captures a moment in time when the poet and his beloved traversed the coastal cliffs of Cornwall. The imagery is vivid and evocative: an open⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “Wessex Heights” depicts the speaker’s reflective journey upon high ground where everyday burdens momentarily dissolve. The poem begins with Hardy noting h⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “Under the Waterfall” explores the potent connection between a physical sensation—in this case, plunging an arm into water—and the sudden recall of cherish⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “Shut Out That Moon” is a poignant reflection on lost joy, the persistence of memory, and the human urge to suppress painful recollections. Throughout the ⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “The Going” is one of his renowned 1912–13 poems written in the wake of his wife Emma’s death. It conveys the shock and turmoil Hardy experienced when she ⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s ballad-like poem “A Trampwoman’s Tragedy” recounts a bleak and fateful journey undertaken by four travelers: the narrator (the so-called “Trampwoman”), two⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “To Lizbie Browne” is a reflective poem in which the speaker laments a lost opportunity for love. Addressing Lizbie directly, he recalls how enchanting she⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Voice” captures the speaker’s acute sense of loss and longing for a loved one—commonly understood to be Hardy’s late wife, Emma. The poem opens w⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “During Wind and Rain” offers four stanzas that each depict a scene of domestic contentment, marked by music, landscaping, shared meals, and relocation to ⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s poem “A Broken Appointment” addresses the acute disappointment and quiet despair of a speaker who has been stood up by someone beloved. Though the title po⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?” unfolds as a conversation from beyond the grave, where the deceased narrator hears someone disturbing her burial plot an⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s poem “The Oxen” presents a nostalgic reflection on the power of childhood faith. It focuses on the old folk legend that at midnight on Christmas Eve, farm ⋯ Read the full article

In “The Man He Killed,” Thomas Hardy illustrates the paradox of war through a simple and direct monologue. The speaker recalls an enemy soldier he killed in battle, musin⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “Drummer Hodge” reflects on the fate of a young English drummer who dies far from home during the Boer War. The poem contrasts his humble, rural background⋯ Read the full article

Thomas Hardy’s “Channel Firing” presents a powerful scene in which the dead are startled awake by naval gunfire off the English coast, mistaking the cacophony for Judgmen⋯ Read the full article