Dylan Thomas and Phillip Larkin where very different poets, but they had something in common; neither of them would have wished for Hardy's Complete Poems to be reduced by an inch or an ounce. It's easy to see why.
How many poets possess the ability to strike one dumb with emotion? I will never forget the first time I read "The Self-unseeing." I was, thank God, alone at the time, for it took some minutes for me to regain my composure. The fact that we had a
gas fire in my childhood home and
my father was a folk musician undoubtedly contributed to the poem's impact.
How many poets possess the ability to strike one dumb with emotion? I will never forget the first time I read "The Self-unseeing." I was, thank God, alone at the time, for it took some minutes for me to regain my composure. The fact that we had a
gas fire in my childhood home and
my father was a folk musician undoubtedly contributed to the poem's impact.