Selected Poems

This selection gathers lyrics Hardy wrote from the 1890s through the early twentieth century, after he turned from novels to verse. Typical pieces treat Wessex lanes, churchyards, failed meetings, the deaths of the Boer War and 1914, and the marriage recorded in the poems to Emma. Speakers are often already looking back; ballad stanzas and irregular hymns carry regret and coincidence. There is no continuous narrative. The book is a cross-section of a late Victorian and Edwardian lyric poet, not a digest of the Wessex novels.

Quarter-bound in red goatskin leather blocked in white foil on spine with white Iris cloth boards printed with a design by the artist. Limitation page printed letterpress on Hahnemühle Bugra Bütten paper and tipped on by hand. Green Hahnemühle Bugra Bütten endpapers. Green ribbon marker. Green Iris cloth slipcase blind-blocked with a design by the artist and lined with Hahnemühle Bugra Bütten paper.