“The business of the poet is to record impressions, not convictions.” — Thomas Hardy | V2Melody

“The business of the poet is to record impressions, not convictions.”

Defining poetry as the preservation of experience rather than doctrine · Essay / literary commentary

Poetry
Truth

About Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

2 June 1840–11 January 1928

Thomas Hardy stands as one of the most significant literary figures of the Victorian and early modern periods, a writer whose novels explored the tragic dimensions of human experience with unflinching honesty and whose poetry achieved a stark beauty that influenced generations of twentieth-century poets. Born on June…

More by Thomas Hardy

Poems by Thomas Hardy

More remarks by Thomas Hardy

“Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.”

Balancing spontaneous feeling with deliberate craft · Letter

Art
Poetry

“The value of a poem consists in the amount of emotion which it contains.”

Locating poetic value in emotional intensity · Essay / literary commentary

“I have always been impressed by the fact that the great things of life are often done by people who are not great.”

Finding significance in ordinary human lives · Conversation / interview

Beauty
Truth