Thomas Hardy

English 9 Honors Period 8 February 17th, 2011

In June of 1849, Thomas Hardy was born on the second of the month. He grew up in Higher Bock Hampton, Dorset, England. Although Thomas Hardy is known today for his poetry and great works of literature, he started his working career as an architects assistant. In April of 1872, he decided he wanted a change and headed for London. For five years, Thomas Hardy wrote poems and attempted to have them published. In 1867, still unsuccessful in having his poems published, Thomas Hardy returned to Dorset and continued his career as an architects assistant. Not until 1885 did Thomas Hardy finally settle down in a house he designed, Max Gate, with his wife Emma Gifford. Thomas Hardy died on January 11 1928 in his Max Gate home. Childhood for Thomas Hardy was full of learning and time at his local church. His mother Jemima Hardy was from a poor family but had a love for reading. Thomas Hardys father was a violin player and part of the local church choir. He was an only child, so his parents filled his time with church, reading, and music. When Thomas Hardy was eight, his schooling career began at a local national school in lower Bock Hampton. In 1850 at the age of ten, he then transferred to a nonconformist school in Dorchester only three miles west of where he lived. Thomas Hardys formal education ended when he was sixteen years old, and his career in architecture began. In 1856, Thomas Hardy became the apprentice of local architect John Hicks, who worked on church restoration. As an active member in his church through his childhood years, Thomas Hardy was moving into a career that was in his comfort zone. Through his work with John Hicks, Thomas Hardy met Henry Bastow and William Barnes. Both men liked

literature, poetry, and religious matters, which was similar to the interests of Thomas Hardy. Thomas Hardy grew up with a wide range of literature available to him, which contributed to him becoming a writer. Before age four, Thomas Hardy was already able to read and write, courtesy of his mother. He was introduced to Latin poets and French romances, also by his mother, and later began exploring other genres on his own. Thomas Hardy received a love of music from his father. Another influence in Thomas Hardys career in literature was from William Barnes, who he met through his apprenticeship with John Hicks. William Barnes was a poet who wrote about rural life, a topic that was similar to Thomas Hardys writing. Before Thomas Hardy wrote poetry, he became a novelist in order to make a career for himself in the world of literature. He wanted his entire career to be that of writing, and he knew that he could not afford to write poems until he established a name for himself. After Thomas Hardy realized he would not be able to start his writing career as a poet, he decided to write novels. He named his first novel The Poor Man and the Lady, written in 1867. However, when Thomas Hardy finished his novel, he lacked a publisher. A few years later the novel Desperate Remedies was written and published, but not under his name. A Pair of Blue Eyes(1873) was the first novel of Thomas Hardy that sported his name. The next year brought Thomas Hardy an auspicious novel, Far from the Madding Crowd, which fully allowed him to retire his career in architecture and spend all of his time in literature. Thomas Hardy began writing poems fulltime, and in 1898 he published Wessex Poems, his first book of poems. The types of poems Thomas Hardy wrote included: sonnets, lyric poems, and blank verse. His poems could be described as

sad and gloomy. Along with being depressing, Thomas Hardys poems had verses of irony and dry humor. Throughout his life, Thomas Hardy has written 1093 poems. The poem The Man He Killed was about a man feeling regret for shooting his enemy in battle. If instead of a battlefield the man and his enemy had been in a bar, would they have become friends and had a drink together? Another poem The Ruined Maid told the story of a woman who was ruined, but lived a life of luxury. Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave was a poem about a woman dying and being forgotten by those still alive. According to Poetry For Students, this poem explains that the dead are almost completely eliminated from the memory of the living (1999). The poem Song of the Soldiers Wives tells the story of women eagerly awaiting for the day their loved ones will return home to them. The two novels that led to Thomas Hardys full devotion to poetry were Tess of the dUrbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). The novel Tess of the dUrbervilles became a topic of controversy that shocked the public because it described an aristocratic villain seducing a beautiful young woman. Thomas Hardy was even forced to modify his novel and erase certain passages completely. In the novel Jude the Obscure the public had the same reaction. Upset and irritated over the uproar on his two greatest novels, Thomas Hardy returned to writing poetry. During this time, Thomas Hardy published the Wessex Poems, which was a collection of verses that covered the poems he had written in the past thirty years. Besides novels and poems, Thomas Hardy also wrote more than forty short stories and two dramas. The University of Aberdeen awarded Thomas Hardy with an honorary degree in 1905 and given the Order of the Merit by King George V in 1910. Also, Thomas Hardy received a gold medal that was

given to him by the Royal Society of Literature in 1912. In 1913, he received an honorary degree from Cambridge of Doctor of Letters, although he was not a college graduate. Then in 1914, a performance of The Dynasts occurred at the Kingsway Theatre in London. Thomas Hardys childhood was full of church, music, and reading. In 1856, he became a local architects apprentice, and through work he met the poet William Barnes, who may have been an inspiration to Thomas Hardy to write poetry. After making a career for himself as a novelist, Thomas Hardy was able to focus on writing poetry. As a result of writing literature for over sixty years, Thomas Hardy received many honors and awards.

References

Biography of Thomas Hardy. Poetry Connection, 15 February 2011. http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Thomas_Hardy

Napierowski, Marie Rose and Mary K. Ruby. Poetry For Students. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1999

Ruby, Mary K. Poetry For Students. Vol. 3. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research 1998

Thomas Hardy. Victorian Web. 4 February 2011. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hardy/index.html

Twaynes English Authors. Thomas Hardy. Gale Databases. 4 February 2011. http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/nysl_ce_hollpat