I grow fonder and fonder of Thomas Hardy -- both as a person and as a poet -- with each passing year. Two or three (or more) times a year I find myself in a Hardy mood. Given that he wrote more than 900 poems, I am happy to realize that I will never exhaust his riches. Each time I return to his poetry, I enjoy old favorites, rediscover gems that I had forgotten, and come upon surprises that I had somehow overlooked. For instance, this past week I discovered the following poem. How had I…
