Satires of Circumstance

Satires of Circumstance is a collection of poems by English poet Thomas Hardy, and was published in 1914. It includes the 18 poem sequence Poems 1912-13 on the death of Hardy's wife Emma \- extended to the now-classic 21 poems in Collected Poems of 1919 - widely regarded to comprise the best work of his poetic career.

## Title and structure[edit]

The collection's title was picked by the publisher, and disapproved of by Hardy, emphasising as it did the 15 light-hearted satires and sketches of 1910,[1] at the expense of the Poems of 1912-13 themselves, as well as of the 39 Miscellaneous Lyrics and the 34 Lyrics and Reveries, all with their more serious side.[2] These latter include such fine examples of philosophical meditation and contemporary observation as 'Wessex Heights' and 'Channel Firing'.[3]

## Reception and influence[edit]

* The collection's initial reception was very muted, only Lytton Strachey pointing out how the writing had “the subtle disturbing force of poetry...the secret of touching our marrow-bones”.[4]
* The subgroup 'Satires of Circumstance' have been singled out as a significant influence on and template for Siegfried Sassoon,.[5] and may also have influenced the early D. H. Lawrence.[6]

## See also[edit]

* Edmund Blunden
* Georgian Poetry

## References[edit]

1. ^ F. B. Pinion, A Thomas Hardy Dictionary (1989) p. 238
2. ^ R. Taylor ed., Personal Notebooks of Thomas Hardy (1978) p. 263
3. ^ I. Ousby ed., The Canbridge Guide to Literature in English (CUP 1995) p. 830
4. ^ Quoted in M. Seymour-Smith, Thomas Hardy (London 1994) p. 810
5. ^ P. Campbell, Siegfried Sassoon (1999) p. 61
6. ^ S. M. Gilbert, Acts of Attention (1990) p. 44

## External links[edit]

* The complete Satires of Circumstance
*   * Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with Miscellaneous Pieces by Hardy at Project Gutenberg
* Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries, with Miscellaneous Pieces public domain audiobook at LibriVox

* v
* t
* e

Thomas Hardy

Novels|

* The Poor Man and the Lady (1867)
* Desperate Remedies (1871)
* Under the Greenwood Tree (1872)
* A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)
* Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
* The Hand of Ethelberta (1876)
* The Return of the Native (1878)
* The Trumpet-Major (1880)
* A Laodicean (1881)
* Two on a Tower (1882)
* The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
* The Woodlanders (1887)
* Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891/92)
* Jude the Obscure (1895)
* The Well-Beloved (1897)

Short story collections|

* Wessex Tales (1888)
* A Group of Noble Dames (1891)
* Life's Little Ironies (1894)
* A Changed Man and Other Tales (1913)

Short stories|

* "The Three Strangers" (1883)
* "A Mere Interlude" (1885)
* "Alicia's Diary" (1887)
* "Barbara of the House of Grebe" (1891)
* "The Fiddler of the Reels" (1893)
* "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions" (1894)

Poetry collections|

* Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898)
* Poems of the Past and the Present (1901)
* Time's Laughingstocks (1909)
* Poems 1912–13
* Satires of Circumstance (1914)
* Moments of Vision (1917)
* Late Lyrics (1922)
* Human Shows (1925)
* Winter Words (1928)

Poems|

* "Neutral Tones" (1898)
* "The Darkling Thrush" (1900)
* "The Ruined Maid" (1901)
* "The Respectable Burgher" (1901)
* "The Man He Killed" (1902)
* "A Trampwoman's Tragedy" (1903)
* "The Convergence of the Twain" (1915)
* "The Blinded Bird" (1916)

Plays|

* The Dynasts (1904–1908)

Life|

* Thomas Hardy's Cottage
* Max Gate home
* Emma Gifford (first wife)
* Florence Dugdale (second wife)

Related|

* Thomas Hardy's Wessex
* Egdon Heath
* Winter Words (song cycle)

This article about a collection of written poetry is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template