Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (Selection)

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is best known as the author of novels such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd, set in the landscape of south-western England that he renamed Wessex. After the hostile reception of Jude the Obscure in the 1890s, he gave up writing fiction and devoted himself to poetry, which he had always claimed as his first love. He kept publishing collections until his death in 1928.

Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses appeared in 1917, in the middle of the First World War, and it is one of his major volumes. Although his poetry was less warmly received by his contemporaries than his novels, it has been widely praised in recent decades, and many modern poets have acknowledged their debt to its plain diction, its unusual metres and its unsparing honesty. Most of his poems deal with disappointment in love and in life, and with the long struggle of humankind against indifference to suffering.

This LibriVox recording is a selection of forty poems, read by a group of volunteers including Carolyn Frances, David Barnes and Corun. The running time is just under an hour, and each poem has its own file. Titles such as We Sat at the Window, Afternoon Service at Mellstock and First Sight of Her and After suggest the intimate, remembering voice that links the whole volume.

Poetry in this vein is especially well suited to the ear. The short lines and the quiet turns of thought give each piece room to settle, and the different readers offer a variety of tones. For anyone who knows Hardy only as a novelist, it is an affecting second introduction.