Thomas Hardy, the poet

I’d never read any of Thomas Hardy’s poetry … it was enough to be forced through an entire novel (FFTMC) during GCSE English, and the bits of prose I’ve dipped into since convinced me to keep my distance.  Thoroughly gloomtastic is our Mr Hardy.

But, given the opportunity to actually LOOK at his poetry, I was rather taken with various pieces, and picked out three to read for a new Librivox Collection. (33, 34 and 35)

To Shakespeare After Three Hundred Years is a really sweet tribute to Will. This Heart – A Woman’s Dream is the most ‘traditional’ Hardy, being a wife who dreams of finally understanding her husband – after his death.  And Great Things has echoes of my previously-recorded Brooke in The Great Lover and starts off with an entire verse about how Great cyder is.  And with that, I cannot argue.