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nLikenhis fellow Victorian author, Charles Dickens, Hardy criticized thensociety he lived in. But I like him best because he seems to combinenaspects of the Romantics AND the Realists.
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nThenRomantic poets used very flowery language and very sentimental storynlines and themes. The Realists described everyday life more thanngrand romances and adventures. Some of Hardy’s poems seem to copy thenRomantics but then put a rather cynical twist on the sentimentality.
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nHerenis one example: n
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SirnNameless, once of Athelhall, declared:
“These wretchednchildren romping in my park
Trample the herbage till the soil isnbared,
And yap and yell from early morn till dark!
Go keep themnharnessed to their set routines:
Thank God I’ve none to hasten myndecay;
For green remembrance there are better means
Thannoffspring, who but wish their sires away.”
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nSirnNameless of that mansion said anon:
“To be perpetuate for mynmightiness
Sculpture must image me when I am gone.”
– Henforthwith summoned carvers there express
To shape a figurenstretching seven-odd feet
(For he was tall) in alabasternstone,
With shield, and crest, and casque, and word complete:
Whenndone a statelier work was never known.
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And, no one of hisnlineage being traced,
They thought an effigy so large innframe
Best fitted for the floor. There it was placed,
Under thenseats for schoolchildren. And they
Kicked out his name, andnhobnailed off his nose;
And, as they yawn through sermon-time,nthey say,
“Who was this old stone man beneath our toes?”
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n(This poem reminds me of the poem “Ozymandias.”)
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nAnothernof Hardy’s poems that I like is, “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?”
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nHardy proved thatnhe was smart when he was still a kid, but his father was a tradesman,na stonemason, and so Hardy didn’t have enough money to go university.nHe ended up becoming an apprentice to an architect and lived innLondon for a while.
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nHardy preferred life innthe country, though, so he chose to move to Dorset, England, where henwas born, and he concentrated on writing. That was brave – but hendid end up with some success. For example, he was awarded the Ordernof Merit, and when he died (at a ripe old age), his ashes were buriednin the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey.
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nNationalnBubba Day
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nAnniversarynof communications inventions (wiresnand wireless)
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nGeochemistnClair Patterson’s birthday
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nPlannahead:
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nJunen holidays
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nJunen birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in June
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nJulyn holidays
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nJulyn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in July
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