Poetry Challenge #7 26/08/2012

I am away this bank Holiday and was surrounded by family all day yesterday which was lovely. That was one of the promps for yesterdays poem! I did not have time to do my poetry challenge but here I am with a few minutes to spare and my brothers computer to use  and a fabulous book of poems.

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Thomas Hardy         CHRISTMAS 1924

“Peace upon earth” was said.We sing it,

and pay a million priests to bring it.

After two thousand years of Mass. We’ve got as far as poison -gas.

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Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM(2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet.

photo credits wikipedia

A Victorian realist, in the tradition of George Eliot, he was also influenced both in his novels and poetry by Romanticism, especially by William Wordsworth.^[1] Charles Darwin is another important influence on Thomas Hardy.^[2] Like Charles Dickens Hardy was also highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focussed more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, and regarded himself primarily as a poet his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially therefore he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). However, since the 1950s Hardy has been recognized as a major poet, and had a significant influence on The Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Phillip Larkin and Elizabeth Jennings.^[3] The bulk of his fictional works, initially published as serials in magazines, were set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex and explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. Hardy’s Wessex is based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom and eventually came to include the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Hampshire, and much of Berkshire, in south west England.( this Biop is care of Wikipedia  as I am not at home I have had to work faster!)

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This short and to the point poem say all there is to say. It highlights the pointlessness of war,the stupidity of the human nature and it’s inability to learn anything. GOD HELP US ALL!

Poetry Challenge #7 is to create a journal of links and your reactions to poems by established (living or dead poets.) Details are here.  Example response is here. Mr. Linky for Challenge #7 is directly below: